out of sight
of the Abingdon spectators, down the eastern turnpike. The day was warm,
but the air was full of vitality and the spirit of adventure. It was
the 22d of July. The horses were not ambitious, but went on at an easy
fox-trot that permits observation and encourages conversation. It
had been stipulated that the horses should be good walkers, the one
essential thing in a horseback journey. Few horses, even in a country
where riding is general, are trained to walk fast. We hear much of
horses that can walk five miles an hour, but they are as rare as white
elephants. Our horses were only fair walkers. We realized how necessary
this accomplishment is, for between the Tennessee line and Asheville,
North Carolina, there is scarcely a mile of trotting-ground.

We soon turned southward and descended into the Holston River Valley.
Beyond lay the Tennessee hills and conspicuous White-Top Mountain (5530
feet), which has a good deal of local celebrity (standing where the
States of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina corner), and had been
pointed out to us at Abingdon. We had been urged, personally and
by letter, to ascend this mountain, without fail. People recommend
mountains to their friends as they do patent medicines. As we leisurely
jogged along we discussed this, and endeavored to arrive at some rule of
conduct for the journey. The Professor expressed at once a feeling about
mountain-climbing that amounted to hostility,--he would go nowhere that
he could not ride. Climbing was the most unsatisfactory use to which a
mountain could be put. As to White-Top, it was a small mountain, and
not worth ascending. The Friend of Humanity, who believes in
mountain-climbing as a theory, and for other people, and knows the value
of being able to say, without detection, that he has ascended any high
mountain about which he is questioned,--since this question is the first
one asked about an exploration in a new country,--saw that he should
have to use a good deal of diplomacy to get the Professor over any
considerable elevation on the trip. And he had to confess also that a
view from a mountain is never so satisfactory as a view of a mountain,
from a moderate height. The Professor, however, did not argue the matter
on any such reasonable ground, but took his stand on his right as a
man not to ascend a mountain. With this appeal to first principles,--a
position that could not be confuted on account of its vagueness
(although it mig