92 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
Mountain road without turning In, traverses culti- 
vated valleys and a long reach of wild forest, until 
finally the road climbs in long curves up the side of 
the Blue Ridge itself to where the settlement of 
Caesar's Head lies, nested in the sunshine. 
There is a change of climate at Caesar's Head, for 
it is four thousand feet high. One sees grass, and the 
air is cooler and more stimulating than at Traum- 
fest, but you have no Idea where you really are until 
you follow the path under the trees to the top of the 
terrible cliff, where, looking to the east, one sees 
radiant mountains rising rank above rank, while to 
the west the eye plunges into an abyss floored by the 
glowing sea of the lowlands. 
Perhaps the most impressive view of the lowlands 
is from a point below the top of the cliff, where, 
past the sharp edge of near and substantial rock, the 
eye leaps, as it were, out into space. On the edge 
of the cliff, nature has sculptured the rude outlines 
of a human face, from which we are told this com- 
manding spot got its name. The cliff itself, towering 
above those vast spaces, does honor to Caesar, what- 
ever may be said of the ape-like profile. 
From the cliff one also looks directly down Into 
the "Dismal" at its foot, beyond which rises the 
smooth and forbidding stone front of Table Rock. 
The Dismal is impressive enough at any time, and 
it may give you one of the grand spectacular mo- 
ments of your life if you are fortunate enough to 
stand over it after a storm at sunset, when down 
from the mountains roll rivers of mist, to enter the 
