profoundly was the public mind impressed by the circumstances of his death and the causes which led to it, that his family yielded to the almost universsl wish that his body should rest on Mount Mitchell. Accordingly, in the following summer, his remains were taken up and once more carried to that high peak, and reinterred with imposing ceremonies in the presence of a great multitude of people. It was a scene to be long remembered. The Right Rev. James H. Otey, Bishop of Tennessee, delivered the funeral oration; ex-Governor Swain made an elegant address-the former a member of the first class which the deceased had instructed at Chapel Hill, and the latter a co-laborer in the University for near a third of a century. Strangers from distant States, and from distant parts of our own State, were present; whilst all the surrounding counties were largely represented, not only by their stalwart men, but by great numbers of their wives, daughters and children, some of whom had walked and climbed perhaps twenty miles to witness the interesting scenes. day was calm and bright. The level spot on the summit, not larger than a good-sized room, was tickly filled with spectators who spread far down its conical sides. Here in the face of all the inexpressible glories which spread out in every direction, high over the Atlantic world, and far removed, as all such scenes should ever be, from the strife and tumult of the lower and distant lands, and where Nature exerted her grandest charms to lift the souls of men to the contemplation of Him from whose hand they came, they laid the Christian hero's dust to rest. His monument and his tomb are one, and a grander hath no man had in this world. It looks eastward toward his New England birthplace, and behind him is the great land of the Southwest, filled with so many whom he loved and taught. "There," says Professor Charles Phillips, once a beloved pupil and long a fellow teacher in the University, " he shall rest until the Judgment Day, in a mausoleum such as

The

no other man has ever had. Reared by the hands of Omnipotence, it was assigned to him by those to whom it was given thus to express their esteem, and it was consecrated by the lips of eloquence warmed by affection amidst the rites of our holy religion. Before him lies the North Carolina he loved so well and served so faithfully. From his lofty couch its hills and valleys melt into its plains as they stretch away to the shores of the eastern ocean, whence the dawn of the last day stealing quietly westward, as it lights the mountain tops first, shall awake him earliest to hear the greeting of “WELL DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT."

CATAWBA VALLEY.

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As the traveler through North Carolina approaches the mountains going westward, he will meet first a range of loftylying hills, sometimes reaching to an elevation of 2,500 feet, running exactly parallel with the Blue Ridge. They bear different names in the various counties in which they lieSawratown Mountains in Stokes, Brushy Mountains in Wilkes, South Mountains in Burke and McDowell, Cherry Mountains in Rutherford, and Tryon Mountains in Polk county. This range, the advance guard of the great Appalachians, forces our principal rivers-the Yadkin and Catawba-eastward for near a hundred miles in their beginnings before permitting them to sweep around to the south where is the natural decline of the land. Farther west, Broad river, the headwaters of the Congaree, makes directly through this range southeast, nearly at a right angle to the course of the present range, and is the only stream of any considerable size in the State which does thus immediately leave its mountain springs. The others linger along in sight of their cool, cloud-swept sources, laving the feet of their life-giving summits as though loath to quit their refreshing shadows and plunge through the sun-scorched plains to the ever-awaiting, all-swallowing sea.

The valleys thus formed between the great and the lesser ranges are as fertile and charming as can be found in any part of our southern land. The streams themselves are bright and clear, and roll swiftly over pebbles which the attrition of thousands of years of storm and roaring torrents have worn into sparkling polish. From every opening cove on either side come rushing in rippling, plashing tributaries, swelling

the silver tide which is to carry joy and life to the great lands which await its coming. Their banks, with a widespread bordering of rich alluvial bottom lands, are ornamented with the wealth, intelligence and culture of our State, and furnish a rural population not surpassed, perhaps, in the United States in all that constitutes good citizenship. Health, plenty, and a robust independence swarm along their waters to the very bursting springs on the mountain sides. Up these streams-the Broad, Yadkin and Catawba-climbed the tide of emigrant settlers in the early days. Slowly and painfully they marched and fought-like an army in motion, ever cautious, ever on the alert—driving back savage foes and defacing nature with log-cabins and rude clearings; and always with that unerring, instinctive outlook for the best lands which marked our pioneers. What a life of mixed delight their's must have been in spite of its discomforts, fatigues and dangers! A squatter, with his hardy wife and half-wild brood, comes upon a broad expanse of bottom, unoccupied—perhaps untrodden by the foot of civilized man. It is densely covered with cane, in which the bear and the buffalo live in countless plenty. The sloping hills which bind the canebreaks have been swept by fire, according to the custom of our Indian tribes, destroying every year the tender underbrush and leaving their undulating ridges covered with rank, luxuriant grass and peavine, through which the antlered red stag and his timid mate roam like domestic herds in fenced fields. The stream is filled with fish-the red horse, black bass, mullet, and the silver-scaled shad-and its bosom is covered with wild ducks. Beside some sweet-watered spring he builds his logcabin, clears away the cane for his corn-patch, and begins his life of rude plenty, independence and danger. Alone in the glowing wilderness he lays the foundation of a fortune for his descendants in more senses than one; for he not only leaves them a splendid and constantly increasing real estate, but

likewise a heritage of homely good sense, courage, love of freedom, sturdy self-dependence and ready adaptability to circumstances, which have become the distinguishing characteristics of many of our leading families, and brought to their members honor and renown.

The good county of Burke, called after the great English statesman, formerly covered the whole upper waters of the Catawba, and extended quite across the mountains to the Tennessee border. The riches and the beauty of this valley country made in the most attractive in the State; and at a very early day, not later than 1760, it was filled by settlers of the best type, principally Irish and Scotch-Irish, with a sprinkling of Dutch. They seized upon the fertile river bottoms and the lowlands of the numerous tributaries of the Catawba, and laid the foundation of wealth and comfort for many thousands of their descendants. The principal settlers were the Averys, Erwins, Tates, Caldwells, Waltons, Lenoirs, Connellys, McDowells, Greenlees, Forneys, Pearsons, Burgins, Lytles, Carsons, and many others who cannot be named in so short an article as this. All of them were active and zealous participators in the Indian wars of the early days or in the struggle of the Revolution. It became a center of patriotism and intelligence. It furnished one of tho principal signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and the senior commander of the troops who won the battle of King's Mountain, the most successful militia fight of the whole war-almost the entire male population of the county took part in that brief but brilliant campaign. Such could not fail to make good citizens in peace and excellent society. In fact, that valley region became, in time, the seat of culture and refinement of Western North Carolina, and to this day it maintains its high reputation in this respect. No portion of our State better illustrated that southern country life which so much resembles that of the English. The land was filled with independent, well-to-do