LIBRARY 



THE NAUTILUS. 



Ym:. XII. 



.JANUARY, 1S<)<. 



No. !>. 



COLLECTING IN THE GREAT SMOKIES. 



BV .IAMKS II. VEKRISS. 



For three summers t have collected in the Great Smokies, princi- 

 pally upon Thunderhead and Mirey ISidge and in Cade's Core. 

 Clingman's Dome was skimmed over a couple of times and also the 

 bluff of the Little Tennessee at Tallassee ford, and this year I gave 

 three days to the Unaka range. This range is also on the line be- 

 tween Tennessee and North Carolina. 



When a tenderfoot in shells, Mrs. M. L. Andrews, of Knoxville, sent 

 me Vitrinizonites latissimus. I felt that if a woman could do as well 

 as that, a man might find something as large as a tin cup, with spines. 

 At the first opportunity the wonderful shell land was surveyed, and 

 since then I have seen some of the most delightful days of my life' 

 These mountains are covered with a luxuriant growth of trees and 

 plants of many varieties, fungi and shells. Tt is an enchanted land 

 surely, for I am homesick until I return. 



This year, George H. Clapp, of Pittsburgh, a careful student, a tire- 

 less collector, a regular cracker-jack, to speak professionally, and my wife 

 went with me. From Knoxville we go southward thirty-five miles in 

 a farm wagon. There the road and telephone ends, and collectors are 

 at home with William Blair in Cade's Cove, as "-ood a man as was ever 



' O 



made up to (his time. Cade's Cove, six miles in length, is thickly 

 settled, but from this point one must ride a mule or walk. 



Mr. Clapp arrived in the Cove about noon a few days after I 

 had completed a little hasty prospecting. Late in the afternoon we 



