60 ESS A YS. 



Balsam afforded excellent materials for the construction of 

 our lodge ; the smaller twigs with large mats of moss stripped 

 from the rocks furnished our bed, and the dead trees supplied 

 us with fuel for cooking our supper and for the large fire we 

 were obliged to keep up during the night. We re-ascended 

 the summit the next morning, and devoted several hours to 

 its examination ; but the threatening state of the weather pre- 

 vented us from visiting the adjacent ridges, or the southern 

 and eastern faces of the mountain, and we were constrained 

 to descend towards evening to the humble dwelling of our 

 guide, which we reached before the impending storm com- 

 menced. 



Our next excursion was to the Roan Mountain, a portion 

 of the elevated range which forms the boundary between 

 North Carolina and Tennessee, distant nearly thirty miles 

 southwest from our quarters at the foot of Grandfather by 

 the most direct path, but at least sixty by the nearest car- 

 riage road. We traveled for the most part on foot, loading 

 the horses with our portfolios, paper, and some necessary lug- 

 gage, crossed the Hanging-rock Mountain to Elk Creek, and 

 thence over a steep ridge to Cranberry Forge, on the sources 

 of Doe Eiver, where we passed the night. On our way we 

 cut down a Service-tree (as the Amelanchier Canadensis is 

 here called), and feasted upon the ripe fruit, which through- 

 out this region is highly, and indeed justly prized, being 

 sweet with a very agreeable flavor ; while in the northern 

 States, so far as our experience goes, this fruit, even if it 

 may be said to be edible, is not worth eating. As " Sarvices " 

 are here greedily sought after, and are generally procured by 

 cutting down the trees, the latter are becoming scarce in the 

 vicinity of the " plantations," as the mountain settlements are 

 universally called. Along the streams we met with the moun- 

 tain species of Andromeda (Leucothoe), doubtless Pursh's 

 A. axillaris ; but whether the original A. axillaris of the 

 " Hortus Kewensis " pertains to this or to the species of the 

 low country, I cannot at this moment ascertain. A portion 

 of Pursh's character seems also to belong to the low country 

 rather than to the mountain species, and the two are by no 



