The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-02-18

For The 4Egis d LnteHgeacer.
THE HERMIT HUNTER OF WHITE TOP
MOUNTAIN.


MEssRs. EDITORS Having plodded
along with my "Recollections ofthe Olden
Time" till your readers must have grown
weary with the monotony of the subject,
and your own patience driven to a point
beyond which that emotion "ceases to be a
virtue" have thought it might be a re-
lief both to them and yourselves, to shift
the scenes, and give you an imperfect pen
picture of White Top Mountain and Will
burn Waters, the great Hermit Hunter of
that wild and romantic region. What l
may have to say of the mountain and the
man may be regarded as strictly accurate,
as | shall describe from actual personal
observation in frequent visits to the spot,
and in social intercourse with the hermit
himself in his own rude wigwam and
around his blazing campfire. Twill first
try to give you description of the noun
tain.
White Top is an isolated peak in the
grand Appalachian range, here more tamil-
iarly known by the local name Of Iron
Mountain, and near the point where the
three States of Virginia, North Carolina
and Tennessee all unite at Il common corner.
1t is about 90 miles from Abingdon by an
air line, though perhaps 30 by the intricate
bride path through intervening noun
tains, and within the scope of natural Wis
ion from where l am now writing. Until
within few years, comparatively, owing
to its inaccessibility, it was almost in its
primeval state, and visited only by hunters
and trappers, and here and there "squat-
ter" who may have fled to its Businesses
to evade those penal enactments which out
laws usually deem oppressive. 1t is some
5000 feet high from base to summit, and
1000 feet above the level of the sea. Its
summit is vast field, comprising from to
500 acres, without bush or shrub, and
covered with luxuriant growth of wild
grass, resembling that of our Northwestern
prairies, which is highly nutritious, and is
cropped with Unsuitable avidity by vast
herds of stock, driven there from the
neighboring settlements to Craze and fat
ten. During the months of May and June
this field, as well as large portion of the
wooded part of the mountain, is gorgeous
ly carpeted with wild flowers of every i'm
aginable hue, and so fragrant that their
perfume is often waited a considerable
distance on the wings of the wind, which
sometimes sweeps across the broad field
like the dying throes of a hurricane, with
fitful shrieks of wild and melancholy
music.
Bordering this natural field are great
numbers of wild gooseberry and currant
bushes, which yield their acrid fruits in
never-failing abundance, and the wild
leopard-lily, sprihging from its rocky bed
sways to and fro, and scatters its rich per
fume, as the blast sweeps by. Upon the
very summit, various springs of ice-cold
water gush from the rocks and leap down
the declivities, babbling their wild music
as they disappear among magnificent rho
dodendrons and the dazzling crimson OF
the Indian pink. These waters are so pure
and light, that they never Cypress, no mat
ter how freely the thirsty visitor may quaf
them. l once tested their temperature, and
found it to be At degrees, or IL degrees
colder, presume, than the coolest spring
in Hartford
"The field of which l have spoken, is
bordered by very singular as we'll as very
beautiful growth of timber, known in this
region by the name of lashorn. Some Of
these trees grow to an immense height, but
generally are not more than from 80 to Sc
feet high, and the most remarkable thing
about them is, that, where not crowded
they are perfectly flat on top, spreading
out to diameter of from Is to 30 feet
1t is species of and very much resembles
the Norway Spruce, an ornamental tree
sometimes found in the yards of our more
elegant city residences. The lashorn Of
White Top is peculiar to that locality, and
of the thousands that have been transplant
ted, not one has ever been known to grow,
though some have lived few years. The
limbs at the top where they spread out arc
so tenacious and inflexible, and so closely
interlaced, that have seen as many as
twenty persons standing and stepping
about upon the top Of the same tree at the
same time. 1t is very easy to ascend and
descend, as the limbs begin at the ground,
and being cut off about foot from the