o be a daily storm at this season.

The summit is a nearly level spot of some thirty or forty feet in extent
either way, with a floor of rock and loose stones. The stunted balsams
have been cut away so as to give a view. The sweep of prospect is vast,
and we could see the whole horizon except in the direction of Roan,
whose long bulk was enveloped in cloud. Portions of six States were in
sight, we were told, but that is merely a geographical expression. What
we saw, wherever we looked, was an inextricable tumble of mountains,
without order or leading line of direction,--domes, peaks, ridges,
endless and countless, everywhere, some in shadow, some tipped with
shafts of sunlight, all wooded and green or black, and all in more
softened contours than our Northern hills, but still wild, lonesome,
terrible. Away in the southwest, lifting themselves up in a gleam of
the western sky, the Great Smoky Mountains loomed like a frowning
continental fortress, sullen and remote. With Clingman and Gibbs and
Holdback peaks near at hand and apparently of equal height, Mitchell
seemed only a part and not separate from the mighty congregation of
giants.

In the center of the stony plot on the summit lie the remains of
Mitchell. To dig a grave in the rock was impracticable, but the loose
stones were scooped away to the depth of a foot or so, the body was
deposited, and the stones were replaced over it. It was the original
intention to erect a monument, but the enterprise of the projectors of
this royal entombment failed at that point. The grave is surrounded by
a low wall of loose stones, to which each visitor adds one, and in the
course of ages the cairn may grow to a good size. The explorer lies
there without name or headstone to mark his awful resting-place. The
mountain is his monument. He is alone with its majesty. He is there in
the clouds, in the tempests, where the lightnings play, and thunders
leap, amid the elemental tumult, in the occasional great calm and
silence and the pale sunlight. It is the most majestic, the most
lonesome grave on earth.

As we sat there, awed a little by this presence, the clouds were
gathering from various quarters and drifting towards us. We could watch
the process of thunder-storms and the manufacture of tempests. I have
often noticed on other high mountains how the clouds, forming like genii
released from the earth, mount into the upper air, and in masses of torn
fragments of mist hurry across the