The southwestern branch of the Baltimore and Ohio skirts the Cumberland Range, following the valley of the Shenandoah, until it joins the main line at Harper’s Ferry, where the Shenandoah and Potomac likewise form a junction, each stream cleaving a way through the mountains and watering a region of extraordinary scenic beauty. Sheridan, when operating in these valleys, declared that the country was so barren that a crow would have to carry its rations when flying over it; but the country has blossomed into fertility since that time, and now presents glorious visions of great productiveness, as well as bluffs and mountains of rugged picturesqueness. Harper’s Ferry was well known before the war as being the location of one of the important Government armories and arsenals, which were destroyed soon after the beginning of hostilities, and have not since been rebuilt. Its chief fame, however, is derived from the fact that the town was the seat of the John Brown insurrection (in October, 1859); and at Charleston, seven miles distant, on the road to Winchester, is the place where he was tried and executed. Harper’s Ferry was thus not only the scene of the opening events of the war, but it remained the center of action for a long time, being alternately occupied by the Union and Confederate forces, who contended with varying fortunes, but always with immense loss of life, in efforts to retain it as a base for their supplies. It is the magnificent scenery surrounding the place that now attracts the tourist’s interest, for a more beautiful section of mountain country is nowhere to be seen in the East. Particularly fine views are afforded from Maryland Heights, on the opposite side of the Potomac, and from Bolivar Heights, which are above the town, the latter being a more extensive perspective, commanding as it does a long stretch of river and the huge mountain ramparts on the south. From this point of observation, too, the Shenandoah River is presented to the view, sprinkled with white-crested waves dashing over smooth-worn bowlders, that have long lain in its course, and its frowning shores that rise up into towering mountains and form a chain of peaks that girdle the horizon. From Maryland Heights the observer is able to look into seven counties, and across stretches of three States, the view being at last arrested by a soft haze that crowns the soaring summits of the Blue Ridge Range. The route from Harper’s Ferry was north by way of the Baltimore and Ohio and the Cumberland Valley Railroads to Harrisburg, and thence some of the fine scenery of Pennsylvania was visited, particularly that which lies along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In going East, the first view of great interest which greets the eyes of observant travelers along this road, after leaving Pittsburgh, is Johnstown, a great manufacturing place, at the confluence of Conemaugh River and Stony Creek, but whose largest fame dates from