At daybreak on 22 September, we found ourselves in the hamlet of Mexico, where we only changed horses or watered them. This region is wild, and we already note that we are approaching the Allegheny Mountains. The inn is rather good; the individual houses mark the beginning of a street. To the left there is a wooded valley, beyond which rises a long, high forest wall that forms the southwestern bank of the Juniata. There is nothing but forest all around, and here and there the inhabitants have chopped down and burned their woods to make room for their fields. Now there is no longer much big game left here in the large forests. Deer and bear are already rather scarce; there are still some wild turkeys. All along the wooded hills live farmers who have nearly exhausted the game.

Mexico is part of Mifflin County according to the statement of a resident of Juniata County. It is 40 miles to here from Harrisburg. From here we soon reached the county seat, Mifflintown, a market town or large village where we delivered the mail to the post office and changed [horses]. Several persons spoke German. A rather impressive courthouse was just being built. The remaining dwellings lie scattered about somewhat. This place is 3 miles from Mexico. Right behind the town, the church and cemetery of which are situated on the elevation above the road, one reaches the Juniata, the valley of which we presently followed very far through the mountain range. The Union Canal, which extends from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburgh and was now completely finished except for a short stretch, follows the river for the most part, often lying on a higher level and, indeed, is even conveyed over it.

Lost Creek empties into the Juniata, which was now very shallow. [The Juniata] has wooded banks, partly very picturesque, and has about the same volume and form as the Lecha (Lehigh). In this valley one observes especially many black locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia), some of which are tall and beautiful. They stand on the dry mountain, at somewhat bare spots, as well as along the water. Grapevines as thick as an arm entwine these trees, whose crowns they sometimes completely cover with their large leaves. There were also many Celtis trees here. In the scenic forest along the bank, the maple leaves were already turning red.

We crossed Lost Creek on a bridge. In the wooded mountains, which close in to form a narrow valley in which there is room only for the road, mostly beside the Juniata, deciduous and coniferous trees are picturesquely intermingled. With its tall, thick trunk and dark foliage, the Pinus canadensis everywhere adorns the wilderness; many of these trees stand there, dry, like gray pillars. The Juniata Valley now becomes increasingly wilder and more romantic. To the right near us rose a very high, wild cliff—full of rock debris, boulders, rotting toppled trunks, [and] overgrown with the most beautiful wild varieties of trees—forming a primeval wilderness. Nearby, down along the road, many shorter bushes were growing, among which Rhus typhinum had very often already taken on its scarlet red autumn color. Black locusts and Platanus were very plentiful on the valley floor below. In the high mountain walls, crows (Corvus [——]) frequently called in their shrill voices. A very narrow section of the valley, where we watered our horses [Page 1:99] near an isolated dwelling, bears the name Long Narrows, and the high, magnificently wild, wooded mountain opposite us on the other side of the river is named Blacklog Mountain. It is said to harbor bear and deer.

The valley was now turning more and more into wilderness, with rock debris on the left bank of the river and more unbroken forest in the mountain beyond, but high above, one also saw areas of bare, coarse gravel. Along the road below, several beautiful asters were blooming, a white one and two violet ones. Rubus odoratus was blooming grew rampant in the rocks, as well as Smilax species. Hibiscus Asclepias syriaca was just scattering its seed filaments; it was growing every where among the bare banks along the road. Phytolacca formed tall thickets with blood-red stems and branches; its black berries were ripe.

We presently reached a place where the valley makes a bend. Single shabby habitations, mostly log houses, are found here. Cattle were grazing among rocks wildly entangled with vines. Small cowsheds, built of beams in such a way that we could see through them, and milk cellars are located somewhat farther away. The valley now opens up more. Men were working on the canal, which runs by near the Juniata. At one place, on a cleared area beside the road that leads down toward the ravine of James Creek, I saw tall black locust trees on which an entire flock of domestic turkeys had alighted. They were perched on the high branches like wild birds of their kind and, like most domesticated turkeys here, were black like the wild variety.

After passing Kishacoquillas Creek, we found ourselves near a broad, gently widening area of the valley on the extended fields of Lewistown, where we had breakfast. The place is a rather significant market town with several very attractive homes. The fields were being plowed and harrowed. All through Pennsylvania the farmers use only horses for their field work, and I have never seen oxen used for this purpose. Very many fine horses are raised here. The plow is constructed somewhat differently than in Germany. Beyond Lewistown, where the inhabitants were just preparing for a fox hunt on horseback (they catch the fox, let it escape, and then pursue it with their dogs), one moves more deeply into a hilly region in which forest and field alternate. Only occasionally does one see the Juniata in the distance. The Broadfield Run flows in a small wild valley. Several homes and mills are located here, wild and romantic, and below the road there is a clear expanse of water, apparently a pond. Hemlock pines were most frequently intermingled with other trees in the forest. Actaea racemosa grew in the shade of the tall timber, and the leaves of the dogwood (Cornus florida) were turning red. Near the market town, or small city, of Waynesburg, where we changed horses, the valley is wide and level. The location of the town, with many nice buildings, [is] very picturesque.

