The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-02-01

could possibly Judge. Added to the diff
ficulty had previously experienced, OF
making my way through the dense, over
hanging boughs of the balsams, now
encountered another, and in many in
stances. far greater. This was from
the numerous dead balsams that had
fallen against the others, and in some
places completely barred my way. had
repeatedly to crawl upon my hands and
knees, and often to throw my body fiat
upon the ground and work my way
through. / had proceeded mile or
more in this manner, as near as could
judge, when / came suddenly upon q
kind of clearing, apparently made by
the uprooting of several large trees in a
storm. Here l was enabled to got my
first glimpse of the sun, since entering
the balsam forests. I glanced at my
watch. 1t was now past two o'clock, and
the sun was already incliuing towards
the west.
Directly in front ofme, could see the
bold, somewhat bare, outlines of peak
which / recognized at once, from it's pc
culiar shape, as "Potato Top" an outly.
ing spur of the Blacks. AS the noun.
taineer whose home / had left in the
morning lived on the north side of this
peak, l had now some little idea as to
my whereabouts. 1t was utterly use.
less, as well as foolhardy, l soon recog.
nized to attempt to reach Mount Mitchell
that day. This peak was not even in
sight, and as far from me, | now real.
lied, as when had first begun the as.
cent of the range. My more sensible,
and decidedly safer, plan was to try to
find my way back to my late hosts cabin,
since l now had some idea as to it's di-
rection.
Leaving the sun directly on my left,
/ faced about, and again entered the
balsam thickets. i now found them not
quite esoimpenetrable as before, although
it still required no little amount of skill
full engineering to work my way through
them. / seemed to be going up all the
time, rather a steep incline at that,
which made my task the more arduous.
Every now and then huge rock would
loom up in front of me. Sometimes /
had to climb directly over the top of
these, and again to make my way eau
tiously around some dangerously pro-
jecting ledge.
The hands of my watch pointed to five
o'clock, and had been for nearly three
hours again wandering in the balsams,
as hopelessly perplexed as before, when,
just as l had fallen forward upon a
spongy bed of moss, utterly despairing,
/ caught the sound Of softly falling
water. / had eaten nothing since my
early start of the morning, with the ex-
ception of a small piece of corn-dodger
and fried bacon, the mountaineer's in
evitable daily diet. So great had been
my distress of mind for the past six or
seven hours, all thought of hunger had
been completely driven away, although
| had long ago become aware that l was
suffering terribly from thirst. The sound
of the trickling water therefore re-
minded me again, and most forcibly, of
this want. soon found the tiny stream,
making it's way from a fissure in the
huge rock near where had thrown my
self.
My thirst slaked, and small portion
of my lunch partaken of, was prepar-
ing to start off once more on what / now
realized, only too painfully, was hope.
less sort of wandering, when thought
struck me with sudden hopefulness.
would follow the course of the stream.
Surrounded as the range was with nu-
merous large watercourses, nearly every
one of which had its source near the
submits of the peaks, did not doubt
that this tiny trickle was the head.
waters of some one of the numerous
creeks in the valley below. / had much
difficulty at first in tracing out the
thread-like flow of water, but gradually
it grew more and more distinct, till,
finally, / had all that | could do to
maintain my footing upon the slippery
rocks and roots along its course.
Very soon my further progress was ar
rested by what seemed to be the edge of
a precipice of no small extent, for the
water fell with considerable sound to
what judged was pool below. The
or mountain laurel,
fringed it's edges with thick tangle,
while above, the great balsam frs. in
terlocked their boughs.
was cautiously approaching the edge
of the precipice for the purpose of
glancing over, when a treacherous rock
gave way beneath NE, and the next mo-
ment / felt myself plunging downward
with that horrible sensation one on
periences when falling into space. My
feet struck the water, when, with a sud-
den, terrible shock, felt my further
course arrested.
Stunned and rendered senseless as
was, for the first few minutes, by the
terrific force with which my downward
plunge had been checked, it was some
little time ere recovered sufficient con-
sciousness to take note of my surround
ings and of my own situation.
When / did so, i discovered that in
falling the roll made by my blanket had
caught in the bare, projecting spur of
dead balsam that lay top downward in
the pool. 1t was yeritable monarch of
the forest, with huge trunk gray with
age and almost branchless. What was
now the upper portion, with the roots
attached, rested securely against the
topmost edge of the precipice, while the
other end was buried deep in the pool.
The pool itself was about twenty-five OF
thirty feet across, and of considerable
lepth as judged by its dark, still-look-
ing surface.
To unbuckle straps that held the
blanket across my shoulders was the
work of but few moments when once ]
had recovered possession of my facul-