The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-08-10
Written for The PROGRESSIVE FGTmer.1
Thunder Clap HOller.

by a correspondent of q Northern pa
per. In it, he stated, is a wonderful
gorge where no sounds can be heard
the firing Of a pistol and your own
voice, however loud you try to bawl,
makes no noise whatever. As we have
a gorge in the vicinity of the Black
Mountains OF our own State, the ex
act antithesis of the Yellow Stone one,
which magnifies sound at a wonderful
rate, it may be of interest to some of
your readers to give a description of it.
Accompanied by two companions I
repaired to the Black Mountain last
summer to rough it for month or so.
We went we'll prepared with camp
equipage and provisions, and having
procured a guide, we pitched our first
camp upon a creek-side, reputed to be
a fine trout stream. One Sunday while
we were lounging listlessly about the
camp, our guide proposed the question:
Wouldn't you'rns like to see Thunder
Clap HollerG" and then gave q descrip-
ton Of the wonderful phenomena he
ned witnessed there, which aroused
our curiosity sufficiently to undertake
the trip (sbout five miles from camp,
although we had little faith in the fel.
fellows account. After a rough and
tiresome scramble over innumerable
spurs with steep sides we reached the
spot designated, and a wonderful for
nation it vas irrespective Of the mar
velous nature of the interior as depic
ted by the guide Before we entered
the 'Holler" we paused on a spot that
gave q good view of a greater portion
Of the interior, in order to contemplate
the formation 80 wonderful in itself.
We could see sufficiently we'll from
our standpoint to give US quite a correct
conception OF the surface conforma-
ton of the "Holler" we were about to
enter. The contour Of the entire gorge
(about one mile in length and a third
of q mile wide in the middle) if con-
tinued or projected overhead to OBJ
scure the daylight, would form an al
most perfect oblate e~llipsoid, as though
a colossal egg had been used as mould
and then withdrawn, leaving it's shape
behind, with large openings at either
end, and a good slice out of the top Of
the ellipsoid, through which a pretty
wide streak of blue sky could be dis
cerned from below. The sides of the
gorge would thus conform to the
curves of an ellipsoid with overhang
ing precipices on either side bounded
by the skyline OF the opening over
head. It will he thus observed that
the gorge was constructed by nature
upon acoustic principles, so that it in
tensifes instead of d~eadening sound
like that of the Yellow Stone Park.
Having made these preliminary obser-
vations, we addressed ourselves to the
object OF u tramp and entered
Thunder Clap Holler."
We soon found ourselves at the n.
trance, and before we had advanced
half q dozen PAGES we were perfectly
deafened by a tornado of confused,
. heterogeneous sounds-s0unds that in
the way Of ear piercing intensity we
had never before the least conception
Of. 1t seems that pandemonium had
been turned loose, and all the devils of
] nades were there yelling out Of speak
ing trumpets. II was some time before
we could get our ears sufficiently &C
customed to the tremendous intensity
of the sounds to distinguish between
them. We were, at first, struck by,
and attracted to, a deafening sound
that emanated from beneath our feet
ard caused ua considerable alarm, but
upon investigation proved to be the re-
suit Of our own foot falls, which, in
this wonderful gorge, sounded like the
tread of SO many CycloEs' shod with
iron sabots. While proceeding, we all
lnvoluntarlly jumped aside as if toavoid
being crushed by a dislodged rock we
imagined to berolling down the eide Of
the gorge, bu5 seeing that our alarm
arose from no such danger, we were at
a loss to account for the sound which
had not ceased. At this juncture, l
discovered a cricket crawling away to
our left, end soon found out that the
obi ct of our alarm was nothing o
nor less than the dislodgement OF a
gravel by the cricket that now and
then rolled down in his wake! After
this adventure, we had not proceeded
but a few steps before an extremely
/ disagreeabIe rasping, scraping sound,
resembling that OF a gigantic file
sharpening the teeth OF a gigantic saw
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