CAROLINA THERMAL BELTS. 39 



failed to produce abundant crops in twenty-six consecutive years ; nor 

 has fruit of any kind ever been known within these limits to be frost- 

 killed, though there have been instances where it has been so from 

 a severe freeze. The lines are sometimes so sharply drawn that one- 

 half of a shrub may be frost-killed while the other half is unaffected. 



"This belt varies in the height of its range above different valleys. 

 I will name a case in point. I made my observations in relation to 

 this belt in Macon County, which is traversed by the beautiful valley 

 of the Little Tennessee River lying 2,000 feet above tidewater. 

 Here, when the thermometer is down to 26 the frost reaches 300 

 feet vertical height. A small river, having its sources in a high 

 plateau 1,900 feet above this, runs down into this valley, breaking 

 through three mountain barriers, and consequently making three 

 short valleys, including the plateau, rising one above the other, each 

 of which has its own vernal zone, traversing the hillsides that en- 

 close them, the first of which takes a much lower range than that 

 of the lower valley, and each -taking a lower as the valleys mount 

 higher in the atmosphere, and in the highest one the range of the 

 belt is not more than 100 feet above the common level of the plateau, 

 a beautiful level height containing 6,000 acres of land and lying 

 3,900 feet above tidewater. 



"The country on the Atlantic side of the Blue Ridge sinks rapidly 

 by a succession of long sunny slopes reaching down into the plain 

 or level country. Along these slopes the air is pure and dry, a 

 refuge for the consumptive, as diseases of the lungs have never yet 

 been known to originate among the inhabitants of these dry, fogless 

 mountains, and here also does the grape find a most salubrious climate 

 and congenial home." 



Another similar belt is found along the eastern slope of the Tryon 

 Mountain range in Polk County. 



Said Dr. L. R. McAboy of Linn, in this county : "The belt along 

 Tryon Mountain is some eight miles long and extends from 1,200 

 feet above tidewater to 2,200 feet, thus being about 1,000 feet in 

 width. This begins at the very base of the mountain, and extends 

 up till you have attained the full height of the Blue Ridge, say of 

 Asheville, Buncombe County, with an elevation where the belt is 

 most perfect, of about 1,500 fe^t. 



"The observed facts of temperature are truly strange. The mer- 

 cury falls in summer and rises in winter, when compared with either 

 the top or the base of the mountain, so much so that travelers on the 

 highway through the belt perceive the difference without the aid 

 of a thermometer. This difference is greater at night than during 

 the daytime, being 5 to 10 on the summer nights, and 15 to 20 on 

 winter nights. There is very little dew, generally none perceptible, 

 which accounts for little or no frost. 



