beautiful trees,
interspersed with houses here and there. I should think, from the
appearance of Staten Island, that it must be a delightful place. As we
sailed along, close by the shore, the people came from the houses to
salute us, waving flags and handkerchiefs; in the groves and upon the
house-tops we saw and heard them cheering us. We arrived at
Elizabethport about twelve o'clock. I should think it to be a place of
some importance as a depot for the shipment of coal, there being every
convenience in the line of railways and wharfs. It is a small place,
however, nothing doing except in connection with the coal trade. We
started from this place at three, P.M., _en route_ for Baltimore, by
way of Harrisburg. The soil at Elizabethport, and all the way through
New Jersey, by rail to Phillipsburg, Penn., is a reddish brown clay, and
for the first twenty-five miles beyond Elizabethport the country appears
quite monotonous, a vast level plain, with here and there a shrub, and a
few houses, but no good farms. The only fruit trees I saw worth
mentioning were quinces; these were of large size, and many of them were
loaded down with fruit. I should suppose this road ran through the most
barren part of Jersey, as I could see no signs of thrift and industry.

Upon entering Phillipsburg we came upon a most beautiful country,
abounding in hills and valleys, covered with forest trees, with here and
there an excellent farm. The hills are high and smooth--no rocks to be
seen upon the surface--thereby affording some of the finest situations
for farming I ever saw. The scenery is most beautiful all the way
through Pennsylvania on this line. In consequence of the unevenness of
the surface through this part of the country, the railroad cuts are very
frequent and extensive, some of them extending for a mile or more, and
so deep that we could hardly see the top of the bank from the car
window. The road, also, of necessity crosses ravines, some of them one
hundred and fifty feet in depth. We arrived at Phillipsburg at five
o'clock, P.M.; halted the trains, filled canteens, and relieved four or
five apple trees of two or three bushels of fruit. Stopped at
Phillipsburg until after dark, to allow trains of coal to pass, this
being the great thoroughfare over which vast quantities of coal pass to
Elizabethport, from the coal districts of Pennsylvania. After starting
from Phillipsburg we moved along very slow, stopping often, and passing
frequen