The
locusts shrill through the long sultry noon, the bees hum with
greater industry among the flowers, multitudes of butterflies
flit joyfully from place to place, and the turkey-vulture soars
high above the forest, for the intense heat only serves to make
his dinner more plentiful and for him more palatable. The small
animals now seek the shade of the forest and the birds, with
bills open and wings drooping, haunt the streams and seem to
enjoy the charm of their cool leafy wilderness that every lover
of nature finds.
Memory shall always linger fondly about the wonderful drive from
Cumberland to Hagerstown, Maryland. Here may be had the
loveliest of Blue Ridge views. Cumberland contains about twenty-
nine thousand people and is the second city in the state in
size. It is most picturesquely situated on the Potomac river,
about six hundred and fifty feet above tide water. It is on the
edge of the Cumberland Gorges creek coal region, and its rapid
growth and prosperity are largely due to the traffic in coal
collected here for shipment over the canal. It is also a
manufacturing center possessing extensive rolling mills for the
manufacture of railroad materials. It has iron foundries and
steel shafting works. The city occupies the site of Fort
Cumberland, which by order of General Burgoyne at the beginning
of the French and Indian war, Braddock constructed as a base for
his expedition against Fort Duquesne. After Braddock's defeat
and death the remnant of the ill-fated expedition returned to it
under command of Washington. Cumberland was the starting point
of the great National road often called the Cumberland road,
which was an important agent in the settlement of the West.
The route between Cumberland and Hagerstown is grand beyond
telling. This route takes you over a section of the old National
road. It would be difficult indeed to find another stretch of
road sixty-five miles in length that would lead through another
country of such varied and picturesque scenery. The road wound
through a very hilly, wooded, and farming country. The fields of
wheat were a rich gold that sparkled and gleamed in the warm,
mellow light. The oat fields wore a light bluish tinge which
contrasted with the deep green of the fresh meadows, thickly
starred with ox-eye daisies.
Near Cumberland the finest of mountain scenery is spread out
before you. Here you see many beds of tilted strata, vast rocks
standing on their heads as it were. How vast and immeasurable
the forces to bring to these hills their present contour! How
wonderful still those forces at work crumbling these rocks,
forming new soil for myriads of new plants to gladden the place
with their beauty. Beauty lingers all around; there is much
knowledge never learned from books and you receive from many
sources, invitations to pursue and enjoy it. How one gazes at
those glorious hills clad in their many green hues or distant
purple outlines lest their beauty be lost! You will need neither
notebook nor camera to aid you in the future to recall their
loveliness, for those haunting distances, mysterious
illuminations and filmy veils will make delicate yet indelible
etchings on your memory while those blue barriers, thrusting
their graceful and smoothly-flowing outlines into a clear sky,
will remain as long as memories of beautiful things last.
>From scene to scene we drifted along, enchanted, now gazing at a
broader, more wondrous view from some lofty ridge, now looking
upward in mute admiration and wonder from some charming valley,
now seeing again and again the wondrous beauty of the trees,
flowers and ferns, now gazing far out over some point to streams
and woods and softly lighted fields or vast orchards whose
straight rows disappear over the edge of some distant hill to
reappear upon another. "In the midst of such manifold scenery
where all is so marvelously beautiful, he would be a laggard
indeed" who was not touched by its import.
Here, along the roadside where the woods started to climb those
high rocky hills, grew innumerable ferns and wild flowers. Great
Osmundas, the most beautiful fern of all this region, were like
palms, so graceful and airy did their broad fronds appear. Here,
too, the giant brake with its single umbrella-like frond
appeared clad in its bright green robes; then where the shade
became more dense the lovely maiden-hair with its fragile,
graceful wave-edged leaflets swayed on its delicate dark brown
stems, and the ostrich fern stood in vase-like clusters along
the mountain side or spread their lovely fronds along some river
bank, while the dainty bladder bulblet draped ravines, gorges
and steep banks of streams with long feathery fronds whose
points overlapped the delicate light green of which formed a
vast composite picture in sunlight and shadow. Here we first
discovered the lizard's-tail, a tall plant crowned with a
terminal spike whose point bent gracefully over, no doubt giving
it its name. The stout stalks of elecampane with their large
leaves and yellowish brown flowers were seen, and numerous small
plants peeped from among their rich setting of vines and mosses.
If the ferns are numerous, charming the eye with delicate and
graceful beauty, the birds are more so, delighting the ear with
their rich and varied melodies. Here one catches the cheerful
strain of the Maryland yellow throat, a bird whose nest Audubon
never chanced to discover. The Baltimore Oriole now and then
favored us with rich notes and displayed his plumage of black
and orange, the colors of the coat of arms of Lord Baltimore.
Making our way over such enchanted ground we finally arrived at
Hancock, a town of about a thousand inhabitants located in the
center of a fruit belt, including one of the most extensive
orchard developments in America.
