THE EARLY SETTLERS 141 
good Scotch Highlanders, who came after 1745. In 
fact, so many of these stanch Northerners came to 
the North CaroHna mountains that they have given 
the dominant note to the character of the moun- 
taineer, remembering which may help the puzzled 
stranger to understand the peculiarities of the peo- 
ple he finds here to-day. The Celtic element has also 
strongly impressed a love of nature upon the people, 
as shown in their care of flowers and their pleasure 
in the beauties of the wilderness. They can tell you 
where to go for the finest views, and they know any 
peculiarity of rock or tree that may occur in their 
neighborhood. 
Emigration to the mountains, at one time consid- 
erable, practically ceased when the great West was 
opened up and the people flocked thither, no longer 
drawn to the less exciting region of the Southern 
mountains. The rnore enterprising of the North Caro- 
lina mountaineers also went West, we are told, thus 
leaving behind the conservative element, another 
fact rich in explanation of the people here to-day, 
and leaving also the less ambitious natures, as well 
as the weaker ones. The easy conditions of life here 
doubtless appealed to many who had not been 
endowed with the kind of strength required to wrest 
success from active life in the New World, some of 
them seekers after better things than they could 
hope for at home, gentle souls who were not tempted 
by the glittering prizes to be struggled for in more 
favored parts of the then unexplored continent. The 
rapid growth of slavery no doubt discouraged many, 
