ty all the way to this place, and the day having cleared up at
noon, we had a brilliant evening to explore this town.

Before describing Columbus, however, I shall go back to some omissions
of a still older date; for I ought to have told you of a grand sight we
saw the day we passed the Alleghany Ridge. On the preceding evening Mr.
Tyson received a telegraphic message to say that an extensive fire was
raging in the forest; it is supposed to have been caused by some people
shooting in the woods. It must have been a grand sight to the
passengers by the train from which we had separated, and which went on
during the night through the scene of the conflagration, for the fire
was much more extensive than those which are constantly taking place,
and which are passed by unheeded,--unhonoured with a telegraphic notice.
When we passed by the place next morning it was still burning
vigorously, but the daylight rendered the flames almost imperceptible.
It was curious, however, to see the volumes of smoke, which we first
perceived in a hollow. The fire was then travelling down the side of the
mountain; and long after we passed the immediate spot we saw the fire
winding about the mountains, spreading greatly, in the direction of the
wind and making its way even against it, though it was blowing with
considerable violence. The people in the neighbourhood were busily
employed in trying to save their hayricks from destruction. Mr. Tyson
said they would probably succeed in this, though the whole of the forest
was likely to be burnt, as the fire would wind about among the mountains
and pass from one to another for perhaps two months, unless a heavy rain
put it out. This we hope has been the case, as it poured in torrents all
the following night when we were at Wheeling.

Another circumstance we ought to have mentioned was our passing through
a very long tunnel, called the Board Tree Tunnel, about 340 miles from
Baltimore. This tunnel, after having fallen in, has only been repaired
within the last two months. The history of this catastrophe, and of the
mode of remedying it, forms quite an incident in the history of the
railway, and shows with what resolution difficulties in this country are
overcome. To reopen the tunnel it was clear would be a work of time, so
Mr. Tyson resolved to run a new temporary railway for three miles over
the mountain which had been tunnelled, and this was accomplished by 3000
men in ten days. We saw the place wh