slowly to break the road, crossing the West branch of the Juniata twice in the first three miles. As day dawned, the country appeared to be in general rather better settled and cultivated than on the eastern side of Bedford, but it was still very hilly, and wood was the prevailing feature. At half past 10, we had reached the foot of the Allegheny {53} ridge, where we breakfasted; and here I found one of the advantages of travelling in the stage, was to be charged a sixteenth of a dollar more per meal, than if one travelled in any other way.
We were now in Somerset county, and having changed stages, horses, and drivers, we ascended by a very easy road of one mile to the top of the highest ridge of land in the United States, to the eastward of which all the rivers flow to the eastward, to empty themselves into the Atlantick ocean, while to the westward, they flow westerly to unite with the Mississippi, which is their common aqueduct to the gulph of Mexico.[22]
The face of the country before us now changed for the better; not being broken as to the eastward, but fine extensive levels and slopes, well inhabited and cultivated; and the ridges of hills, though long, not so steep, and finely clothed with heavy wood. This was the general appearance of the country, until we arrived at Somerset, the capital of the county, 14 miles from the top of the Allegheny ridge.
This is a new town, having been laid out and built within twenty years: It contains about seventy tolerably good houses, with a court-house, where upstairs, is the present place of worship, common to all sects like Bedford, until a church, which is to be in common also, is erected, for which
