XXIII 
THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS 
IS it the name, or the literary uses of the last few 
years, that has invested the Smoky Mountains 
with that feeling of mystery that seems always to 
hang about them? Those who have seen them rising 
in ghost-like beauty high against the western sky 
need, however, no explanation of their power over 
the mind. One approaches them with a peculiar 
feeling of anticipation, a feeling almost reverential, 
as though about to unveil some great mystery. One 
approaches them also with a little inner trepidation, 
they have always seemed so far away, so delicately 
blue and ethereal, or else as their name suggests 
they have been to the imagination pale emanations 
from a burning world, — suppose that closer ac- 
quaintance with them should dispel a cherished 
illusion ! 
But have no fear. These mountains possess a 
double personality. The dreamlike slopes you have 
known and loved will remain, only there will be 
added to the domain of your memory another Smoky 
Mountain Range, the possession of which is also a 
rare pleasure. These new mountains, with their 
grand trees and wide spaces, their freshness and 
fragrance, their dangerous cliffs, steep slopes, and 
deep ravines, their rushing streams and their almost 
