“The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature’s works, though not comprehended under the present head, must not be pretermitted. Though the sides of this bridge are provided in parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have resolution to walk to them and look over into the abyss. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime to be felt beyond what they are here; so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light and springing, as it were, up to heaven! The rapture of the spectator is really indescribable.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: FALLS OF NEW RIVER, NEAR HINTON, WEST VIRGINIA.—Thirty miles above Kanawha Falls, the New and Greenbrier Rivers unite to form the Kanawha, and here the scenery is peculiarly grand and picturesque. In some places the ledges soar to a height of 1200 feet, and the river is so narrow that the intervening cañon sees but little of the sunlight except near midday. At some points the bluffs recede, giving space for beautiful green valleys, dotted with pretty farm- houses that lend an appearance of prosperous animation to these pleasing preludes. The river is broken into many rapids, cataracts and falls, which enhance the charms of the scenery by the music of their babbling waters. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: PASSAGE OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER THROUGH THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS.] From Natural Bridge our photographer took train on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and proceeded southwestwardly to the junction of that road with the Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, by which he passed into Tennessee as far as Knoxville, and from that point made excursions into the famous East Tennessee region, where scenes and scenery are quite unlike anything which he had ever before transferred to photographs. Nowhere in all the world are there richer lands, prettier women, braver men, finer landscapes, and bigger prospects than Tennessee affords. It is a region of boundless resources and charming views, and possessing as it does so many advantages, it likewise presents remarkable contrasts and conditions. Where can the scenery about Cumberland Gap be equaled, or the panorama from the summit of Lookout Mountain be matched? But there is relaxation in the quiet views of rural life in East Tennessee which are here reproduced, and the pastime reader as well as the student of geography, will appreciate the restful change.