

THE ALLEGHANIES. 83 



taries of larger rivers. The Toe River, Cranberry Creek, Elk 

 River, Linville River, and all the tributaries of the Watauga, 

 contain trout. New River, in Watauga county, with its three 

 forks, and all the streams that run into it, abound in trout. 

 Near here are the highest peaks to be found east of the 

 Rocky Mountains ; the Black Mountain and Roan Mountain, 

 each seven thousand feet high, and a brotherhood of lesser 

 lights, of which Mount Pisgah, Table Mountain, its face a 

 sheer precipice several thousand feet deep, Smoky Mountain, 

 Bald Mountain, and Cold Mountain, are the chief. Here are 

 finest grazing lands for cattle, even on the very summits f 

 some. Farms are scattered here and there at frequent inter- 

 vals, and among the humble cabins of the poorer whites are 

 houses of some pretension, whose wealthy owners are agricul- 

 turists, graziers, and hunters combined. Indeed, every native 

 resident is a born hunter, for the country is filled with game. 

 Old Burnet, the mighty hunter of Black Mountain and for 

 years its sole inhabitant, could count his bear scalps by the 

 hundred, not to mention panthers, wild cats, and other var- 

 mints thrown in. Every man keeps his hound, and many a 

 pack. This district is reached by way of Johnson City, on 

 the Virginia and East Tennessee Railroad. 



This mountain region extends into East Tennessee. The 

 Swanannoah River, and the Sweetwater branch of the Little 

 Tennessee afford excellent trout-fishing ; the latter is reached 

 by way of Franklin. But none of these localities are often 

 visited by Northern people, few of whom, I suppose, are even 

 aware of their existence. For the sake of the novelty alone, 

 it would be well to pay them a visit. 



Next to the Cheat River country, the counties of Potter 

 and Elk, in Northern Pennsylvania, offer the greatest induce- 

 ments to the sportsman to be found in any part of the Alle- 

 ghany range. Like other localities in the older and densely 

 populated portions of the United States, such as the Adiron- 

 dacks and Cheat River tract, which have been left unsettled 

 by reason of their unfitness for agriculture, or from other 



