Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-07

now IN the latitude OF the Eratl, Dut SlAty
miles away as bird flies, and by the route
they must pursue, all of hundred. Turn
ing therefore their faces due west, they
forded the Swanannoa, and then the French
Broad, and struck again into never-trod-
den wilderness For here, so far as Is
known, man never had been, nor any Nv
ing thing, save the beasts of the forests.
And here again the wild creatures came
out to meet them-the startled deer, the
growing panther and the surly bear; the
meat of which last, seasoned with the salt
they carried in their knapsacks was their
favorite ration, varied only with parched
cornmeal. sweetened with maple sugar, of
which months supply was slung across
their saddles. By good fortune they soon
struck an open gorge, trending Westward
the Balsam gap, through which now runs
the road into this wild region. When
not upon the Walnut mountains they had
till then traversed country 1000 feet and
more above the sea; but now they were
constantly ascending till even the valleys
were at an altitude Of more than half a
mile. The air was clear and pure, and
laden with all the odors of the forest, and
the mountain streams were lmpld and
cool, and sparkling in their purity. If
man had only to minister to his physical
needs and admire the beauties of his
earthly habitation, this region would be
the spot wherein to doze away existence.
But Sewer had work in hand; consciously
or unconsciously he was acting an lmpor-
tant part in the great drama Of human
history, and, though this was but minor
act, he was intent upon the business before
him.
So, in the clear, unclouded sky of
spring, he climbed those rocky ways
twenty miles in day-till, at noon of the
tenth day from his leaving home, he came
to Clingman's Dome, where it rose, giant
earthquake-meund, right across his path
way. He had measured the distance by
the speed of his horse, and now he felt
sure that he was in the region of the
Erati In his view Thomas conceded,
but the old woodsman was at loss for
the bearing of the Indian towns. The
question could be answered only by as
cending the mountain, and from some
opening along its slope, ON the bald spot
upon its summit, obtaining view of the
surrounding country. A peculiar feature
of all these Smoky Mountains is these
bald spots on their tops, where scarcely
tree or bush grows but the soil is deep,
and the grass luxuriant. According to
the Indian tradition they are the foot
prints of the Great Spirit of Evil, left
there when he has come to the earth, and
stepped from mountain top TO mountain
top in the darkness, the lightning and the
thunder. One may not see why his
satanic lordship needs to go up so high to
get a view of this worlds wickedness; but
that he does. if Cherokee legend is to be
trusted.
The foot of man has never scaled Cling
mans Dome, but Sewer determined TO
climb its wooded slopes to its very sum-
nit, where it scars aloft, gigantic, cloud
piercing, higher than any peak but one
among the Appalachians, and from its lofty
hight looks down on all things not bounded
by the rotundity of this planet. His horse
and the bulk of his men he left at the base
of the slope, and then with Isaac Thomas,
climbed the steep and lofty mountain. Its
lower slopes are to this day clothed with
majestic forests of cherry, walnut and pop
lar; but, as one goes up, these giant trees
give way to slender pine, the scrub-oak
and the gnarled beech, and still higher up
somber balsam, tapering a hundred and
fifty feet towards the clouds As it is now,
so it was then, for the woodman had not
then, nor has he yet invaded these forest
solitudes. These different growths denote
different degrees of temperature, and when
one is at the summit he is in the climate
of Canada
The little party set out about noon, but |
it was after nightfall when they had |
climbed to the top of the mountain. Mid
way up they came to q cloud which |
drenched them like fine rain but when |
they arrived at the summit the sky was |
clear, and the moon and the stars were
shining. They had assembled above the |
clouds, which now oyerhung the earth and
forest with wide pail of inky blacknesS,
shutting all below from their vision. The
summit was carpeted with deep green
sward, thinly sprinkled with heather and
rhododendron. | do not know that the
idea occurred to them, but once in a SINH
lar position it seemed to me that | was cut
off from the earth, and floating almost
alone on green island through the infn-
lite spaces of creation.
1t was not long before an occasional
CLEAN lit up the cloud, followed by low,
rumbling thunder Soon the CLEANS be-
came flashing sheets of fire, zig-zagging
VIC NSBsc IlttSS, anu dNdkSlllIS
echoes as loud as an explosion of a thou
skirmish fire, this last the discharge of
warning battalions. Quicker and louder
they grew, till the whole world below was
in fiery commotion-fash followed fash,
and each fash revealing cloudy sea, in
which the black mountain-peaks around
seemed like islands in some fearfully dis
turbed ocean,
AT the hight of the storm the cloud be-
low was a rolling flame, casting light
like that of day upon the bare mountain
tops and the tall balsams that grew near
their SUBMITS. These men had seen
Kings mountain, its volleys of fire, and
the sulphurous flame that girdled the hill
in the crisis of the conflict, but what was
that, or any struggle of puny man, to this |
fearful battling of the elements? If one |
would learn mans place in nature" he |
should witness some such storm from the |
summit of high mountain, the world be- |
low wrapped in flame and he standing, as |
it were, in the very presence of the In
finite. After a time the storm broke, the |
cloud flew away, and then these men, look |
ing down, beheld the camp fires of their |
comrades at the foot of the mountain. The |
men below were drenched by the storm, |
while the blankets of those above were as
dry as if the rain had never fallen Wrap
ping these about them, they soon sank |
into such sleep as is apt to follow hard |
riding.
The morning sun disclosed to Sewer a |
scene of unparalleled magnifcence. He was
in wilderness of mountains. Directly in |
front of him rose thirty-three peaks, all |
5000 feet or more above the sea, and some
of them several hundred feet higher than |
Mount Washington, while farther away
were the Black and Bald mountains the |
blue ridge, the Balsam Cowee, and the |
Hantihala ranges and the tall Unakas, in |
terspersed with lower ridges and broken by |!
deep valleys, and all bathed in sea of |
green that shown in the sun like FURNISHED |
copper. For 200 miles in every direction |
the country was open to his vision. 1t lay
at its feet in one vast forest-fringed pano-
rama rolling ocean Of verdure. Far
away at the northeast, where the deep
green of the woods melted into misty |
purple, he could trace the courses of the
Holston, the Watauga and his own Noli-
chucky, and, nearer by, the silyery wind |
ings OF the Tennessee, as it rushed past the