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the force of gravity, though originally exerted vertically, to bend and squeeze the rocks as if they had been subjected to lateral pressure.

"Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale,

And gulfs the mountain's mighty mass entombed,

And where the Atlantic rolls. wide continents have bloomed."

In applying these lines to the physical revolutions of the territory at present under consideration, we must remember that the continent which bloomed to the eastward, or where the Atlantic now rolls its waves, was anterior to the origin of the carboniferous strata which were derived from its ruins; whereas the elevation and subsidence supposed to have given rise to the Appalachian ridges was subsequent to the deposition of the coal-measures. But all these great movements of oscillation were again distinct from the last upheaval which brought up the whole region above the level of the sea, laying dry the horizontal new red sandstone, (No. 4,) as well as a great part of, if not all, the Appalachian chain.

The largest amount of denudation is found, as might have been expected, on the south-eastern side of the chain, where the force of expansion and contraction, of elevation and subsidence, has been greatest. The first set of denuding operations may have taken place when the strata, including the carboniferous, were first raised above the sea; a second, when they sank again; a third, when the red sandstone (No. 4.), after it had been thrown down on the truncated edges of the older strata, participated in the waste. The great extent of solid materials thus removed, must add, in no small degree, to the difficulty of restoring in imagination the successive changes which have occurred, and of recounting in a satisfactory manner for the origin of this mountain chain.*

Hollo! Here's CONEMAUGH STATION! We are down the mountain -we are west of the Alleghany, to-be-sure! Ah! we are down to twelve hundred and twenty-six feet again above tide-water; two hundred and seventy-six miles from Philadelphia, and only eighty-seven from Pittsburg. Here is a neat brick engine-house and machineshop for the accommodation of the iron nags who tug us over the western divisions of the road, and a characteristic water-station to

* Abridged from Sir Charles Lyell's Travels in America.

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curvatures, its stationary steam-engines and abominable inclined plains, terminates. The traveller, who has crossed the mountain over it, will not regret to leave it, but will thank the stars that a better road will soon supersede it. The friendly Conemaugh, as it passes this place, shakes hands with the Stony Creek, and the two proceed together, in a nearly northern course, around Laurel hill, where they strike due west. Johnstown lies on a level flat, surrounded by steep hills. It is pleasantly situated, but is without the least interior attraction. The buildings are small and without ornament, and the population, consisting of about two thousand, embraces a conglomerate of character, of which the most part follow the " raging canawl," or business appertaining to the trade of which it is the distributor. The original settlers of the county were Welsh, Scotch, and Irish, and the latter appear to have the "megority" here.

EBENSBURG, a few miles distant, is the seat of justice. It is situated on one of the high ridges of the Alleghany, commanding a fine view of the surrounding country. The Mountaineer, published in this borough in 1840, contained the following obituary notice of one of the most remarkable men that ever resided in this part of the country:

"Died, on the 6th instant, at Loretto, the Rev. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, who for forty-two years exercised pastoral functions in Cambria County. The venerable deceased was born in 1770, at Munster, in Germany. His father, Prince de Gallitzin, ranked among the highest nobility in Russia. His mother was the daughter of Field Marshal General de Schmeltan, a celebrated officer under Frederick the Great. Her brother fell at the battle of Jena. The deceased held a high commission in the Russian army from his infancy. Europe in the early part of his life was desolated by war-the French revolution burst like a volcano upon that convulsed continent; it offered no facilities or attractions for travel, and it was determined that the young Prince de Gallitzin should visit America. He landed in Baltimore in August, 1782, in company with Rev. Mr. Brosius. By a train of circumstances, in which the hand of Providence was strikingly visible, his mind was directed to the ecclesiastical state, and he renounced forever his brilliant prospects. Already endowed with a splendid education, he was the more prepared to pursue his ecclesiastical studies, under the venerable Bishop Carroll, at Baltimore, with facility and success. Having completed his theological course, he spent some time on the mission in Maryland.

"In the year 1789, he directed his course to the Alleghany mountain, and found that portion of it which now constitutes Cambria County a perfect wilderness, almost without inhabitants or habitations. After incredible labor and privations, and expending a princely fortune, he succeeded in making 'the wilderness blossom as the rose.' His untiring zeal has collected about Loretto, his late residence, a Catholic population of three or four thousand. He not only extended the church by his missionary toils, but also illustrated and defended the truth by several highly useful publications. His 'Defence of Catholic principles' has gained merited celebrity both here and in Europe.

"In this extraordinary man we have not only to admire his renunciation of the brightest hopes and prospects, and his indefatigable zeal, but something greater and rarer—his wonderful humility. No one could ever learn from him or his mode of life what he had been, or what he exchanged for privation and poverty.

"To intimate to him that you were aware of his condition, would be sure to pain and displease him. He who might have revelled in the princely halls of his ancestors was content to spend thirty years in a rude log-cabin, almost denying himself the common comforts of life, that he might be able to clothe the naked members of Jesus Christ, the poor and distressed. Few have left behind them such examples of charity and benevolence. On the head of no one have been invoked so many blessings from the mouths of widows and orphans. It be literally said of him, if his heart had been made of gold he would have disposed of it all in charity to the poor.""

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Cambria County contains, what probably no other county in Pennsylvania will boast, a deserted village. It is called Beulah, and was - laid out with the prospect of becoming the seat of justice; but this having subsequently been established at Ebensburg, four or five miles distant, the entire village soon became depopulated, and is now in ruins.

Following the course of the canal, after leaving Johnstown, the railroad runs parallel with it for several miles. We pass the unimportant stations of MAGILL'S FURNACE, NINEVEH and NEW FLORENCE, and pause a moment for breath at LOCKPORT. The canal here comes over to our side of the river, crossing the stream in one of the finest stone aqueducts we have yet seen. It does not leak a drop, and the little clusters of creeping weeds and water-plants holding on to its sides give it quite a romantic and poetic appearance.

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We are now in the great county of Westmoreland-great alike in its agricultural fertility, its numerous streams, and its extraordinary mineral resources. The Conemaugh separates it from Indiana and Armstrong on the north-east, and Laurel Hill from Cambria and Somerşet on the east and north-east-Fayette lying south and Washington and Alleghany Counties west of it. Like Huntingdon, it is full of small streams, which, for the most part, have their rise in its midst. Between Laurel Hill and Chesnut Ridge is the celebrated Ligonier Valley, remarkable for the extent of its timber as well as the fertility of the soil. This beautiful valley has a north-east and south-west course, and consists of a very long but narrow belt of land lying between the parallel elevations mentioned. It commences in Virginia, traverses the eastern portion of Fayette and Westmoreland, and finally spreads out into the adjoining county of Indiana. During the revolution, and for many years prior to it, this extensive valley was the scene of many interesting and stirring events, some of which we may

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probably allude to hereafter. For the present we must keep an eye on the Conemaugh, which is very busy in receiving the little streams

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