But "beyond" was a mysterious word of unknown content, for no
Virginian of that day had gone beyond. All the way from Canada into South
Carolina and the Florida of that time stretched the mighty system of the
Appalachians, fifteen hundred miles in length and three hundred in breadth.
Here was a barrier long and thick, with ridge after ridge of lifted and
forested earth, with knife-blade vales between, and only here and there a
break away and an encompassed treasure of broad and fertile valley. The
Appalachians made a true Chinese Wall, shutting all England-in-America, in
those early days, out from the vast inland plateau of the continent,
keeping upon the seaboard all England-in-America, from the north to the
south. To Virginia these were the mysterious mountains just beyond which,
at first, were held to be the South Sea and Cathay. Now, men's knowledge
being larger by a hundred years, it was known that the South Sea could not
be so near. The French from Canada, going by way of the St. Lawrence and
the Great Lakes, had penetrated very far beyond and had found not the South
Sea but a mighty river flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. What was the real
nature of this world which had been found to lie over the mountains? More
and more Virginians were inclined to find out, foreseeing that they would
need room for their growing population. Continuously came in folk from the
Old Country, and continuously Virginians were born. Maryland dwelt to the
north, Carolina to the south.
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