easterly.

The fork on which we encamped appeared to have followed an easterly
direction up to this place; but here it makes a very sudden bend to the
north, passing between two ranges of precipitous hills, called, as I was
informed, Goshen's hole. There is somewhere in or near this locality a
place so called, but I am not certain that it was the place of our
encampment. Looking back upon the spot, at the distance of a few miles to
the northward, the hills appear to shut in the prairie, through which runs
the creek, with a semicircular sweep, which might very naturally be called
a hole in the bills. The geological composition of the ridge is the same
which constitutes the rock of the Court-house and Chimney, on the North
fork, which appeared to me a continuation of this ridge. The winds and
rains work this formation into a variety of singular forms. The pass into
Goshen's hole is about two miles wide, and the hill on the western side
imitates, in an extraordinary manner, a massive fortified place, with a
remarkable fulness of detail. The rock is marl and earthy limestone,
white, without the least appearance of vegetation, and much resembles
masonry at a little distance; and here it sweeps around a level area two
or three hundred yards in diameter, and in the form of a half moon,
terminating on either extremity in enormous bastions. Along the whole line
of the parapets appear domes and slender minarets, forty or fifty feet
high, giving it every appearance of an old fortified town. On the waters
of White river, where this formation exists in great extent, it presents
appearances which excite the admiration of the solitary voyageur, and form
a frequent theme of their conversation when speaking of the wonders of the
country. Sometimes it offers the perfectly illusive appearance of a large
city, with numerous streets and magnificent buildings, among which the
Canadians never fail to see their _cabaret_--and sometimes it takes
the form of a solitary house, with many large chambers, into which they