Soon one again enters the forest. A creek was flowing most picturesquely in the tall timber. The woods were already markedly changing color: the maples, several Crataegus, the dogwood, and the Rhus typhinum were the first to turn red. The wild nut trees, particularly the hickory, beautifully yellow, already created an extremely picturesque diversity. The oaks were not yet changing color so markedly. Forests and fields alternated continually in this region. The cornfields are very extensive, also clover. The mountains to the right have beautiful woods. Pinus rigida grows here in abundance. A broad meadowland, in which grow numerous tall willow (Salix) thickets. Then we reached a place where three valleys join to form a wide valley-junction, or basin. Here beautiful large farmsteads are located and the fields were excellently cultivated. Extensive clover fields. One farmstead was distinguished by its attractive tree plantings, with poplar lanes and, especially, numerous huge weeping willows (Salix babylonica), which thrive uncommonly well in this climate. There is forest all around the mountains, and one soon enters it again to climb the first ridge of the Alleghenies.

The road, mostly poor and rocky throughout, went at an angle upward along [Page 1:100]a splendid mountain face, where very handsome trees were growing and already beginning to display their beautiful autumn colors. The grapevines were really very large, the wild grape foliage already light yellow, and the blue, rather small grapes made a pleasing contrast. The Rhus typhinum and the sassafras had red leaves, as did also, and especially magnificently, the Hedera quinquefolia, the scarlet red, decorative tendrils of which crept along among the white rock rubble on the floor of that wild forest in a most picturesque manner. In this rock rubble, visible throughout the forest, I noticed small swift lizards, which, however, I was not able to examine more closely. Near the road a beautiful pheasant (Tetrao umbellatus) flew away. Otherwise we saw almost no birds at all here; most of them have migrated.

The poor, narrow road full of rocks led us away along the mountain face and then down into the narrowing Juniata Valley. At first one has a view far down into this valley, and the coach must proceed on the very edge of the precipice. Then one descends into the valley, into which one already had extremely picturesque glimpses. The canal again runs directly beside the river and is often on a higher level. The high mountain face is completely covered with a whitish, mica- containing sandstone scree, which, from time to time along the mountain, forms bare rock slides, completely stripped of timber, which have a strange shape and a bare, rough appearance from top to bottom. Along the river grow thickets of willows and Platanus, and I have nowhere seen this tree more beautiful or more abundant than along the water. The canal, which flowed on the opposite side at a higher level than the river, was now suddenly conveyed across the Juniata. A long structure on two stone abutments and two such freestanding pillars conducts the canal straight across the Juniata; underneath there was just a little water seeping out through its floor. At several places in the Juniata, fish weirs had been constructed of stones like those in the Lecha described above. I saw a triple one; usually they are just single weirs. The whole thing is called a dam; the wooden box with a pointed angle is called a basket.

The Juniata Valley now continues wildly with wooded mountains on both sides, some with unique rock walls, rubble slides, and turrets; [there are] beautiful wild shrubs and trees. In the rocks, the pretty scarlet red garlands of Hedera quinquefolia provide extraordinary adornment. Underneath, close to the valley, grow Rhus typhinum, splendidly violet asters, and Lobelia siphilitica. And above, in the tall forests of these walls, the crows (Corvus [——]) were shrilly calling. The canal continues to run beside the river, now on this side, now on that. One has glimpses into wild lateral valleys; Platanus, oaks, birch (Betula lenta), and willows grow along the water. Many black locusts. On the northern side, Mill Creek empties into the Juniata. The valley has already widened. In it there are fields and single scanty little habitations, like small cages made of conifer wood; some of them had collapsed. We now reach a divide in the valley where the Juniata receives a tributary. On the rubble of the collapsed dwellings, Phytolacca decandra, with its red stems, instantly grows high. Somewhat farther on, the valley divides into three valleys. Here the town of Huntingdon is located, which is 90 miles from Harrisburg.

The stage stopped here. [Page 1:101]We had supper at a rather good inn on the bank of the [Little] Juniata [and] then continued on. So many new passengers got on here that the seating was most uncomfortable; furthermore, we had to travel all night. The road leads constantly through dense forest, where dusk soon overtook us. After several hours we came into an open field along the Union Canal, on which work is still being done. Then we watered the horses at Alexandria, a village. We traveled all night over the highest ridges of the Allegheny Mountains. At several towns we changed [or] watered the horses and toward midnight arrived in a place called Yellow Spring. Then we came to Blair Gap, after passing over the highest elevation of the mountain range near the tavern of a certain Lemon; it is [——] feet above sea level. Wild, mountainous region with tall, enormous hemlock firs, here called spruce, intermingled with deciduous timber. The night was cool and bright; toward morning, fog arose. We suffered greatly in the coach, because of crowding and uncomfortable seats. As day approached, fog lay murkily in the wild hemlock forest. We drove down the mountain somewhat and crossed a creek, onto the fields of the market town Ebensburg, where I stayed to await our traveling companions who had remained behind. It was five o’clock when we were again united at the rather ordinary inn.

Ebensburg is a small town that actually consists of nothing more than one broad extended street. It has a rather fine-looking courthouse and a small but rather nice church. The inhabitants are descendants of Englishmen, many Irishmen, and some of German descent. A tanner had hung numerous hides of lynx (wildcat), raccoons, martens, mink, and the like in his window, but none of them were in perfect condition. There is said to be much wildlife in the vicinity: whitetailed deer (Cervus virginianus), bear, lynx, wolves, and the like. The lofty and majestic forests surround the town at a distance of about a couple hundred paces. All the fields are enclosed by numerous high wooden fences, so that there are only a few roads between them leading out of town. Here traffic of freight wagons from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia is heavy. These are drawn by six, four, also two, fine sturdy horses and are built in an unusual way. They frequently spend the night and feed their horses here; this brings the town some livelihood. There is no lack of inns, for there are at least four of them here. The town has about 300 to 400 inhabitants.