Miscellanies. 379 



Peaks of Otter, Virginia, . . . . 3,955 



Table Mountain, Burke, North Carolina, . . 3,421 



Grandfather, . . . . . 5,556 



Yeates'Knob, . . . . . 5,895 



Black, at Thomas Young's, . . . 5,946 



Roan, ...... 6,038 



Highest peak of the Black, . . . 6,476 



There are other high mountains at no great distance from those that 

 were measured, as the Bald Mountain in the western part of Yancy, and 

 the While Top in Virginia, which are nearly if not quite as high as the 

 Roan. In the southeastern part of Haywood county, near the South 

 Carolina line, there is a tremendous pile, and between the counties of 

 Haywood and Macon and the State of Tennessee, the Unikee Mountain 

 swells to a great elevation. But these appear to the eye to be lower than 

 the Black. 



The Pilot Mountain^ which has heretofore enjoyed great celebrity, is 

 much lower than several others. The ascent of the Black Mountain is 

 very difficult on account of the thick laurels which are so closely set, and 

 their strong branches so interwoven, that a path cannot be forced by push- 

 ing them aside ; and the hunters have no method of advancing, when 

 they happen to fall in with the worst of them, but that of crawling along 

 their tops. The bear, in passing up and down the mountain, finds it 

 wisest to keep the ridges, and trampling down the young laurels as they 

 spring up, breaking the limbs from the old ones and pushing them aside, 

 he forms at last a sort of burrow above ground, through this bed of vege- 

 tation, along which he passes without difficulty. This is a bear trail. 

 The top is covered with the balsam fir, from the dark and sombre shade 

 of whose foliage it doubtless received the name of the Black Mountain. 

 The growth of the tree is such on these high summits, that it is easy to 

 climb to the top and taking hold of the highest branch look abroad upon 

 the prospect. At the time of our visit, the mountain was enveloped in 

 mist, which prevented our seeing more than a couple of hundred yards, 

 and we were so uncomfortable from cold, that some of the company urged 

 a return with the least possible delay, and this when it was clear weather, 

 at a small distance below the ridge and the thermometer at 80°. 



The temperature of a few wells and springs is subjoined. The finest 

 iced water is a vapid drink, in comparison with the pure element that 

 gushes from the sides of these western mountains. 



Wells on Chapel Hill, Oct. 17, . . . 59° 



Well in Lincolnton, July 16, 

 " Morganton, July 16, 

 Spring in Keller's Field, 



Daniel Moore's Globe Set 

 " James Riddle's, . . . 54"- 



61° 



58° 

 58° 

 tlement, . 57° 



