BIRDS, FLOWERS, AND PEOPLE 131 



indeed have " widened in man's view." 

 That was not to be, and all those lofty North 

 Carolina peaks — of which, to a New Eng- 

 lander, there seem to be so many ^ — were 

 seen by me only from railway trains and 

 from the hotel veranda at Asheville, on my 

 journey homeward. On Satulah and White- 

 side I was forced to please myself with the 

 glory of the foreground. What lay beyond 

 the mist was matter for dreams. 



But even as things were, I was not so 

 badly used. There was more beauty in sight 

 than I could begin to see, and, notwithstand- 

 ing the comparative narrowness of the out- 

 look, — partly because of it, — one of my 

 most enjoyable forenoons was spent on the 

 broad, open, slightly rounded summit of 

 Satulah. Here and there (" more here than 

 there," my pencil says) a solitary cabin was 

 visible, or a bit of road, a ribbon of brown 

 amidst the green of the forest, but no village, 

 nor so much as a hamlet. The only other 

 signs of human existence were a light smoke, 



^ According to a publication of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, North Carolina contains forty-three peaks 

 more than 6000 feet high, eighty-two others more than 

 5000 feet high, and an " innumerable " multitude the alti- 

 tude of which is between 4000 and 5000 feet. 



