. Philadelphia and its environs, and the railroad scenery of Pennsylvania . rsville it passesthe Gap {par excellence) of the Mine Hill, celebrated for its picturesque views and the mag-nificent antichnal shown in its fracture,—an arch of rock as smooth and perfect in its sweepas if formed by the hand of art. A branch of this road runs west-ward to Tremont, where it inter-sects still another section of thislabyrinthine system. But this is acoal road exclusively, and if wewish to see the beauties of the west-ern end of the region, we must taketrain to Auburn, and thence pro-ceed to Pinegrove and
. Philadelphia and its environs, and the railroad scenery of Pennsylvania . rsville it passesthe Gap {par excellence) of the Mine Hill, celebrated for its picturesque views and the mag-nificent antichnal shown in its fracture,—an arch of rock as smooth and perfect in its sweepas if formed by the hand of art. A branch of this road runs west-ward to Tremont, where it inter-sects still another section of thislabyrinthine system. But this is acoal road exclusively, and if wewish to see the beauties of the west-ern end of the region, we must taketrain to Auburn, and thence pro-ceed to Pinegrove and Tremontby a roundabout way. The firstpart of the ride is on the mainline of the Reading, up which wehave come, but at Auburn we takethe Schuylkill and Susquehannabranch, which passes through aregion of mountain-farms to Pine-grove, and thence through thewell-named valley of Stony Creek—the wildest and most ruggedstretch of road in all the system—to the Susquehanna at Dauphin,and thence to Harrisburg. At Pinegrove we strike the midst of the mountains again, and run. MINE HILL GAP. 24 THE RAILROAD SCENERY OF PENNSYLVANIA. along their foot to Tremont, and here begin the ascent of the Broad Mountain, to reach thecollieries on its top and on the flank of Big Lick Mountain, beyond it. The graders heavy, andthe engine puffs and pants as it slowly drags the train upward through the woods to the wideplateau on the summit of the mountain. There is a short halt at Kefifers, where a boy takesoff a lean mail-bag, and half a dozen women, who have been to Tremont to purchase supplies,get out; and then, as the train rolls away, a ravine opens on the left of the track and growsrapidly deeper and wider, until it is a valley paved—not filled—with a smooth floor of green,which presently resolves itself into a forest far below, and then, in a moment more, the trav-eler sees the broad farms of Williams Valley spread out before him, the valley itself divided likesome wide river split into
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