. From trail to railway through the Appalachians . ans had made. There was good hunting in theunbroken forest and they had all the venison and otherwild meat they could have wished. A good map of Virginia will show us Harpers Ferry,where the Potomac river runs through a deep gap in theBlue Ridge. Looking along the range to the southwest,we shall find, about eighty miles away, Swift Run Gap,not so low a pass, but one which made it easy to crossthe mountains and go down into the lowlands along theShenandoah river. Spotswood and his friends climbed one of the peaksof the Blue Ridge and named it M
. From trail to railway through the Appalachians . ans had made. There was good hunting in theunbroken forest and they had all the venison and otherwild meat they could have wished. A good map of Virginia will show us Harpers Ferry,where the Potomac river runs through a deep gap in theBlue Ridge. Looking along the range to the southwest,we shall find, about eighty miles away, Swift Run Gap,not so low a pass, but one which made it easy to crossthe mountains and go down into the lowlands along theShenandoah river. Spotswood and his friends climbed one of the peaksof the Blue Ridge and named it Mt. George, after theking. Another peak was named Alexander for the gov-ernor. Down by the Shenandoah they buried a bottle(the historian of Virginia thinks that by this time theymust have had several that were empty), and in thebottle was a paper stating that they took possessionin the name of the king. They called the river theEuphrates, but the name did not cUng to it. We maybe glad of that, for the Indian name of Shenandoah ismuch more 131 132 FROM TRAIL TO RAILWAY If Spotswood had crossed the lowlands, he wouldhave found himself among other mountains running par-allel to the Blue Ridge. Between the two ranges is thevalley of the Shenandoah, or, as it is quite as often called,the valley of Virginia. The land is flat and the soil deepand rich. The soft shales and limestone of ancienthigher lands have wasted away here, between the highermountains on either side, and thus we find a valley anda fertile valley floor. The place was wild and lonely when this band ofexplorers visited it, but to-day it is a country rich ininterest and associations. If we go northeast we shallpass Winchester, which became famous in the CivilWar. In another part of the valley is Luray, where thelimestones have been dissolved under the ground, mak-ing a large cavern with beautiful stalactites. Still goingnorthward, we shall pass Harpers Ferry on our rightand cross the Potomac. On our right also
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