The times., 1899-09-10


Its Impressive Grandeur-A Pro-
test Agninst the Defaeins of Nature
There are mountain gaps and passes with
out number in Virginia, but only one Co /
shen Pass. Commodore Maurey's famous
saying, When l am dead, carry me
through Goshen Pass and may the laurel |
be in bloom tells more than volumes
could of the witchery and romantic beauty /
of this wonderful spot. With a full con-
seiousness that the real charm of this Pass
will elude any arrangement of descriptive
words the writer records his impressions
here.
Indeed, it is an occasion like this that
fills the painter with misgiyings, for
knowing as he does, the deplorab,e limi-
tations of his color-box, he is much less
confident of his command of words, for
they at best are not his medium of express
sion., However, if these lines inspire some
reader to make a journey through the
gorge. that will be reason enough for this
account of painters impressions OF his
first visit to this little known but won
derfully rich and attractive bit of nature
Goshen Pass
he was black as any negro, but with the
features Of mountaneer. He had a good
team of horses and farm wagon, and was
transporting car load of soft coal from
the station to the hotel Something in his
reply TO some casual question led the wri-
ter TO believe that he was a man of some
culture and a humorist. 1t ended in the
writer not going to the livery stable but
engaging him for drive through the Pass.
Jud. 0. McCutcheon. styled Mac, proved
delightful companion, q Confederate vet
eran full of "reminiscences. a hunter, farm
er; and he had set type, read proof. and
even contributed an occasional article to
the newspapers. Deeply interested in sci
entitic botany. full of wood lore and noun
tain stories, Mac is a study. In the hands
of a Westcote. he might prove as inter-
esting and become as famous as David
Harum." Mac introduced the writer TO
the mysteries of the Pass. and, though he
had walked through it and driven through
it at all hours and at all seasons, his en-
joyment was no less than that of the new
conner.
BEFORE the War.
Goshen Pass was famous in the old days.
The inimitable Colonel Strother Port
Crayon" in Harper's. speaks glowingly of
]
tour CT these mountains in a carriage, and
published his story and sketches. The Pass
was thoroughfare from the north and
west to Lexington and the James. An old
resident of Goshen relates that at one time
there were as many as twelve stage coaches
daily through the Pass, but the railroads
have changed all this and stages no longer
run over the route. One meets an oc-
casional mail carrier on horseback This
aIr Of tha nj
mains.
Through the Pass the Calfpasture River
crosses North Mountain to join South Riv-
er. which flows through the Lexington val
ley into the James near Balcony Falls.
Through the Pass.
Leaving the hotel early one morning
while mist was still lying in the valley and
overhead, one of those grey, threatening
skies so dear to an artist, Mac and the
writer started out for the Pass Turning
at the Victoria Furnace, a great iron es-
tabIishment, which, after a long silence
! is again making iron pigs from the crude
ore, the vehicle followed a little creek
! through a gap. Praising what | sup
posed TO be the entrance to the Pass, Mac
| chuckled, whereupon an explanation was
demanded. This amt no pass, this is
only the gap" he replied. After a couple
|
| Bells valley, one of those very fertile
thrifty spots so common in this mountain
region. A short mile across this level, and
we entered the Pass. The difference be-
tween a gap and a pass became apparent
at once. A gap is wide opening through
| a mountain range, while pass is a narrow
gorge or canyon. On either hand the noun
tain side rose . 900 feet and more, so steep
| in many places that only spruce and the
hardest pine could find foothold. In
| other places were towering rock cliffs,
scanned and worn by ages OF sun and feast.
| From these mountain sides blocks of stone
Of enormous size had fallen into the rayine
till the little stream Of sea- green water
had been choked up into charming pools.
| deep and clear broken by cascades of
snowy whiteness and fascinatingly fantas-
tic. The road, fine piece of engineering,
much Of the way is quarried out of the
solid rock, sometimes high up on the
| mountain From there, the view, though
beautiful. was often a bit terrible. The
road is level no ''sideling or rough places
| in it. perfectly secure, but beyond the edge
ii was in places impossible and sinister 1t
is no uncommon thing even now for travel
| ers TO meet black bear along this road, and
a tree is pointed out where wolves having
treed a man, kept him there all night
| When he was rescued by passers in the
morning the tree was seen to have been
gnawed nearly through by the yoracious
beasts, Wolves are rarely seen here now.
They have gone to Businesses deeper in the
mountains OF West Virginia and North
| Carolina.
GIimpses of Imposing scenery.
Now and again one gets glimpses up and
down this pass which make most dramatic
and Imposing pictures. With all its rug
ged grandeur, there is still an idyllic quail
ty in this sylvan rayine. It's ripping water
and charming scenery make il more delight
ful than any similar spot. At Paint Rock
on the French Broad, there are gIimpses
much like this, but Goshen Pass is mar
rover and more charming. Tuckerman' S
Rayine, in the White Mountains, is much
the same sort of narrow rocky gorge. but
il lacks the vegetation; it is rocky and
barren as a crater. The rich, variegated
growth, from silver lichens to velvet green
moss, laurel, big and little, TO poplar, oak
maple and spruce, with the grey of bare
rock, produce an infinite variety Of color
and though in August the scheme, green
and blue is for from monotonous The
effect of mist creeping up the noun
tain side and the fine, ragged line OF
iutting purple cliff and spruce trees
projected against this must be seen
TO be appreciated. In narrow gorge like
this. the effect is so concentrated that il
becomes immensely pictorial On every
hand IS laurel, big laurel" and little
laurel" as the natives speak of rhododen-
dron and the true mountain laurel These
hardy evergreens, with their tough, woody
stems tortured into every conceivable twist
| and turn cling 20 every creyice In the rocky
places where a little soil has lodged At
a point in the pass called Laurel Run, where