The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-06-06
MORE ABOUT BALD MOUNTAIN.
The Crack Is Tound-Nos q volcanic Erup-
ton, but only R,Land Slide.
Ffons Me Charleston Ne,rs and Courier

3ss A week age, the people of the United
States--from Maine to California-were
startled by the appearance of the follow
ing piece of information, which was dis:
tri61ted broadcast over the land through
the medium of the Associated Press dis
patches:
aAsAEvTLLE, N. c., MAJ 20-Two
4 years ago residents of this section of the
famous Bald. Mountain were thrown into
great CONSERVATION by continual rumb-
i!ngs and inexplicable noises heard in
: the bowels of the immense mountain.
The phenomena attracted the. attention
of scientific menSin all parts Of the
country. The rum5lings lasted for about
two weeks and then ceased. They had
the effect of rendering the real estate in
the neighborhood, that had been valua-,
Bile, almost worthless, and The inhabitants
hastened to move from the neighborhood
of Che mysterious mountain. Last Fri
day night the noises began again; the
mountain shook as, in the throes of an
earthquake, immense trees and rocks
were hurled down the mountain side,
and sounds like intermittent thunder
were heard during the night. This
morning those who yentured near saw.
chat the mountain had been literally
split in twain, leaving a chasm of three
hundred feet inilength and from eight to
ten feet in width So far as has been
ascertained the chasm is sbottomless
abyss. AS yet no smoke or lava has been
I thrown from the. crater but early in the
morning there was strong smell of sui
phur about the placer
The strange tidings were received by
some with alarm, by others with curiosity,
and BY others yet with positive incredu-
lity. The latter class, being perhaps by
= far the largest felt strong enough to In
sinuate openly that the strongest smell
about the whole matter bore q suspicious
sxesemlk lklance to the allegorfcal odor Of a
: rat, and very large rat ut that. The
Columbia, orfeSpondent Of the Ne,rs and
C6arir read the foregoing item Wednes--
day morning at 10 o'clock, feeling but
laDguid interest, at most, in q matter
Z which so little concerned him. "A few
minutes later, however, d telegram was
handed him bearing the peremptory
command go and interview Bald
i Mountain for the Ne,rs and Courier p
= and by Ii o'clock he was miles, away
tfroEA Columbia on the Greenville Rail-
road, en- route to the presence of his
latest, largest and most distinguished
victim. &
Speaking in the first person, / arrived
at Spartanburg Wednesday night, on my
way to She mountains, with mo better
idea of its whereabouts than, that it was
spur Of the Blue Ridge, and lay within
the limits of North Carolina. Diligent
inquiry in Spartanburg, however, soon
discovered the facts that it was fifty
miles to the EnorthWard !; that it was ut
terly inaccessible from any point OF the
unfinished railroad beyond the town, and
thai there was no way to. reach it except
s. to, trsyel across the country by private
conveyance over rough mountain road.
! For my further encouragement i was re-
Z liably informed that the whole story of
: the eruption was hoax, and II. support
of this statement vas referred to noun
tainesr Just arrived from the disturbed
district, who confirmed. the assertion by
declaring that se bad '9eftthe mounting
only a day or swo before, and he hadn't
= never hearp tell of no crack anywheres
z in it" This seemed enough; but 4 had
started for the purpose of seeing "tbe
crack" or the place where it was not,
and ] had no alternative but to go; SO
must. ~
MIR. r. i. Taylor, of Spartanburg,
kindly consented to accompany me for
: the purpose of showing the road with
which he was familiar. Mr.. Carrier
furnished a double buggy with two
handsome bays TO draw it. Mr.. Byrd
supplied us with creature comforts in
approved formtto sustain us on the route,
and Col. Farrow and other friends gave
us a abenediction and a God.speed as we
: drove off. BY 8 o'clock Thursday morn.
ing Spartanburg was league behind us,
and we we're fairly on our way to con-
y front the awful unknown dangers of the
newly discovered original and only vol
canoin all the United States and Terri
tories.
OF the days ride it is not necessary, to
speak at length. It was mountain
road, and though I am not a profane
man, there are chords which mountain
road is well calculated to jar, which srere
! Jared quite frequently, and which / can
z now afford to let rest for 2 year or two. to
come The sky was overcast, the air was
3 pleasantly cool, the old fields were COW
y cred as by a mantle Of cloth-of-gold, with
: myriads of little wild flowers of most
brilliant yellow hue; hundreds of birds
sang in the woodlands; at intervals the
landscape was varied by a succession Of
green wheat fields, hundreds of acres in
extent, sud, through it all the rough road
ran like the path of duty through the
Garden of Paradise, and along this road
We passed, stumbling necessarily, in our
poor human fashion, until night came
and fell upon the scene, and ended our
troublons, hating journey.
During the day We! caught occasional
and transient glimpses of the mountains
in the far distant, but the atmosphere
was so hazy that the view was more tan
talizing than otherwise, and for the most
part it was next to impossible to distin-
gnish the line which separated the gray
rolling hills from the gray rolling clouds
above them. How soft and pillowy the
!. great mounds seemed to be when viewed
afarofFl Verify upon them the tired
Titans might have stretched their gigan-
tic limbs after that futile skirmish with
the powers that were and have slept
tseeminglyl as though couched upon
bills of eider-down |! And yeti have
# from the lips of q uountaineer who
dwells among them and d'who must there
fore have known whereof he spoke-and
We. from those fair. and false heights at
times the most terrific storms rush down
upon the peaceful valleys below t1ike a
whirligull of pecker-woods?" Isn't it
awful to think of storm coming down
like that! "Whirligull," / may remark,
isa noun Of multitude, and is restricted
in its application to the "pecker-wood"
\ variety Of birds, just as one would say a
adroyen of turkeys, "covey" of par
tridges, a "fock" Of geese, "gang" of
rice. birds q atroop" of cranes. &c. &c.