XXIX 
THE FORKS OF THE RIVER TOE 
THE Estatoe should have" kept its full name, 
but as the matter was not attended to in 
time, so that the river went down on the govern- 
ment maps as the "Toe," it will probably be long 
before the mistake is corrected. 
The South Toe skirts the eastern base of the 
Black Mountains as Cane River skirts the western 
base. The North Toe, a long and winding stream, 
carries the waters from one side of the steep and 
high Yellow Mountain region, in places forcing its 
way through narrow gorges, and joins the South 
Toe a few miles east of Burnsville, the resulting 
river being known as the Toe. The Cane River 
finally enters the Toe, the two forming the Noli- 
chucky River. 
While the Cane River Valley is comparatively 
well peopled, the wild valley of the South Toe has as 
yet few inhabitants, but you will want to go there 
because the river, strong and wild and clear as crys- 
tal, has coming into it the merriest of trout brooks 
straight down from the sky, and because the valley 
itself is a most glorious wilderness, to be in which 
gives one a feeling of having escaped. Enormous 
trees grow on the slopes of the mountains, — oaks, 
chestnuts, beeches, and magnolias mingling their 
