FORESTS OF THE MOUNTAIN SUMMITS. 223 



and Hot Springs and small ones along and near the railways. The 

 Watauga, Toe, Little Tennessee river and its tributaries afford 

 transportation, the timber going to various places in East Ten- 

 nessee, chiefly, though, tc Knoxville. Hemlock is barked around 

 Cranberry for tanneries at Elizabethton, Tenn., and chestnut oak 

 is barked around Asheville for local tanneries. No use is made 

 of the hemlock stocks after they have been barked ; the oak is 

 converted into cordwood and sold for fuel. Walnut, curly ash 

 and curly birch are shipped in the log to veneering factories. The 

 best quality of yellow poplar, ash, and oak timber from here goes 

 chiefly to Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and other inland points, 

 sawn in 8 to 12 inch squares. Locust pins are manufactured at 

 Bryson City, Waynesville and other places. Only a few staves 

 are made and not many white oak railway ties are produced. 



In the more remote districts birch oil {oil of wintergreeri) from 

 the sweet birch is distilled in crude home-made retorts, constructed 

 of wood, lined with clay and with metal bottoms. This was an 

 extensive and profitable industry until overproduction reduced 

 the price. The timber of trees thus barked is rarely used. 



Among other smaller industries, which are carried on with 

 moie or less profit, are keeping bees, in sections where the sour- 

 wood, yellow poplar and lin are abundant, to ntilize their flowers 

 for honey ; the sale of nuts from the native chestnut; and the 

 manufacture of syrup and sugar from the maples. 



THE FORESTS OF THE MOUNTAIN SUMMITS. 



The black spruce is the characteristic 'tree of these forests. 

 With it is generally associated the Carolina balsam, the lower 

 limit of which is about 300 feet above that of the black spruce. 



The mountain ash (mountain sumach), striped and spiked 

 maples and wild red cherry are small broad-leaf trees which are 

 usually found growing, though not abundantly, with the balsam 

 ■and spruce. 



These forests of sombre evergreens lie along the summits of the 

 highest mountains, seldom being found on peaks with an eleva- 

 tion of less than 5,500 feet above sea level. They cap the Grand- 

 father and the adjacent pinnacle of the Grandmother ;. encircle in 

 a great belt the rounded bald of the Roan ; stretch along the 



