We have the following description of the roads about Philadelphia, the metropolis and commercial center of the New World: "On the best lines of communication the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous. * * * Near the great cities the state of the roads was so bad as to render all approach difficult and dangerous. Out of Philadelphia a quagmire of black mud covered a long stretch of road near the village of Rising Sun. There horses were often seen floundering in the mud up to their bellies. On the York road, long lines of wagons were every day to be met with, drawn up near Logan's hill, while the wagoners unhitched their teams, to assist each other in pulling through the mire. At some places, stakes were set up to warn teams of the quicksand pits; at others, the fences were pulled down, and a new road made through the fields." Transportation facilities were either entirely lacking or such as to make travel both expensive and hazardous. It is difficult to realize that as late as 1780 the roads over a large part of Pennsylvania were narrow paths which had been made through the woods by Indians and traders. ABSENCE OF ROADS IN THE INTERIOR. The isolation of interior settlements finds apt illustration in the Wyoming valley. This rich region along the Susquehanna had been until 1786 almost completely cut off from the outer world. A small colony had moved in from the East, and taking color of title from Connecticut, disclaimed the sovereignty of the Quaker proprietary. War consequently broke out between this isolated settlement and the Pennsylvania government. Several military expeditions were sent out to reduce the "Yankees" to submission; but the absence of roads and the necessity of carrying provisions on horseback left the determined pioneers masters of the situation when the larger issue, the Revolutionary war, suspended local strife. The spring after Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga the settlers of the Wyoming valley learned that a detachment of Johnson's "Royal Greens" and Butler's "Rangers," with a company of Tories, had allied themselves with the Seneca Indians, and were preparing to descend upon the valley. A courier was despatched to congress, and appeals for aid were made to the neighboring states, but the isolation which had before served for defense now brought disaster. With the June freshet the British allies came down from Tioga, and nothing but ruins were left to mark the scene. One of the reasons urged for the removal of the state capitol from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in 1799 was the cost of travel, which bore heavily upon legislators from the interior. THE ROADS OF NEW ENGLAND.