136 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
them has a form so suggestive that there is no 
escape for it. They are so near Asheville as to 
attract immediate attention from the newcomer, 
who, according to his temperament, is shocked or 
amused at his first introduction to "Pisgah and the 
Rat." 
It is Asheville's position which has made it so long 
a favorite with those seeking these mountains for 
their pleasure. From its hills one looks away to peaks 
and ranges not too near and not too far, and one 
feels to the full that sense of elevation and of great 
sky expanse, which is so notable a part of the land- 
scape of this region that the name, "Land of the 
Sky," once felicitously bestowed upon it, has clung 
to it ever since. 
It would be tiresome to enumerate the mountains 
visible from the various hills of Asheville, one looks 
out upon so many, from the grand chain of the near 
Balsams on the west to the distant Craggy and Black 
Mountains towards the north, but one never gets 
tired of looking at them, and in these later days good 
roads lead away to parks and viewpoints, to the near 
and some of the distant villages, and to the arti- 
ficial lakes now being made in increasing numbers 
to supply scenery and mosquitoes to the tourist ; for 
the pleasure-seeking tourist has found the moun- 
tains, there is no escaping that momentous fact, 
and the mountaineer is everywhere waking up from 
his long slumber and beginning as it were to look 
about him. 
There is so much that is interesting in Asheville 
