The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-14

selves invisible. perhaps high over
head or in a gorge a thousand feet be-
low. The last two miles of road is
very steep, and the sure-footed mules
have plenty of work to do, but they
fairly bend to it. The driver, who,
like mOuntaineers in general, is a
man of few words, says, smighty
good road for mount'n." The plod-
ders on foot have the best of 1t.
From the top of the gap there is a
glorious view over the Vanderbilt
domain to the northward, and to the
southwark a view even into South
Carolina. Thus looked at, there is
apparently boundless expanse of vir-
gin forest. But the movement down
ward is begun, and in a quarter of
an hour the pilgrims are in the Pink
Beds, the heart of the forest. To
Mr.. Vanderbilt this is merely part of
his great woodland, but to the
mountaineer it is the Pink Beds, and
under the latter name it appears in
the geological maps. It is a sort of
tableland, between high and nearly
parallel ridges, threaded with
streams as bright as a looking glass,
all running in beds of solid stone, lit
orally like flights of steps, and which
seems like quicksilver as they flash
or fall from their lofty sources.
The origin of the name Pink Beds
is in dispute, it seems. It most prob
ably is derived from the colors of the
rhododendron, which is so profuse
as to make the country for miles
look in May and June like a con-
servatOry. The bushes on which
these rich-hued flowers grow form a
continuous tangle, save where the
great forest trees crowd them out.
One of the mOuntaineers, when
asked for his idea of the origin of
the name, said in a most prosaic man
ner, II don't rightly know where
the name comes from, but I have heard
'em say a man n time had a cow
here named Pink and she got begged
up in a M 'shy place and died there"
The Pisgah forest has cost Van
derbilt something like a quarter of
d million dollars, or about $3.50 an
acre. He has bought it in great or
small tracts as raidly as possible, and
now his rangers are the only deni-
zens. There are five of them, all
picked men of the mountains, of fine
physique, good riders and dead shots.
One of them comes to meet the pill
grims and look at their permit, which
is a very important piece of paper.
This forester, whose name is Kearns,
is "a type of the rangers, good
hUmored, tall and strong, we'll
mounted, with repeating rifle slung
at his back, saddle bags and puncho,
To him these mountain wilds are
like an open book, and upon him
and his associates a great and in
cessant responsibility devolves. They
must keep open the roads and the
trails, see that the boundary fence,
800 miles in length, is all right
keep out poachers, look after the
game and the trout, and always be
on the alert for timber stealers. The
pOrchers would come from near and
far to catch the trout, or rather to
kill them by exploding dynamite
cartridges in the deep pools where
the big fellows lurk or to kill the
deer, the grouse Cor p~heasants, as
they T known popularity or the
wild turkeys. At an incredible dis
lance the trained ear of the ranger
will hear the explosion of dynamite,
and he tracks the offender unerr-
lngly, even into other counties, and
once into Tennessee.
There are 265 miles of trail in this
forest, the trails leading alonsside