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author's recollection, he has seen several female reapers who were equal to the stoutest males in the harvest-field. It was no uncommon thing to see the female part of the family at the hoe or the plough; and some of our now wealthiest citizens frequently boast of their grandmothers, ay, mothers too, performing this kind of heavy labor.

The natural result of this kind of rural life was, to produce a hardy and vigorous race of people. It was this race of people who had to meet and breast the various Indian wars, and the storms of the revolution.

The Dutchman's barn was usually the best building on his farm. He was sure to erect a fine large barn before he built any other dwelling-house than his rude log-cabin. There were none of our primitive immigrants more uniform in the form of their buildings than the Germans. Their dwelling houses were seldom raised more than a single story in height, with a large cellar beneath; the chimney in the middle, with a very wide fireplace in one end for the kitchen, in the other end a stove-room. Their furni ture was of the simplest and plainest kind; and there was always a long pine table fixed in one corner of the stove-room, with permanent benches on one side. On the upper floor, garners for holding grain were very common. Their beds were generally filled with straw or chaff, with a fine feather-bed for covering in the winter. The author has several times slept in this kind of bed; and to a person unaccustomed to it, it is attended not unfrequently with danger to the health. The thick covering of the feathers is pretty certain to produce a profuse perspiration, which an exposure to cold, on rising in the morning, is apt to check suddenly, causing chilliness and obstinate cough. The author, a few years ago, caught in this way the most severe cold, which was followed by a long and distressing cough, he ever was afflicted with.

Many of the Germans have what they call a drum, through which the stove-pipe passes in their upper rooms. It is made of sheet iron, something in the shape of the military drum. It soon fills with heat from the pipe, by which the rooms become agreeably warm in the coldest weather. A piazza is a very common appendage to a Dutchman's dwelling-house, in which his saddles, bridles, and very frequently his wagon or plough harness, are hung up.

The Germans erect stables for their domestic animals of every species: even their swine are housed in the winter season. Their barns and stables are well stored with provender, particularly fine hay: hence their quadrupeds of all kinds are kept throughout the year in the finest possible order. This practice of housing stock in the winter season is unquestionably great economy in husbandry. Much less food is required to sustain them, and the animals come out in the spring in fine health and condition. It is a rare occurrence to hear of a Dutchman's losing any part of his stock with poverty. The practice of housing stock in the winter is not exclusively a German custom, but is common to most of the northern people, and those descended from immigrants from the north. The author recollects once seeing the cow-stalls adjoining a farmer's dwelling. The German women, many of them, are remarkably neat housekeepers. There are some of them, however, extremely slovenly, and their dwellings are kept in the worst possible condition. The effluvium arising from this want of cleanliness is in the highest degree disgusting and offensive to persons unaccustomed to such fare. The same remarks are applicable to the Irish; nay, to some native Virginians. The Germans are remarkable for their fine bread, milk, and butter. They consume in their diet less animal flesh, and of course more vegetables, milk, and butter, than most other people. Their "sour krout"* in the winter constitutes a considerable part of their living. They generally consume less, and sell more of the product of their labor, than any other class of citizens. A Dutchman is proverbial for his patient perseverance in his domestic labors. Their farms are generally small, and nicely cultivated. In all his agricultural pursuits his meadows demand his greatest care and attention. His little farm is laid off in fields not exceeding ten or twelve acres each. It is rarely seen that a Dutchman will cultivate more than about ten or twelve acres in Indian corn any one year. They are of opinion that the corn crop is a great exhauster of the soil, and they make but little use of corn for any other purpose than feeding and fattening their swine.

* Sour krout is made of the best of cabbage. A box about three feet in length, and six or seven inches wide, with a sharp blade fixed across the bottom, something on the principle of the jack-plane, is used for cutting the cabbage. The head being separated from the stalk, and stripped of its outer leaves, is placed in this box, and run back and forth. The cabbage thus cut up is placed in a barrel, a little salt sprinkled on from time to time, then pressed down very closely, and covered over at the open head. In the course of three or four weeks it acquires a sourish taste, and to persons accustomed to the use of it is a very agreeable and wholesome food. It is said that the use of it, within the last few years, on board of ships, has proved it to be the best preventive known for the scurvy. The use of it is becoming preuy general among all classes of people in the valley.

Previous to the war of the revolution, and for several years after, considerable quantities of tobacco were raised in the lower counties of the valley. The cultivation of this crop was first introduced and pursued by immigrants from the eastern counties of Virginia. From the newly cleared lands, two crops of tobacco in succession were generally taken, and it was then appropriated to the culture of other crops. The crop of tobacco left the soil in the finest possible state for the production of other crops. Corn, wheat, rye, flax, oats, potatoes, and every thing else, were almost certain to produce abundant crops, after the crop of tobacco.

In the year 1789 the French revolution broke out, when bread-stuffs of every kind suddenly became enormously high; in consequence of which, the farmers in the valley abandoned the cultivation of tobacco and turned their attention to wheat, which they raised in vast quantities for several years. It was no uncommon thing for the farmer, for several years after the commencement of the French revolution, to sell his crops of wheat from one to two, and sometimes at two and a half dollars per bushel, and his flour from ten to fourteen dollars per barrel in our seaport towns.

