Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-03-21

null, anu Iu0n "a, 90
cended the Walnut Mountains-a track
less waste of rock and tangled forest,
with not a path nor a trail nor even
trace bazed by a passing hunter.
Thenceforward his way for more than
100 miles lay through a wilderness,
where human foot had scarcely trod.
and man was SO strange a sight that
even the timid deer and wild rabbit
came out from their coverts to gaze on
the cavalcade as it passed.
cover fallen trees and through mat
ted underbrush the over-mountaln
men held their way, now scaling some
huge slippery rock, now t1ounderlng
some steep stony ravine, where one
| false step of his horse might plunge the
rider down headlong; and at the end of
twenty miles from Warm Springs they
came to the Ivy, mountain torrent then
| 200 feet wide and rushing to the French
Broad with the speed of frightened
| animal.
''Its waters were too deep to ford,
and the furious current would have APP
| palled even the boldest swimmer; but
these skillful horsemen plunged fear
| lessly into the torrent, and, though
swept nearly 1000 feet down the
stream, gained the opposite bank in
safety.
"Then their way lay through less
| broken country, over gently rolling
hills, gradually descending and sloplng
southward-the home now of the fra
grant golden leaf of fame among to-
bacco smokers. Till then the French
cliffs, but soon they came to sloping
banks, along which they wound for an
other twenty miles till they arrived at
| the Swanannoa-'the river of the dane
| ing waters'-not far from the present
town of Asheville. They were now in
the latitude of the Erati, but sixty miles
away as bird flies, and by the route
they must pursue all of a hundred.
Turning therefore their faces due west,
they forded the Swanannoa, and then
the French Broad, and struck again
into never-trodden wilderness. For
here, so far as it is known, man had
never been, nor any living thing. save
| the beasts of the forest. 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 corn meal sweetened
with maple sugar of which a month s
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 halt mile. The air here is
clear and pure, and laden with all the
odors of the forest, and the mountain
streams are limpid and cool, and spark
ling in their purity. If man had only
to minister to his physical needs, and
to admire the beauties of his earthly
habitation, this would be the spot
wherein to doze away existence. But
Sewer had work in hand; consciously
or unconsciously he was acting an i'm
portant part in the great drama of bu-
man history, and, though this was but
minor act, he was intent on the business
before him.
$50, in the clear, uncloudy sky of
spring, he climbed those rocky ways
twenty miles in a day-till, at noon of
the tenth day from his leaving home,
he came to Clingman's Dome, where it
rose, giant earthquake mound, right
across his pathway. He had measured
the distance by the speed of his horse,
and now he felt sure he was in the re-
gion of the Erati. In this view Thomas
conceded, but the old woodsman was at
a loss for the bearing Of the Indian
towns. The question could be an
swered only by ascending the noun
tain, and from some opening along its
slope, on the bald spot upon its summit,
obtaining a view of the surrounding
country. A peculiar feature OF all these
Smoky Mountains is their bald spots on
their tops, where scarcely a tree or
bush grows, but the soil is deep, and
the grass luxuriant. According to the
Indian tradition they are the footprints
of the Great Spirit of Evil, left there
when he has come to The earth, and
strobe 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 view OF this worlds
wickedness; but this he does, if Chero~
kee legend is to be trusted.
''TLe foot of man had never scaled
Clingman's Dome, but Sewer deter
mined to climb its wooden slopes to its
very summit, where it scars aloft, gil
gantic, cloud piercing, higher than any
peak but one among the Appalachians,
and from its lofty height 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,
and half dozen others, Sewer climbed
the steep and lofty mountain. It's lower
slopes are to this day clothed with ma
jestic forests Of cherry, walnut and pop
lar, bat, as one goes up these giant trees
give way to the slender pine, the scrub
oak and the gnarled beech, and still
up the sombre balsam, tapering $50 feet
toward the clouds. AS it is now, so it
was then, for the woodman had not
then, nor has he yet invaded these for
est solitudes. These different growths
denote different degrees of tempera-
ture, and when one is at the summit he
is in the climate of Canada.
1.-The little party set out about noon,
but it was after nightfall when they had
climbed to the top of the mountain:
Midway up they came into cloud
which drenched them like fine rain;
but when they arrived at the summit,
| the sky was clear, an the moon and
stars were shining. They had assembled
hove the clouds which now OVarhUnp