XXXI 
LINVILLE FALLS 
ONE goes to Linville Falls to see the beautiful 
river at the point where it takes that leap into 
the gorge, forming the most noted cataract in the 
mountains. Linville, under the Grandfather Moun- 
tain, lies in a green bowl with tree-covered hills for 
its sides. Above the hotel, on the edge of the green 
bowl, look out cottages and summer houses, for 
Linville is a well-known resort. The river flows 
sparkling and dancing along one side of the bowl on 
its way to the falls ten or twelve miles south of here. 
The Linville is a delightful river, a clear trout strearn 
from its birth-spring back of the Grandfather down 
to the falls and on through the ten-miles-long canyon 
below them, the canyon it has worn between Lin- 
ville Mountain and wild Hawksbill and Tablerock. 
The way to Linville from Ledger is by a pleasant 
and varied route up the North Toe River, then over 
ridges, up the Plumtree Creek, across the Blue 
Ridge, past Crossnore under the Snake Den Moun- 
tain, and on through Kawana, where you will stop to 
visit the Highlands Nursery that has done so much 
to make the beautiful growths of these mountains 
known to the outside world. It began twenty-five 
years ago with half an acre of land as an experiment. 
Now it covers one hundred acres, and every year 
