101

The Mountain or Alleghany Division of Maryland.

ALLEGHANY COUNTY.

This is the most western and embraces by far the largest area
of the counties of Maryland. It is bounded on the north by
Mason's and Dixon's Line, which separates it from Pennsyl-
vania, on the south by the Potomac River, which divides it
from Virginia, on the east by Washington county, and
on the west by Virginia. Its greatest width is about 43
miles, its greatest breadth about 30 miles. The Potomac
River forms its whole southern boundary, and is here barely
navigable in high water for flat bottomed boats.

Surface of the Country.—The face of the country is very
much broken by numerous ridges of the Alleghany mountains,
which surround it, formerly very productive in Indian corn,
oats and grass. One of the most striking and curious features
of this county is the "Glades," large, level, flat, swampy bod-
ies of land between the highest ridges of the Allegh'anies, This
part of the country is sometimes for miles as level and flat as
any of the marshes bordering on tide-water, and covered with a
luxurious growth of natural grass, without the existence of
timber or trees of any sort. These are famous pastures for
large flocks of cattle, which are driven from the neighboring
counties of Virginia to be pastured in the summer months.
There were doubtless at one time lakes, and have become fill-
ed up gradually by washings from the surrounding hills, and
by the decay of plants and trees, which grew upon them.—
The soil is to the depth of many feet, contains a large pro-
portion of vegetable matter, and from this cause is dark,
light and chaffy, resembling very much the Black Gum
Swamp soils of the lower counties of the Eastern Shore of
Maryland. The Little Savage mountain, a ridge of the Al-
leghanies, divides the eastern, which flow into the Potomac,
from the western waters, that go to the Ohio River. The
summit of the mountains is from 1500 to 2700 feet above
tide-water, and though the temperature in summer is plea-
sant, the seasons are backward and the winters are of long
duration and great severity. The crops most generally grown