304 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



Lilt now, like otlier royal exiles, he only retains a shadow of liis for- 

 mer authority in a patriarchal name, given because of the grey beard 

 he shows when a frozen cloud has iced his rhododendrons. Westward 

 of him stands a victorious rival, the gently undulating prairie of the 

 Roan, stretching out for many a mile in length, until its green and 

 flowery carpet is terminated by a castellated crag — the Bluff. 



From this extends southerly the long but broken line of the Unaka, 

 through the passes of which, far away over the entire valley of East 

 Tennessee, is seen in the distance the blue outline of the Cumberland 

 Mountains, as they penetrate the State of the "dark and bloody 

 ground." In contrast with the bold aspect and rugged chasms of the 

 Unaka, stands the stately figure of the Bald Mountain, its smoothly 

 shaven and regularly-rounded top bringing to mind some classic cupola ; 

 for when the sunlight sleeps upon its convex head, it seems a temple 

 more worthy of all the gods than that Pantheon, its famed Roman 

 rival. As the eye again sweeps onward, it is arrested by the massive 

 pile of the great Smoky Mountain, darkened by its fir-trees, and often by 

 the cloudy drapery it wears. From thence there stretches quite through 

 Haywood and Henderson to South Carolina's border, the long range 

 of the Balsam Mountain, its pointed steeples over-topping the Cold 

 Mountain and Pisgali, and attaining probably their greatest elevation 

 towards the head of the French Broad river. 



Besides these the eye rests on many a "ripe green valley" with its 

 winding streams, and on many a nameless peak, like pyramid or tower, 

 and many a waving ridge, imitating in its curling shapes the billows of 

 the ocean when most lashed by the tempest. And if one is favored 

 by Jove, he may perchance hear the sharp, shrill scream of his 

 "cloud-cleaving minister," and, as he sweeps by with that bright eye 

 which "pierces downward, onward, or above, with a pervading 

 vision," or encircles him in wide curves^ shows reflected back from 

 the golden brown of his long wings, 



"The westering beams asLint" 



of the descending sun. 



But from Mount Mitchell, where one is still tempted to linger, since 

 my first visit, a way has been opened quite to the highest point. As 

 one rides along the undulating crest of the ridge, he has presented to 

 him a succession of varied, picturesque, and beautiful views. Some- 

 times he passes through open spots smooth and green enough to be 

 the dancing grounds of the fairies^ and anon he plunges into dense 

 forests of balsam, over ground covered by thick beds of moss, so soft 

 and elastic that a wearied man reposes on it as he would on a couch 

 of softest down. In the last and largest of the little prairies, one 

 will be apt to pause awhile, not only for the sake of the magnificent 

 panorama in the distance, but also because attracted by the gentle 

 beauty of the spot, its grassy, waving surface, interspersed with flat- 

 tened rocky seats, studded, in the sun-light, with glittering scales of 

 mica, and here and there clusters of young balsams flourishing in 

 their freshest and richest green, in this, their favorite climate, pointed 

 at top, but spreading below evenly till their lower branches touch the 

 earth, and presenting the outlines of regular cones. 



