The mass of great rocks, lying just on the western declivity of the mountain, would appear more singular, were such phenomena not so common on the mountains in this country. How they got there nobody can tell, or at least nobody but the geologists, who like honest Sysiphus, don't mind rolling rocks to the tops of the mountains, even though they tumble down the next minute. From the sunmiit of the highest point of this mass of rocks, there is a clear view of the valley of Caphon, or Cacapehon, as it is called in the maps. On the right of this valley, at its western boundary, the Potomac comes out from a break in the mountain, crosses it at the foot of another, in a line almost as straight as a canal, and loses itself again in the

mountains at the eastern extremity of the valley. To the south is seen the river Caphon, winding and turning, in every direction, so as to form the appearance of several little green islands ; and at last, with a sort of affected reluctance, joining its waters with those of the Potomac, just before it breaks through the eastern mountain.

The valley is surrounded on all sides by high hills, beyond which, to the west, higher ones appear in continued succession, paler and paler, until they are lost in the heavens, by becoming confounded with the blue sky. Houses were dispersed at solitary distances, whose curling smoke, as it rose out of the trees, added to the peaceful character of the scene, and divested it of that melancholy loneliness, which affects us in contemplating those beautiful landscapes, which have never yet been appropriated by man. After a while, I descended the mountain to where the two rivers form a junction, and forded them both, for it was a very dry season, and the streams of this country were very low. I could see along the banks of the Potomac, where the logs were lodged, and in the crotches of trees, >6.dge and branches depojsited by the waters, at

least twenty-five feet above the present level of the current. You can form no idea how these mountain streams swell with the rains or the melting of the snows ; or with what tremendous force and velocity they roll and roar along at such times.

In returning from the valley, I went to take a last look from the rock. It was becoming cloudy, or rather hazy, and little showers were falling in some parts, while others were glowing in the sun. The light and shade was disposed in endless variety, and the general haze of the atmosphere, softened the objects appearing through its medium, as past scenes are mellowed and endeared by the slight obscurity thrown over them by the mists of memory.

I don't know what may be the moral or religious influence of such scenes, since although they assuredly give birth to pure and lofty emotions, they are apt to make us too much in love with this world. One thing however is pretty certain, that it is among such regions as these, composed of rugged mountains and rural vales, that the people are found most attached to their home, and modes of life. It is such scenes that

4hey are found most to lament when far away, to remember the longest, and to cherish the most dearly. The natives of cities never get the maladie du Pays, for paved streets, brick-houses, and rattling carts possess neither the charms nor the music of rural vales, hid in the bosom of the hills, or clear streams murmuring among moss-covered rocks. Liberty, too, dwells in the mountains, and where she lives, men are happier than any where else ; for they are exempt from the train of petty insults and impositions, practised on the subservient race, and from that galling sense of inferiority, which, when they cease to feel, they are little better than brutes, and when they do feel, make them little less than miserable. Good bye.

r OUR days ago we left Berkeley Springs, and arrived here the day before yesterday. The country through which we passed is limestone, but whether of the primitive crystalline granular transition, or fletz formation, I neither know or care. It has several sulphur springs, one of which, near Martinsburg, is much frequented. In riding along the road on Saturday afternoon, we saw about a dozen fine tall young fellows, in white shirts and trowsers, shooting at a mark with rifles. This is a customary recreation, in the interior of this State, as well as in the western country; and from this early habit arises that fatal precision in firing which cost the enemy so dear at New-Orleans, and other places, during the late war. While this practice continues, and every man can keep a gun without

being sent to Botany Bay, we must ever possess a decided superiority in war, over other nations, where the people are so insensible to the blessings they enjoy under a good government, that they are obliged to be kept withoui arms, for fear they should be stupid enough to turn them against their best friends. Our good people, being belter satisfied in this respect, are relied on for the defence of their government, rather than feared for their hostility. They are enjoined, under a penalty, to furnish themselves with arms, instead of being obliged to fill their gun-barrels with tallow, and bury them in bogs, as in poor Ireland, that unreasonable nation, which even centuries of oppression have not yet reconciled to bondage.

