Farewell Letter
Air. I .;m
шли
Minis up Ihu inoiitlis of
lrnv«‘l «hi horseback llirougli wonl-
ern C arolina in 1818.
Hi I (II \hm:s lawman
Elizabclhlon, I cnnc»cc
June. 1848
LETTER XIX
The prominent circumstance at¬
tending my journey from the North
Cose to this plaec was. that it brought
me out of the great mountain wildcr-
ncss of Georgia and Notth Carolina
into a well-cultivated and more level
country. For two months past have I
spent my days on horseback, and the
majority of my nights in the rudest of
cabin»; and as 1 am now to continue
my journey in a stagecoach, it is meet
that I should indue a general letter,
descriptive of the region through which
I have passed In coming from Dah-
loncga to this place. 1 have travelled
in a zigzag course upwards of four
hundred miles, but the intervening dis¬
tance. in a direct line, would not
measure more than two hundred. The
entire country is mountainous, and for
the most pan remains in its original
state of nature. To the botanist and the
geologist, this section of the Union is
unquestionably the most interesting
eastward of the Mississippi, for we
have here nearly every variety of for¬
est trees known in the land, as well
as plants and flowers in the greatest
abundance, while the mountains,
which are of a primitive formation,
abound in every known variety of
minerals. That the scenery of this re¬
gion is highly interesting. I hope
my readers have already been con¬
vinced. More beautiful streams can n<v
where be found on the face of
the earth. But. when we come to speak
of lake scenery, the South must yield
the palm to the North Not a single
sheet of water deserving the name
of lake have I yet seen in this South¬
ern land, and yet every mountain
seems to be well supplied with the larg¬
est and the coldest of springs. 1 know
not but this fact has been explained
by our scientific men. but to me it is
indeed a striking peculiarity. The val¬
leys. too. of this region, arc remark¬
ably narrow, and the majority of them
might with more propriety be called
immense ravines. The skies, however.
which canopy this Alpine land, ap¬
peared to me to be particularly Nue.
and as to the clouds which gather
around the mountains at the sunset
hour, they arc gorgeous beyond com¬
pare
With regard to climate. 1 know of
no section of country that can be com¬
pared with the highlands of Georgia
and North Carolina. It is but seldom
that a foot of snow covers the earth
even in the severest winters; and.
though the day» of midsummer arc
very warm, they arc seldom sultry,
and the nights are invariably suf¬
ficiently cool to make one or two
blankets comfortable. Fevers and other
diseases peculiar to the sea-side of
the Allcghanics are hardly known
among their inhabitants, and hereto¬
fore the majority of people have died
of old age. I would not intimate that
they arc afflicted with an epidemic
at the present time, but I do sav that
there are many households in this re¬
gion. which have been rendered very
desolate by the Mexican war. When
our kingly President commanded the
American people to leave the plough
in the furrow and invade a neighbor¬
ing republic, the mountaineers of
Georgia and the Carolinas poured
down into the valley almost without
bidding their mothers, and wives, and
sisters a final adieu; and the bones of
at least one lull of these brave men
arc now mouldering away on the des¬
ert sands of the far South.
Generally speaking, the soil of this
country is fertile, yielding the best of
corn, potatoes, and rye. but only an
average quality of wheat, on account
of the late
(пЫ*.
Im some of the
more extensive valleys, the apple and
the peach arrive at perfection; and
while the former are manufactured
into cider, out of the latter the moun¬
taineers make a wry palatable bran-
Note: This it the concluding Idler
in a series taken from lie old tras-el
hook: “ Letters front the Alleghany
Mountains."
dy. The principal revenue of the
people, however, is derived from the
business of raising cattle, which iv
practised to a considerable extent.
The mountain ranges afford an abun¬
dance of the sweetest grazing food,
and all that the farmer has to do in
the autumn is to hunt up his stock,
which have now become excessively
fat. and driw them to the Charleston
or Baltimore market. The only draw¬
back to this business consists, in the
fact that the cattle in certain sections
of the country are subject to what is
called the milk sickness. This disease
is supposed to N: caused by a poison¬
ous dew which gathers on the grass,
and is said not only to have destroyed
a great many cattle in other years,
but frequently caused the death of
entire families who may have par¬
taken of l lie unwholesome milk. It
is a dreaded disease, and principally
fatal in the autumn. From the fore¬
going remarks it will be seen that a
mountain farmer may be an agricul-
lunst. and yet have an abundance of
time to follow any other employment
that he has a passion for; and the re¬
sult of this fact is. that he is generally
a faithful disciple of the immortal
Nimrod.
All the cabins that I have visited
have been ornamented by at least one
gun, and more than one-half of the in¬
habitants have usually been hounds.
Tlial the mountaineers are poor, is a
matter of course, and the majority of
their cabins are cheerless places in¬
deed to harbor the human frame for
life; but the people are distinguished
for their hospitality, and always
place before the stranger the choicest
of their store. Bacon, game, and milk
are their staple articles of food, and
honey is their principal luxury. In reli¬
gion. generally speaking, they arc
Methodists and Baptists, and arc dis¬
tinguished for their sobriety. They
have but few opportunities of hearing
good preaching, but I have never en¬
tered more than three or four cabins
where 1 did not see a tops of the Bible.
The limited knowledge they possess has
come to them directly from Heaven
as it were. and. from the necessity
of the case, their children arc gross¬
ing up in the most deplorable ignor¬
ance. Whenever one of these poor
families happened to learn from mv
conversation that I was a resident of
Ncw-York. the interest with which
they gazed upon me and listened to
my every word, was both agreeable
THE STATE. JULY 2. H55
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