MIDDLE AND EAST TENNESSEE. 17 



The spruce and fir of this region do not occur in con- 

 tinuous growth throughout the mountains, even along 

 the high points of the divide, but very irregularly on is- 

 olated peaks and slopes, interrupted by laurel-covered 

 "balds" or those timbered with hard woods. In many lo- 

 calities the underlying broken rock of the mountain-tops 

 and sides has a deep soil humus, supporting a fine growth 

 of hard woods. The cold, pure air of those heights is very 

 similar to a Northern climate, and, as a matter of fact, 

 many of the Northern trees and shrubs are found here. 

 The mountain maple (Acer spicatum) and moose maple 

 (Acer pennsyivanicum), the mountain ash (Pyrus amer- 

 icana) and mountain holly (Ilex monticold), appear here 

 in larger size than in the New England and the Adiron- 

 dack Mountains. The sweet and yellow birch grow to 

 enormous size and the rose-flowered rhododendron 

 blooms in the cool, misty shade six thousand feet above 

 the hot plains below. Somewhat stunted in stature, even 

 the chestnut, red and white oak, black cherry, sugar ma- 

 ple, ascend and cover the small, rich plateaus and 

 ridges. 



Lower down the broad mountain-slopes and deep, 

 gorgelike coves have a forest cover of truly virgin char- 

 acter. In some of the eastern border counties, where 

 railways have yet to come, the silence of those somber 

 forest depths is scarcely ever broken by the sound of the 

 woodman's ax. Primeval forests of centuries guard the 

 cold crystal streams that flow on throughout the year. 

 Bears and deer slake their thirst from the clear, bubbling 

 pools of these streams and somewhere in their hidden, 

 winding courses the much-hunted moonshiner brings life 

 into the "mountain dew." When you think of the in- 

 evitable despoiling effects of the modern mill and the ax 

 in nature so wild and untouched you sometimes wonder at 

 the unthinking greed of man. Huge tulip-trees (poplars), 

 with ages numbered in centuries, crowd the deep coves 

 and rich mountain-sides with their gigantic forms. Big 

 black cherries stare at you from their lofty heights and 

 seem to suppress a sigh of relief when you are gone. 

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