RICHMOND.

RICHMOND was created in 1692, when the old county of Rappahannock was extinguished, and Essex, with this county, made from it. It is 30 miles long, with an average breadth of 7 miles. The Rappahannock forms its southwestern boundary. Pop. in 1840, whites 3,092, slaves 2,363, free colored 510; total 5,963.

Richmond C. H. is centrally situated in the county, 56 miles NE. of Richmond. It is a small village containing only about a dozen dwellings.

RUSSELL.

RUSSELL was formed in 1786, from Washington county, and named from Gen. Wm. Russell. Its mean length is 40, mean breadth 34 miles. It is drained by branches of the Sandy, and by the Clinch River; the latter runs through its eastern portion. The principal portion of the population is included between Clinch mountain and a distance of 15 miles from its base. The northern, and a greater portion of its territory, is so mountainous, sterile, and difficult of access, that its inhabitants are few and far between. There are some rich sections of land in Russell; and its mineral wealth-coal, iron ore, marble, &c.--is considerable. About 100,000 pounds of maple sugar are annually produced in the county. Pop. in 1840, whites 7,152, slaves 700, free colored 26; total, 7,878.

Lebanon, the county-seat, is 325 miles sw. of Richmond, and 130 miles from Knoxville, Tenn. It is beautifully situated on a branch of Clinch River, and commands a fine view of mountain scenery. It was founded in 1816, and although a small village, it is the only one in the county.

SCOTT.

SCOTT was formed in 1814, from Lee, Washington, and Russell, and named from Gen. Winfield Scott: its mean length is 24, mean breadth 23 miles. It is drained by the north fork of Holston and Clinch Rivers, each of which affords the facilities of boat navigation in times of freshets. Big and Little Moccasin and Sinking creeks, also water the county. The face of the country is mountainous and uneven, and much of the soil is good. Iron, coal, marble, limestone, and freestone, are found within its limits. About 60,000 pounds of maple sugar are annually produced. Pop. in 1840, whites 6,911, slaves 344, free colored 48; total, 7,303.

Estillville, the county-seat, is 344 miles sw. of Richmond, and 40 from Abingdon. It contains 3 stores, a Methodist church, and about 60 dwellings. The Holston Springs are on the north fork of Holston, 4 miles from the C. H. The medicinal qualities of the water are excellent, and its growing reputation, together with the improvements lately made, draw a large number of visitors. The water contains all the ingredients of the White Sulphur possessing any medical efficacy. The principal difference is the existence, in the latter, of sulphureted hydrogen. The uniform temperature of the water is 6810, which renders it a natural medicated bath of the most agreeable degree of heat.

The NATURAL TUNNEL is situated upon Stock creek, about 12 miles westerly from Estillville. That part of the description in fine type, is extracted from the communication of Lieut.-Col. Long, of the U. S. Army, published in the Monthly American Journal of Geology for Feb., 1832 :

To form an adequate idea of this remarkable and truly sublime object, we have only to imagine the creek, to which it gives a passage, meandering through a deep narrow valley, here and there bounded on both sides by walls or revêtements, rising to the height of two or three hundred feet above the stream; and that a portion of one of these chasms, instead of presenting an open thorough cut from the summit to the base of the high grounds, is intercepted by a continuous unbroken ridge more than three hundred feet high, extending entirely across the valley, and perforated transversely at its base, after the manner of an artificial tunnel, and thus affording a spacious subterranean channel for the passage of the stream.

The entrance to the natural tunnel, on the upper side of the ridge, is imposing and picturesque, in a high degree; but on the lower side, the grandeur of the scene is greatly heightened by the superior magnitude of the cliffs, which exceed in loftiness, and which rise perpendicularly--and in some instances in an impending manner-more than three hundred feet; and by which the entrance on this side is almost environed, as it were, by an amphitheatre of rude and frightful precipices.

The observer, standing on the brink of the stream, at the distance of about one hundred yards below the débouchure of the natural tunnel, has, in front, a view of its arched entrance, rising seventy or eighty feet above the water, and surmounted by horizontal stratifications of yellowish, white, and gray rocks, in depth nearly twice the height of the arch. On his left, a view of the same mural precipice, deflected from the springing of the arch in a manner to pass thence in a continuous curve quite to his rear, and towering, in a very impressive manner, above his head. On his right, a sapling growth of buckeye, poplar, lindens, &c., skirting the margin of the creek, and extending obliquely to the right, and upwards through a narrow, abrupt ravine, to the summit of the ridge,

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The Natural Tunnel is in the southwestern part of Virginia, three hundred and fifty-six miles from Richmond, near the line of Tennessee. This passage through a mountain is about four hundred and fifty feet in length. A stream of water passes through it, and a stage road over it. The above is an internal view, taken near the lower entrance, looking out upon the wall of rock beyond, shown on page 466. At the point where the figures are seen, the roof is estimated at about ninety feet above the stream, and the strata is there arranged in concentric circles, bearing a striking resemblance to a dome.

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