The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1912-09-07

vious surveys; hence . large recon
noitering party was formed, composed
of Is men from the different parts OF
the Swannanoa river. The search was
continued up the banks OF the Caney
river, where each mountaineer branched
! out in individual search, and many days
and nights were thus spent in looking
for the lost astronomer, but spent in
vain. With a temperature Of d deg.
the mountain was completely envel-
oped in dense fog. IL seemed to one
hearing the account that the genii
of those vast mountain solitudes were
angered at the wanton intrusion, and
had invoked the storm god to enshroud
in deeper gloom the sad and mysteri-
GUS fate of their noble victim. After
longer search so more men of Bun
comb county joined in the hunt, real
izing that they were going now only
to rescue his mortal remains and give
to them Christian sepulture. On Sun
day following a signal shot from near
the summit proclaimed that the search
was nearing an end. AT one o'clock
that night, June 9th, the vanguard
returned and announced that the body
had been found. Mournfully, indeed,
those hardy titans Of the mountains
seated themselves around the smoul-
dering camp fire and on the trunks Of
fallen frs in the mellowed light OF q
glorious full moon, nigh seven thousand
feet above the waters Of the gulf, they
told their melancholy tale.
DR.. Mitchell, having reached the sum-
NIT, and having proved, rs his reckon
ings showed. that the peak was 6,7i1
feet high and, hence, the highest peak
in the Appalachians, was attempting to
return down the granite, moss-covered
precipice, when, losing his footing, he
fell into yawning basin below, whose
icy, yet pellucid, waters received him
in their bosom IA feet deep. There, face
upturned, quietly reposing with OUT
stretched hands lay the mortal remains
of Rev. Elisha Mitchell, d. D., the
good, the great, the wise, the simple
minded, the pure in heart, the instructor
of youth, the disciple OF knowledge.
the preacher of Christianity. No elegy
could be more eloquent since God bur-
led Moses on Nebo than the whispering
and soughing of the mountain zephyrs
through the pyramidal-gigantic frs
whose INTERVENING branches shut out
1.-The lights of heaven, while the many
hued rhododendron freighted the air
with their perfume, leaning, weepingly,
over the cataract Of water, and the crys-
tai streams tearfully gushed forth from
catabothra and 1eaped down the great,
gigantic, gray GRANTEES, all blending in
to one great threnody Of requiem over
the inanimate body of the great man
buried beneath.
The coroner from Asheville was sum-
moned on the morrow, and casket was
borne on the backs of these stalwart
linen up the steep of the mountain, while
hundreds OF mountaineers, informed by
semaphone, were assembling. Tmpa-
tient OF waiting, the coroner ordered
the body to be shrouded in n sheet and
suspended beneath a pole and to be
borne on the backs Of 10 men. Thus
the funeral train started upward to the
summit, as il to find sepulture for it
, there; but, on reaching the summit OF
the mountain, contending views sprang
| up, the mountaineers wanting the great
4 philosopher to be buried on the sum-
4 NIT, where his great spirit could keep
q vigil over the bleak gloominess that
sometimes enshrouds its summit, while
friends and family choose the eloistered
p seclusion of some yew trees shade In
It sacred cemetery. So, adown the noun
n tain side the great funeral procession
p swept towards Asheville, only for him
,, to rest there short while; for so So
= licitous were the demands of friends
g that on the 18th day of June, 1858, hi
e was removed to the very summit Of tho
: mountain that he measured and places
e in a great mausoleum of granite rock,
on the top of a God-raised mounc
,, higher than any grave on earth, and
/ over 5000 feet higher than the grave o.
Moses in dark Beth Peors rill, OF
J. Nebo's lonely mountain side.
D., have dweit at length on the pathetic
y story Of Mount Mitchell because here
tofore its tragic history has never been
b published, and l am desirous OF ou
+ young school children in Bay ST. Loui
}, knowing of it.
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAINS.
"A Among our most delightful outing
;. was day spent in climbing to the sum
"a NIT of geologically the oldest mountain
!. in the world-The Grandfather.
: This mountain is in plain view of on
= house, just over in North Carolina, an.
; is considerably over 5000 feet high
!, Geologically, it is production of tn,
!. Laurentian period, the rocks being In
neous and archaic. In appearance j
:. looks like a huge titan, resting in peace
: full repose, with his great face lookini
: heavenward. 1t seems an impossihs
!. task to climb to tho apex OF the rocS