106 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



with stoves, and a life of accompanying laziness, brought 

 physical degeneracy. 



Monday, Dec. 8, 1890. — Mr. Rosewell B. Lawrence, of 

 Medford, lectured on the "Carolina Mountains" illustrated 

 with ninety-four lantern views. 



The western part of North Carolina has been but little 

 known to our people ; its beautiful streams, forest-clothed 

 mountains, brilliant wild flowers, soft balmy air, charming 

 sky and peculiar people were described by the lecturer. 

 Its mountains are the culmination of the Appalachian sys- 

 tem, having several peaks higher than Mt. Washington. 

 The Blue Ridge on the east and the Smokies on the west 

 embrace a plateau elevated twenty-four hundred feet above 

 the sea, containing six thousand square miles and inter- 

 sected by several transverse ranges. In this region are 

 found valuable forests of hard timber, rich mines of iron 

 ore, mountains of marble of fine quality and various col- 

 ors, mica in large sheets, copper, corundum and many 

 precious stones, including the hiddenite, an emerald green 

 gem peculiar to North Carolina. 



Mr. Lawrence described Linville, where capitalists are 

 laying out the town as a health and pleasure resort. The 

 elevation of the town is thirty-eight hundred feet, sur- 

 rounded by mountains, Grandfather Mountain being almost 

 six thousand feet. Bakersville, Burnsville and Asheville 

 were described, the latter the charming pleasure resort, 

 where fine hotels and elegant residences are being erected to 

 accommodate the north in winter and the south in summer. 

 Visitors from both sections throng the place, each in their 

 season. The beautiful scenery of the French Broad and 

 Swannano rivers, Warm Springs, the railroad at Round 

 Knob, Bald Mountain and Caesar's Head, was pictured on 

 the screen. The people were illustrated, many of their 