Martinsburg, where we dined and slept, is bedded in limestone rocks, that appear in various fantastic forms above the surface, and give it a singular character of ruggedness. The waters seem, on some occasion long past, to have been mightily troubled in this place ; and the famous geological crust of the earth has tumbled in at various places very abruptly, causing divers holes and ravines, bedded and sided with limestone. In passing from this place to Harper's Ferry, for the first time in my

life I began to tliiuk seriously that there was some ground, or rather some water, for the system of Mynheer Werner. As for Oliver, he suddenly relapsed into the dropsical system, and deserted from Doctor Ilutton to honest Mynheer Werner. The town of Martinsburg is situated in the midst of a rich and beautiful country, exhibiting the bright verdure and variegated surface common to limestone countries, and glowing with golden fields of wheat, — a nobler source of independence to their owners, than paper banks, or mines of gold. Many Quakers are settled in this district of country ; and wherever they are, peace, industry, and all the sober habits of life abide, and the earth is sure to put forth her best array. Were I to attempt the personification of peace, instead of the olivebranch and the cornucopiae, I would take the statue of old William Penn, as it stands in the hospital-yard in Philadelphia, with his broad-brimmed hat, and coat without buttons.

I must not forget to tell you that the only vestige of ancient chivalry I have seen in all Virginia, occurred at Martinsburg. The day being warm, we were sitting, probably to the number of twenty, on benches, at the shady side of the hotel,

fronting on one of the principal streets, when a man rode furiously by on horseback, and swore

' he'd be d l1 if he could not lick any man who

dared to crook his elbow at him." This, it seems, is equivalent to throwing the glove in days of yore, or to the boyish custom of knocking a chip off the shoulder; but, alas! well was it said by Neddy Burke, the days of chivalry are gone, — and may they never return, say I. Instead of ten thousand fists leaping from the pockets of the supine spectators of this magnanimous outrage, they affected to take no notice of it ; and, by heaven ! not one accepted the challenge ! Degenerate days ! — and how unlike the fabled times, when such a gallant raid as this would, according to Dr. Morse, have cost many an eye, and many a bloody, nose.

After stopping a little while at Shepherdstown, a neat village on the banks of the Potomac, we proceeded to this place, where we arrived at four o'clock, and decided to stay a day or two, as it suits both Oliver's taste and mine ; his, because it is a capital place for finding out how the world was made ; and mine, because it exhibits a combination of natural beauties, to be met with in no

other place, that I have seen. Mr. Jefl'erson has sketched it with a few masterly touches ; but luckily for us travellers, he has rather given its effect on the imagination than the senses. The minute description of the scene, as it presents itself on a more particular examination, remain to those who come after him, and to these I shall confine myself. I love to explore these grand and beautiful scenes of nature, and to excite the curiosity of others to do the same ; for I know of no source of pleasure more pure, or more likely to draw the mind from debasing contemplations, or sensual pleasures. The voice of nature, uttered amid rocks, and mountains, and roaring floods, is the voice of God, and as we listen to it, we become wiser and better. I shall never think myself destitute of virtuous feeling, while I can enjoy, with enthusiasm, the charms of nature. To you, who have seen nothing like Harper's Ferry, the description may be gratifying ; for if, as is generally the case with descriptions, it conveys no definite picture to your mind, it may chance to tickle your fancy, which is just as well.

We had been told, by several persons, that Mr. Jefferson's sketch of this place was highly exagr

gerated, and that it would by no means realize oar anticipations. I am not able to tell what may have been the anticipations of other people ; but certainly, I was more than satisfied with the reality. I believe it will be found, that those who are not familiar with the higher efforts of nature ; who know not, by experience, the limits to which she is generally confined in all her operations, almost always create to themselves disappointment, by their own wild and undisciplined expectations. Experience having furnished them with no standard of the sublime and beautiful, they invariably substitute the creations of their own fancy for the descriptions of the writer; and finding, when they come to see it, that the picture was overcharged, accuse him of a deception, which, in fact, is practised by their own inexperienced imagination. I have heard people say, that the Falls of Niagara did not come up to their expectations; and could only account for their disappointment by supposing, what was undoubtedly the fact, that they had formed a picture in the imagination, to which nothing in nature afforded any analogy.

The stranger will find here many interesting objects not noticed by Mr. Jefferson, and he will

not find many things described by others. For instance, the Fall of thirty feet, perpendicular, noticed by Mr. Wtld, who, it is believed, never visited this place, and therefore may be excused for a trifling blunder of this sort. I looked hard for it, but give you my word, it eluded all my researches, and became invisible, like many other things described as having an actual existence in this country, by divers travellers. In descending to the little settlement at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah, on the Virginia side, just at the turning of a point in the road, which is cut or worn through the solid rock, the chasm in the Blue Ridge, through which the waters flow, bursts at once to the view. It is faced, on either side, by two most lofty barriers of solid rock, thai seem to have arrested the wreck of the mountain. They are both rugged, and of the full height of sublimity; — that on the Virginia side approaching a perpendicular ; the other passing beyond it, and hovering over the ferry-houae with tremendous threatenings.