298 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
apple the question some of us ask is, "Did it come 
from Waynesville or New York?" 
There is a white sulphur spring near Waynesville, 
but that which most powerfully attracts the visitor 
is its nearness to the Balsams, into whose recesses 
one can penetrate by paths and trails to the very 
haunts of the bear, only that poor Bruin has been so 
driven from pillar to post that he has very few 
haunts left. The Balsams are among the highest 
remaining of these once towering mountains, and 
they, like Pisgah, owe their preservation to the 
cyanite and garnet in their rocks. 
The Balsams, as well as the Blacks, are named 
from the mantle of balsam firs that covers all their 
higher parts, so dark-green as to look black at times, 
although in the distance the magic light causes them 
to assume that wonderful blue color which is the 
prerogative of all these delectable heights. Balsam 
trees as a rule cover the higher slopes of all the 
mountains that rise above fifty-five hundred feet, 
sometimes on the highest ones running down the 
ravines much lower than that. These wide black 
mantles laid over the shoulders of the high moun- 
tains give strength to the landscape. As seen from 
below, they seem completely to envelop the moun- 
tains, but at a higher elevation, or upon approaching 
the summits, one discovers that the mountain-top 
is always treeless. This is true of the higher moun- 
tains, whether they are fir-clad or not, the "bald" 
varying in size from a few yards across on some 
mountains to rolling meadows hundreds of acres in 
