CHAPTER V

Summary

October 7. 1841. — The steep slopes, as well as the summits of the ridges in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, are so densely covered with wood, that the surveyors were obliged to climb to the tops of trees, in order to obtain general views of the country, and construct a geographical map on the scale of two inches to a mile, on which they laid down the result of their geological observations. Under the trees, the ground is covered with the Rhododendron, Kalmia and another evergreen called Sweet Fern (Cornptonia asplenifolia), the leaves of which have a very agreeable odour, resembling that of our bog-myrtle (Myrica Gale), but fainter. The leaves are so like those of a fern or Pteris in form, that the miners call the impressions of the fossil Pecopteris, in the coal-shales “sweet-fern.”

We found the German language chiefly spoken in this mountainous region, and preached in most of the churches, as at Reading. It is fast degenerating into a patois, and it is amusing to see many Germanized English words introduced even into the newspapers, such as turnpeik for turnpike, fense for fence, flauer for flour, or others, such as jail, which have been adopted without alteration.

From the Lehigh Summit Mine, we descended for nine miles on a railway impelled by our own weight, in a small car, at the rate of twenty miles an hour. A man sat in front checking our speed by a drag on the steeper declivities, and oiling the wheels without stopping.