350 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
tain, "Aug. 30, climbed to the summit of the highest 
mountain of all North America with my guide, and 
sang the Marseillaise Hymn, and cried, 'Long live 
America and the French Republic! Long live 
liberty!'" 
The mountain owes its supremacy not only to the 
comparative insignificance of its near neighbors, but 
to its position at the point where the Blue Ridge 
makes a sudden turn, swinging as it were about the 
Grandfather as about a pivot, the mountain rising 
in splendid sweep directly up from the abysmal 
depths of the foothills, with no intervening terraces. 
It has the effect of standing alone, its feet in the far- 
down valleys, its head in the clouds. 1 1 is also notable 
for its striking summit of bare rock as black as ink, 
a long, scalloped line as seen from Blowing Rock, a 
sharp tooth as seen coming towards it from Linville 
Falls. These bare, rocky summits are peculiar to 
the mountains of this region, as cliffy walls are of the 
Highlands country. None of these summits, however, 
can approach the Grandfather's black top in size 
and impressiveness, it being a landmark far and near. 
The most impressive view of the Grandfather is 
from Blowing Rock that lies some twenty miles to 
the east of it on a brink of the Blue Ridge, which 
there makes a drop of a thousand feet or more into 
the foothills below. From Blowing Rock to Tryon 
Mountain the Blue Ridge draws a deep curve half 
encircling a jumble of very wild rocky peaks and 
cliffs that belong to the foothill formations. Hence 
Blowing Rock, lying on one arm of a horseshoe of 
