America, picturesque and descriptive . es to Columbia, and this is used by the heavierfreight trains. Coming towards it over the hills, thewide Suscpuhanna lies low in its broad valley, en-closed by the distant ridge of the Kittatinny bound-ing Cumberland County beyond the river. As it isapproached, the thought is upi)ermost that this is oneof the noblest, and yet among the meanest rivers inthe country. Rising in Otsego Lake in New York,it flows over four hundred miles down to ChesapeakeBay, receives largo tril)utarieSj its West Branchbeing two hundred miles long, rends all the Alle-gheny jMou
America, picturesque and descriptive . es to Columbia, and this is used by the heavierfreight trains. Coming towards it over the hills, thewide Suscpuhanna lies low in its broad valley, en-closed by the distant ridge of the Kittatinny bound-ing Cumberland County beyond the river. As it isapproached, the thought is upi)ermost that this is oneof the noblest, and yet among the meanest rivers inthe country. Rising in Otsego Lake in New York,it flows over four hundred miles down to ChesapeakeBay, receives largo tril)utarieSj its West Branchbeing two hundred miles long, rends all the Alle-gheny jMountain chains, and takes a great part ofthe drainage of that region in New York and Penn-sylvania, passes through grand valleys, noble gorgesand most magniiicent scenery, and yet it is so thicklysown with islands, rocks and sand-bars, rapids andshallows, as to defy all attempts to make it satisfac-torily navigable excepting by luni1)er rafts, logs anda few canal boats. Thus the Indians significantly Ube Susqucbanua TRIlest of jfalmoutb. THE SUSQUEHANNA EIVER. 285 gave its name meaning the island-strewn, Lroad andshallow river, and it is little more than a giganticdrain for Central Pennsylvania. On its bank is Columbia, a town of* busy iron andsteel manufacture, as the whole range of towns arefor miles up to and beyond Ilarrisburg. At Colum-bia first appeared, about 1804, that mysterious agencyknown as the Underground Railroad, wherebyfugitive slaves were secretly passed from one sta-tion to another from ^ Mason and Dixons Lineto Canada, mainly through the aid and active exer-tions of philanthropic Quakers. All through Chesterand Lancaster Counties and northward were laid theroutes of this peculiar line, whose ramifications be-came more and more extensive as time passed,making the Fugitive Slave Law almost a nullityduring the decade before the Civil War. There werehundreds of good people engaged in facilitating thexmfortunate travellers who fled for freedom, andmany have been the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectuniteds, bookyear1900
