378 Misceilantes. 
tower; rising perpendicularly from the summit of the first range of the 
Alleghanies. _ It is, in fact, a narrow ridge, affording a very fine prospect 
of the fertile valley of the Catawba ‘and its tributaries on the southeast 
and east, and of nature in her wildest dress where the Linville pours over 
the rocks along a deep ravine, wholly untenanted and uncultivated, and 
of a vast extent of mountain peaks and ranges on the northeast. Its top 
is two thousand four hundred and fifty three feet above Morganton, and 
a little more than fifteen miles distant in a right line, 
The Grandfather, seventeen miles from the Table, and twenty eight 
from Morganton, has hitherto been generally ‘supposed the highest moun- 
tain in North Carolina. But this proves to be a mistake, as may be seen 
in the following table. .There is a mountain not far off called the Grand- 
mother ; from being crowned with the balsam of fir it is ie conjoutirad that 
the elevation may be twenty six hundred feet: 
The Roan Mountain is fifteen miles from the bieendinaines and thirty 
five northwest from Morganton, lying diréctly over or beyond the Hawks- 
bill. It touches thé Tennessee line, but the highest peaks are in North 
Carolina. This isthe easiest of access, the most beautiful, and will best 
repay the labor of ascending it of all our high mountains. With the ex- 
ception of a body of rocks looking like the ruins of an old castle, near its 
southwestern extremity, the top of the Roan may be’ described as a vast 
meadow, without a tree to obstruct the prospect; where a person may 
_ gallop his horse for a mile or two, with Carolina at his feet on one side, and 
Tennessee on the other, and a green ocean of mountains raised into tre- 
mendous billows immediately about him. .It is the elysium of a southern 
botanist, as a number of plants are found growing in this cold and humid 
atmosphere, which are not seen again till we have gone some hundreds of 
miles farther-north. It is the pasture ground for the young horses of the 
whole country about-it during the summer. We found the strawberry 
here in the greatest abundance and of the finest quality, in regard to both 
size and flavor, on, the 30th of July. : ; 
~ The Black Rania; is a long ridge,.at a medium distanee of about 
a miles from Morganton. It has some peaks of greater elevation 
than any point that has hitherto been measured in North America, east 
of the Rocky Mountains, -and is believed to be the highest mountain in 
the United States. This: Black Mountain. ccet nearly a week’s Jabor in 
fixing upon thé peak to be measured and the measurement. For the 
_ sake of comparison the following heights are given, The first five are 
copied from Worcester’s Gazetteer: - : 
Mount Washington in New Hampshire, hitherto accounted the: 
highest mountain in the United States—highest peak, 6,234 
- Mansfield Mountain, Vermont, a 4279 
_> Saddle Mountain, Massachusetts, .- + ~~ 2- ~~ 4,000 © 
~ . Round Top,-highest of the Catskills, ae : 3,804. 
a 
