The eleventh and twelfth, I found the ways very uneven, and cumbred with bushes.
The thirteenth, I reached the first Spring of _Pemæoncock_, having crossed the River four times that day, by reason of its many windings; but the water was so shallow, that it hardly wet my horses pasterns. Here a little under the surface of the earth, I found flat pieces of petrified matter, of one side solid Stone, but on the other side Isinglas, which I easily peeled off in flakes about four inches square: several of these pieces, with a transparent Stone like Crystal that cut Glass, and a white Marchasite that I purchased of the Indians, I presented to Sir _Wiliam Berkley_ Governour of _Virginia_.
The fourteenth of _March_, from the top of an eminent hill, I first descried the _Apalatæan_ Mountains, bearing due West to the place I stood upon: their distance from me was so great, that I could hardly discern whether they were Mountains or Clouds, until my Indian fellow travellers prostrating themselves in Adoration, howled out after a barbarous manner, _Okée pœze_, i. e. _God is nigh_.
The fifteenth of _March_, not far from this hill, passing over the South-branch of _Rappahanock_-river, I was almost swallowed in a Quicksand. Great herds of Red and Fallow Deer I daily saw feeding; and on the hill-sides, Bears crashing Mast like Swine. Small Leopards I have seen in the Woods, but never any Lions, though their skins are much worn by the Indians. The Wolves in these parts are so ravenous, that I often in the night feared my horse would be devoured by them, they would gather up and howl so close round about him, though Tether’d to the same tree at whose foot I my self and the Indians lay: but the Fires which we made, I suppose, scared them from worrying us all. Beaver and Otter I met with at every River that I passed; and the Woods are full of Grey Foxes.
Thus I travelled all the sixteenth; and on the seventeenth of _March_ I reached the _Apalatæi_. The Air here is very thick and chill; and the waters issuing from the Mountain-sides, of a Blue colour, and Allumish taste.
The eighteenth of _March_, after I had in vain assayed to ride up, I alighted, and left my horse with one of the Indians, whilst with the other two I climbed up the Rocks, which were so incumbred with bushes and brambles, that the ascent proved very difficult: besides, the first precipice was so steep, that if I lookt down, I was immediately taken with a swimming in my head; though afterwards the way was more easie. The height of this Mountain was very extraordinary: for notwithstanding I set out with the first appearance of light, it was late in the evening before I gained the top, from whence the next morning I had a beautiful prospect of the _Atlantick_-Ocean washing the _Virginian_-shore; but to the North and West, my sight was suddenly bounded by Mountains higher than that I stood upon. Here did I wander in Snow, for the most part, till the Four and twentieth day of _March_, hoping to finde some passage through the Mountains; but the coldness of the Air and Earth together, seizing my Hands and Feet with numbness, put me to a _ne plus ultra_; and therefore having found my _Indian_ at the foot of the Mountain with my Horse, I returned back by the same way that I went.