Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-07-26
KIN 9lURSDAY MDRN1N@a Jg1hY 49, 1884,
nearest resemblance to ours that day, becomes
from habit quite easy and agreeable.

nearest resemblance to ours that day, becomes
from habit quite easy aud agreeable.
The extreme summit OF the peak is composed
| Of some huge fragments Of bare rock, piled on
each other, and looking as if they had been trans
ported thither TO give the spectator a more com
handing outlook. Before we reached the base
of these rocks, the forest growth had dwindled
into dwarfish trees; but exactly at their feet we
met again with very beautiful shrubs Of the rho
dedendrum. six or eight feet high, aud just be-
ginning to fower,--the blossoms of rose color,
mixed with darker red. inclinlng to purple. The
beautiful flowers Of this shrub, are hardly more
beautiful than its leaves Of glossy dark green on
the upper side, but lighter beneath, aud which
radiate in stars from the stem. On the same spot
we found splendid plant of the Azaea or Up
right Honey-Sucke, taller than our heads, load.
ed with the most perfect flowers, Of a delicate
red, and an exquisite odor, perceptible for many
yards round The wild raspberry was abundant
on the same spot.
A thin, cold wind swept round the summit OF
this aerial citadel. Heated as We were by the
clambering of the last hour, it chilled US to the
heart, and made few mouthfuls of raw brandy
by no means unpleasing even to my temperate
palate The Peaks Of Otter are said by Mr..
Jefferson to be the highest ground in Virginia,
who computed their elevation at four thousand
feet above the sea. find this estimate reduced
several hundred feet by other writers, whether
from measurement or not | do not recollect.-
We must have commenced our ascent of the
Ridge at an elevation several hundred feet above
tide; we were at least three hours in ascending
to the plateau. and an hour more In climbing
foot 10 the summit Of the Peak; and though
fifth of the time may be allowed for taking breath,
yet, on the other hand, the path winds but very
little. Our descent to the plateau took Us half
an hour. exclusive Of stoppages, and for good
part of the distance we ran, as the least incon-
venient mode of descent.
The prospect from this elevated and insulated
point is, you may suppose, unbounded in SOME dL
rections. Towards the west it is somewhat shut
in by the range of the Blue Ridge. The rocky
apex on which we stood, was formerly few feet
higher thanat present. till some idle persons of the
neighborhood. by way of frolic, priced the up
per portion from its place with levers. This
pcct Of considerable part of the valley west Of
the Blue Ridge. A vast panorama remains how
ever, of diameter Of ninety miles, the sinking
line Of the Blue Ridge being visible for more than
hundred. But though this prospect astonshes
the eye bv its ENTHUSIASTICALLY perhaps the
Imagination still more,-I should perhaps charac-
terIze il as more extraordinary than sublime
The sublimity, at least, is that of space; not Of
holiness, for, at this great elevation, other lofty
objects seem to dwindle. The round woody sum.
mits,-the usual features in the Allegheny range,
swelling unfortunately one afterthe other, with
their dusky green foliage deepening into blue in
the distance, we could scarcely forbear fancying
to be AN agiaed ocean, just after the fury Of the
! storm has subsidized MANY mountains that we
knew to be of several hundred feet elevation.
here hardly seemed to rise out Of the plain; the
cultivated farms were shrunk into moderate fields
But great portion of the view was over wood.
lands. which, traversed by no rivers, which so
beautifully open the recesses OF our forest, and
diversified BY no villages spread out in ilimtabe
solitude. Eastward, where we knew the cult
walton to be most considerable, the evelness of
the country, combined with the predominance Of
the forests, shut out the cultivated portions from
the eve: and though the prospect on this side was
boundless, it was monOtOnous. We felt sensi-
bly, the absence of villages from the Virsinian
landscape. We had but part Of the poets wish
embodied:
Mine be the hut
That, from the moun'sin's side.
Views wi.ds and swelling floods,