wer. After it passed, the visitors tried to reach Eagle
Cliff, two miles off, whence an extensive western prospect is had, but
were driven back by a tempest, and rain practically occupied the
day. Now and then through the parted clouds we got a glimpse of a
mountain-side, or the gleam of a valley. On the lower mountains, at wide
intervals apart, were isolated settlements, commonly a wretched cabin
and a spot of girdled trees. A clergyman here, not long ago, undertook
to visit some of these cabins and carry his message to them. In
one wretched hut of logs he found a poor woman, with whom, after
conversation on serious subjects, he desired to pray. She offered no
objection, and he kneeled down and prayed. The woman heard him, and
watched him for some moments with curiosity, in an effort to ascertain
what he was doing, and then said:

"Why, a man did that when he put my girl in a hole."

Towards night the wind hauled round from the south to the northwest, and
we went to High Bluff, a point on the north edge, where some rocks are
piled up above the evergreens, to get a view of the sunset. In every
direction the mountains were clear, and a view was obtained of the vast
horizon and the hills and lowlands of several States--a continental
prospect, scarcely anywhere else equaled for variety or distance. The
grandeur of mountains depends mostly on the state of the atmosphere.
Grandfather loomed up much more loftily than the day before, the giant
range of the Blacks asserted itself in grim inaccessibility, and we
could see, a small pyramid on the southwest horizon, King's Mountain in
South Carolina, estimated to be distant one hundred and fifty miles. To
the north Roan falls from this point abruptly, and we had, like a map
below us, the low country all the way into Virginia. The clouds lay like
lakes in the valleys of the lower hills, and in every direction were
ranges of mountains wooded to the summits. Off to the west by south lay
the Great Smoky Mountains, disputing eminence with the Blacks.

Magnificent and impressive as the spectacle was, we were obliged to
contrast it unfavorably with that of the White Hills. The rock here is a
sort of sand or pudding stone; there is no limestone or granite. And
all the hills are tree-covered. To many this clothing of verdure is most
restful and pleasing. I missed the sharp outlines, the delicate artistic
sky lines, sharply defined in uplifted bare granite peaks and ridges,
with the purpl