_Of the Country near York.—Of the Soil of the Country on each Side of the Blue Mountains.—Frederic-town.—Change in the Inhabitants and in the Country as you proceed towards the Sea.—Numbers of Slaves.—Tobacco chiefly cultivated.—Inquisitiveness of the People at the Taverns.—Observations thereon.—Description of the Great Falls of the Patowmac River.—George Town.—Of the Country between that Place and Hoe’s Ferry.—Poisonous Vines.—Port Tobacco.—Wretched Appearance of the Country bordering upon the Ferry.—Slaves neglected.—Passage_ _of the Patowmac very dangerous.—Fresh Water Oysters.—Landed on a deserted Part of the Virginian Shore.—Great Hospitality of the Virginians._ Stratford, March. IN the neighbourhood of York and Lancaster, the soil consists of a rich, brown, loamy earth; and if you proceed in a south westerly course, parallel to the Blue Mountains, you meet with the same kind of soil as far as Frederic in Maryland. Here it changes gradually to a deep reddish colour, and continues much the same along the eastern side of the mountains, all the way down to North Carolina. On crossing over the mountains, however, directly from Frederic, the same fertile brown soil, which is common in the neighbourhood of York and Lancaster, is again met with, and it is found throughout the Shenandoah Valley, and as far down as the Carolinas, on the west side of the mountains. [Sidenote: FACE OF THE COUNTRY.] Between York and Frederic in Maryland there are two or three small towns; viz. Hanover, Petersburgh, and Woodsburg, but there is nothing worthy of mention in any of them. Frederic contains about seven hundred houses and five churches, two of which are for German Lutherans, one for Presbyterians, one for Calvinists, and one for Baptists. It is a flourishing town, and carries on a brisk inland trade. The arsenal of the state of Maryland is placed here, the situation being secure and central.