Iron, Smoky, Yellow, Bald, Unicoy and Chilhowee mountains; but the whole chain constitute a portion of the general range of mountains, designated and known as the Blue Ridge.

The whole mountain region of Tennessee abounds with the wonders of nature. There are thousands of mineral springs, cascades and cataracts, and subterranean caverns without number; and both ranges of mountains abound with iron-ore and pit-coal. Alum and Copperas have been found, and great quantities of Saltpetre, and sometimes Epsom Salts, have been manufactured out of the earth taken from the caves found in these mountains. Gold mines have also been discovered in the range of mountains on the southern border of Tennessee; as well in the State of Tennessee as in the State of Georgia. The gold mines of Tennessee are some twenty miles south of Madisonville, in Monroe county, on a small stream called Coko creek. They were discovered in the spring season of 1830. Gold of the finest quality is found there; and, with reasonable industry, seventyfive cents per day, for every hand employed, clear of all expense, can be made by working these mines. About fifty hands were employed in them during the summer of 1841.

In the extensive mountain region we have been describing, there are a vast number of splendid cascades and romantic water falls; but we can only spare the necessary space to sketch a few of the most magnificent.

In the county of Roane, about two and a half miles east of Spencer's Hill, and about two hundred yards from the main stage road, a rivulet, affording about two thousand cubic inches of water, plunges down a perpendicular, rocky precipice, of about one hundred and fifty feet elevation. This precipice is formed by a sort of chasm or

deep ravine in the summit of the mountain; which looks as though some dread convulsion of nature, had torn asunder the earth and ripped up the ponderous and massy rocks from their quiet and stable foundations; continuing its powerful and rushing current until it met an extensive and solid subterranean cliff, whose deep planted columns and expanded battlements resisted the rushing fluid, and forcing it upward at a right angle, it carried with it a vast body of earth and thousands of bursted, torn and shivered rocks, forming a kind of semi-circular ridge on the summit of the final extremity of the chasm. The name of Fall creek has been given to the rivulet upon which this cataract is situated. Some four or five years ago, the body of a man, who had been murdered and robbed, as was supposed, was found at the base of this precipice. After he was murdered and robbed, his body was, no doubt, thrown down the precipice for the purpose of concealment.

About fifty miles south-west, from this place, is another water-fall, much more magnificent and grand, than the one just described. In the county of Hamilton, about eight miles west of the town of Dallas, a creek, near twenty feet wide, and two feet deep, called Falling Water, plunges down a rocky precipice, on the southern side of Walden's ridge, of at least two hundred and fifty feet elevation. The stream pours down into a kind of basin below, formed by ledges of rock that lie all around; and the falling of the waters produce a roaring and lumbering sound, that can be heard at a distance of six or seven miles, like the voice of distant, but continued thunder. This water-fall also falls down a precipice formed by a chasm in the mountain, but of much more singular and romantic character than the one before mentioned.— The chasm runs from the base of the mountain, at a

right angle into it, until it reaches the extreme summit, gradually becoming narrower, however, and finally ending in a point at the summit of the mountain. At the base of the mountain this chasm is nearly a quarter of a mile in width; and on each side as it runs into the mountain are towering and tremendous cliffs, with massy overhanging projections and deep indentations, apparently corresponding with each other; so that if this part of the mountain could be forced together, and the chasm closed up, the projections on the one side would exactly fit into the indentations on the other. The stream of water falls over the precipice on the western side of this chasm, about mid-way between the summit of the mountain and the base. At the summit of the cliff, where this bold rivulet makes its downward plunge, it is a smooth, silvery current; but before it reaches the basin into which it falls below, the greater part of its volume is dispersed and falls in rain-drops; the center of the current only, pouring down in a stream. A dense fog arises from the basin into which the waters fall, and a heavy spray hangs along the brow of the mountain.

In the county of White, some distance north of Sparta, there is a water-fall on a creek that falls into the Cany Fork of Cumberland. This creek bears the same name as that in Hamilton county, (Falling Water.) This water-fall is in a table-land section of the mountain, and the precipice over which the water falls, is made by a chasm similar to the one near Spencer's Hill. The bluff or precipice, down which the water falls, is upwards of a hundred feet elevation; and a short distance below, on one side of the chasm, a small streamlet falls over a rocky bluff of near two hundred feet; but the volume of water is so small, that it is dispersed in its long leap, and reaches the earth in rain-drops and mist.

The foregoing described water-falls, among the thousands that are to be seen in the mountain region of Tennessee, are the most grand and romantic.

On the wide spread, lofty and romantic chain of the Cumberland mountains, are found fertile valleys, broad prairies, extensive glades, and, on many of the loftiest ridges, large bodies of fine arable land, producing, with reasonable cultivation, from thirty to fifty bushels of Indian corn per acre. The greater portion of the soil, however, is sandy, sterile, and unproductive; except for timber. Dense groves of large and towering pines, poplar, chesnut, hickory and oak, cover the ridges, and highlands; and along the margin of the rivers and large creeks, beech, maple and sugar-tree are sometimes found; and in many places, groves of buckeye, linn and birch; but the principal growth along the margin of the streams, is tall white, and spruce pine, with dense laurel thickets, and sometimes a narrow cane-brake, as an undergrowth.

The principal part of this rough and broken region, is now considerably populated. Counties have been laid out, towns established, and wealth and fashion have

found their way into these, once, dreary and solitary wilds.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ENCHANTED MOUNTAIN.

One of the most singular natural curiosities in the known world, is the Enchanted Mountain, situated in the north-eastern corner of the State of Georgia. It has hitherto been represented as being in the State of Tennessee, but this the author believes is a mistake; from the best information he can obtain, it is near the line, but within the State of Georgia. It derives its name, partly, from the traditions of the Indians, that formerly inhabited the country, and, partly, from the fact that a great number of impressions appear in the rocks, above the surface of the earth, which present to the eye the appearance of having been made by the feet and hands of human beings, and by the feet of animals and fowls. There were a great many traditions amongst the Indians in relation to this mountain. One of which was, that it was the landing place of the Great Canoe, after a flood of waters had deluged the whole earth; and that the impressions found upon the rocks were made by the persons, animals and fowls who had been preserved in this great canoe, during the inundation of the earth; and, the rocks being softened by their long immersion in the water, received the impress of the feet and hands of the human beings, and of the feet of the animals and fowls, as they disembarked from this great canoe. Another tradition, or rather superstition, was, that this mountain is the residence of the Great Spirit; who is always angry when any one