Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/184

herbage, and which had but recently been in action, prevented me from making any botanical collections, and I amused myself by ascending the ridge, which, at the first approach, appeared to be inaccessible. At length I gained the summit, which, at the highest point on the bank of the river, might be about 300 feet. The rock was a massive sandstone, with the laminæ elevated towards the south-east, at an inclination of near 60º, and, in many places intricately traversed with seams of ferruginous matter, presenting, by their numerous intersections, an almost tessellated or retiform appearance. In some specimens, the interstices were perfectly rhomboidal, and separated into rhombic fragments. Several enormous and romantic blocks were scattered along the margin of the river, and on some of them small trees were growing. From the summit opened another sublime view of the surrounding country. Again to the south and south-west, I could distinguish three of the four chains of mountains, which were visible from the high hills of the Petit John, and still, to my surprise, distinctly appeared the Mamelle, though, by water, near upon 100 miles distant, and not less than 60 by land, which would appear to argue an elevation more considerable than that which I had at first imagined. The Magazine mountain to the west, though, at first, apparently so near, is not less than 10 miles distant, looking, if any thing, more considerably elevated than the Mamelle, and probably not less than 1200 feet high. In this point of view, it appears {127} isolated, gradually descending into the plain, and accumulating in magnitude to the north-west; it here descends rather more abruptly, though the highest point is still to the south, where it appears to rise in broken fasçades unconnectedly with the auxiliary ridge.