A Thousand-Mile Walk 
to take breath and to admire. The road, in 
many places cut into the rock, goes winding 
about among the knobs and gorges. Dense 
growth of asters, liatris,1 and grapevines. 
Reached a house before night, and asked 
leave to stop. “Well, you’re welcome to stop,” 
said the mountaineer, “if you think you can 
live till morning on what I have to live on all 
the time.” Found the old gentleman very com- 
municative. Was favored with long “bar” 
stories, deer hunts, etc., and in the morning 
was pressed to stay a day or two. 
September 16. “I will take you,” said he, 
“to the highest ridge in the country, where 
you can see both ways. You will have a view 
of all the world on one side of the mountains 
and all creation on the other. Besides, you, 
who are traveling for curiosity and wonder, 
1 Wood’s Botany, edition of 1862, furnishes the following 
interesting comment on Liatris odoratissima (Willd.), popu- 
larly known as Vanilla Plant or Deer’s Tongue: “‘The fleshy 
leaves exhale a rich fragrance even for years after they are 
dry, and are therefore by the southern planters largely mixed 
with their cured tobacco, to impart its fragrance to that 
nauseous weed.” 
[ 34] 
