378 Miscellanies. 



tower, rising perpendicularly from the summit of the first range of the 

 Alieghanies. It is, in fact, a narrow ridge, affording a very fine prospect 

 of the fertile valley of the Catawba and its tributaries on the southeast 

 and east, and of nature in her wildest dress where the Linville pours over 

 the rocks along a deep ravine, wholly untenanted and uncultivated, and 

 of a vast extent of mountain peaks and ranges on the northeast. Its top 

 is two thousand four hundred and fifl;y three feet above Morganton, and 

 a little more than fifteen miles distant in a right line. 



The Grandfather, seventeen miles from the Table, and twenty eight 

 from Morganton, has hitherto been generally supposed the highest moun- 

 tain in North Carolina. But this proves to be a mistake, as may be seen 

 in the following table. There is a mountain not far off" called the Grand- 

 mother ; from being crowned with the balsam of fir it is conjectured that 

 the elevation may be twenty six hundred feet. 



The Roan Mountain is fifteen miles from the Grandfather, and thirty 

 five northwest from Morganton, lying directly over or beyond the Hawks- 

 bill. It touches the Tennessee line, but the highest peaks are in North 

 Carolina. This is the easiest of access, the most beautiful, and will best 

 repay the labor of ascending it of all our high mountains. With the ex- 

 ception of a body of rocks looking like the ruins of an old castle, near its 

 southwestern extremity, the top of the Roan may be described as a vast 

 meadow, without a tree to obstruct the prospect ; where a person may 

 gallop his horse for a mile or two, with Carolina at his feet on one side, and 

 -Tennessee on the other, and a green ocean of mountains raised into tre- 

 mendous billows immediately about him. It is the elysium of a southern 

 botanist, as a number of plants are found growing in this cold and humid 

 atmosphere, which are not seen again till we have gone some hundreds of 

 miles farther north. It is the pasture ground for the young horses of the 

 whole country about it during the summer. We found the strawberry 

 here in the greatest abundance and of the finest quality, in regard to both 

 size and flavor, on the 30th of July. 



The BlacJc Mountain is a long ridge, at a medium distance of about 

 thirty miles from Morganton. It has some peaks of greater elevation 

 than, any point that has hitherto been measured in North America, east 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and is believed to be the highest mountain in 

 the United States. The Black Mountain cost nearly a week's labor in 

 fixing upon the peak to be measured and the measurement. For the 

 sake of comparison the following heights are given. The first five are 

 copied from Worcester's Gazetteer : 



Mount Washington in New Hampshire, hitherto accounted the 

 highest mountain in the United States — highest peak, 6,234 

 Mansfield Mountain, Vermont, . . . 4,279 



Saddle Mountain, Massachusetts, . . . 4,000 



Round Top, highest of the Catskills, . . 3,804 



