44 LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 



I left my boulder at last, thougli it would 

 have been good to remain there till night, 

 and wandered along the bluffs to the Point. 

 Here it was apparent at once that the wind 

 had shifted. For the first time I caught 

 sight of lofty mountains in the northeast ; 

 the Great Smokies, I was told, and could 

 well believe it. I sat down straightway and 

 looked at them, and had I known how 

 things would turn, I would have looked at 

 them longer ; for in all my three weeks' 

 sojourn in Chattanooga, that was the only 

 half -day in which the atmosphere was even 

 approximately clear. It was unfortunate, 

 but I consoled myself with the charm of the 

 foreground, — a charm at once softened and 

 heightened, with something of the magic of 

 distance, by the very conditions that veiled 

 the horizon and drew it closer about us. 



It is truly a beautiful world that we see 

 from Lookout Point : the city and its sub- 

 urbs; the river with its broad meander- 

 ings, and, directly at our feet, its great Moc- 

 casin Bend ; the near mountains, — Raccoon 

 and Sand mountains beyond Lookout Val- 

 ley, and Walden's Ridge across the river ; 

 and everywhere in the distance liills and 



