108 THE MOUNTAIN. 



noble and hardy cultivators of the mountain ; and the tra- 

 veller is impressed with pain to observe how few flocks and 

 herds graze upon its grass-grown sides. 



Its perfect adaptation to the growth of one domestic 

 animal, the sheep and its varieties, alone would secure to 

 the mountain a precious specialty, and one of inestimable 

 value. 



Leaving out the question of a wool crop, it is well known 

 that the grasses of the mountain will, in a given time, de- 

 velop more mutton-tallow than any other pasture upon 

 which the sheep can feed. Sixty days of mountain grass 

 converts the sheep from a skeleton covered with skin into a 

 mass of the finest, newly-infiltrated mutton ; its hide, stretched 

 over angular bones, metamorphosed into a round, distended 

 sack of snow-white fat. 



In the vegetable world, however, and its soil affinities, its 

 vital relations to earth, air, and water, the chapter on the 

 Flora of the mountain will show the connection of cause and 

 effect in this order of things. 



One other record must be made with emphasis, and that 

 is, the entire FREEDOM of the surface of the mountain from 

 morasses, swamps, and boggy soils, with large accumulations 

 of vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, and the 

 consequent immunity of the Alleghany heights, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, from the WHOLE CLASS of malarial diseases. This 

 star fact alone, reposing upon the mountain's brow, is a suffi- 

 cient crown of glory. 



