49 



base ; the Blue Ridge in the distance ; the deep frightful gorges on all 

 sides below us, growing every moment more distinct as we gazed upon 

 them and pictured to ourselves the fall and death of the old friend we 

 were then to bury ; the river winding with their silver streams in every 

 direction from their little sources in the recesses of the mountains ; the 

 beautiful farms with their golden harvests, cultivated spots amid the 

 boundless wilderness of trees ; the light fleecy clouds dotting the horrizon ; 

 and the blue sky above ; all formed a picture that any one not entirely de- 

 void of a taste for the beautiful in nature could not fail to gaze upon with 

 feelings of silent admiration. 



In the meantime the sturdy mountaineers of Yancey were assembling in 

 great numbers. They, many with their wives and daughters, had toiled 

 up the long and steep ascent to witness the burial of the friend, who near- 

 ly a quarter of a century before, endeared himself to them while laboring 

 to ascertain the height of their famous mountain and explore its hidden 

 recesses, who had died amongst them while verifying the results of those 

 former labors and who was found by tJiem at the bottom of his watery 

 grave. A stranger did not require words from them to know how they 

 loved him while living and cherished his memory after death. They had 

 not long to wait ; for the body, kept with much difficulty in its place on the 

 sled, as the oxen made their way over the miry road and slippery roots 

 was drawing near its final resting-place. At the foot of the steep knoll 

 that forms the summit, the oxen and sled were finally dispensed with, and 

 a friendly emulation was displayed by the Yancey Mountaineers in offering 

 their broad shoulders to support the corpse. 



R. D. Wilson, Esq., of Yancey, being requested to act as Marshall, here 

 formed a procession in the following order : 



Citizens of Buncombe. 



Citizens of Yancey. 



Students of the University. 



*■ THE CORPSE. 



Family of the Deceased. 

 Trustees and Faculty of the University. 

 The President and Rt. Rev. Orator. 

 Upon reaching the summit of the Mountain, the lines in front of the^ 

 the Corpse were opened and the procesion in reversed order advanced to 

 the grave, Bishop Otey reading the impressive service of the Episcopal 

 Church for the Burial of the Dead. Arrived at the brink of the grave, a 

 necessarily shallow one dug mostly through rock, the body was lowered ; 

 and the Bishop, from a desk formed of a stone taken from the grave, deli- 

 vered a funeral address to an audience that stood or sat with heads. reve- 



