XXV 
THE SAPPHIRE COUNTRY 
THE romantic name of this region is said to have 
been given to it because of the prevaiHng color 
of the sky and the waters. There are moments here, 
as in all these mountains, when the celestial hues 
of the heavens seem to have diffused themselves 
through the tissues of air and earth, and we have 
about us a world which "Sapphire Country" well 
expresses. 
There are three large artificial lakes in the Sap- 
phire Country, Lake Fairfield, the upper one, occu- 
pying a beautiful little "cove" in the mountains at 
an elevation of about three thousand feet; Lake 
Sapphire, a short distance below it, longer, narrower, 
and more winding, lying in the enlarged bed of the 
Horse Pasture River; and Lake Toxaway, lying 
some ten or twelve miles to the east of the others, 
and some two hundred and fifty feet lower. Lake 
Toxaway is larger than either or perhaps both of the 
other lakes, having a shore-line of sixteen miles. 
These charming lakes, with their steep wooded 
banks here, their green and level shores there, the 
outreaching points of land, the mountains, clouds, 
and trees reflected in the water, the splendid rho- 
dodendron and laurel that in places crowd to the 
water's edge, give to the scenery something that to 
