Paint Rock is six miles below Hot Springs, and directly on the line between North Carolina and Tennessee. The rock itself is massive in size and would attract attention, if not admiration, aside from the legends which make it famous. The name Paint Rock is given to perpetuate a tradition that the Cherokee Indians colored portions of it with an indelible paint, and in the form of hieroglyphics which no one has been able to decipher, though the legend represents that it is the tribe’s prayer to the Great Spirit; and being approved, ages will not suffice to efface it. Twenty miles east of Asheville is Round Knob, on the line of the Western North Carolina Railroad and nestled in the very heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the scenery surpasses in wildness and sublimity that of any other section of the State. It is a basin so completely shut in by lofty peaks, that if a person were dropped into it without knowing the point of entrance, he would find difficulty in escaping. A brawling mountain stream rushes by, in whose crystal waters bask the speckled trout to tempt the angler, while near the hotel is to be seen one of the most beautiful spectacles in the world—a magnificent fountain that throws its spray two hundred and eighty-six feet high, then like a bridal veil floats off in misty fragments. It is beautiful by day, but far more beautiful in the moonlight, as it throws its sparkling vapor high in the air, giving to the scene a weird enchantment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: A VIEW OF THE FRENCH BROAD RIVER ABOVE ASHEVILLE.—Many writers have exhausted the dictionary of adjectives in describing the romantic beauties of the French Broad River, but the stream and its intervals, bedighted with marvelous cliffs, continues, as Nature made it, beyond the power of description. In its course northward this lovely stream cuts through the charming hills about Asheville, and pours its crystal waters through a narrow gorge until it passes the blockade of the Smoky Mountains. In this space of forty miles it is indeed a “racing river,” which is signified by its Cherokee name of _Tahkecostee_. From a gentle stream above Asheville, it becomes an angry, raging flood below that point as it dashes through mountain gorges and over opposing boulders with a roar like thunder. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CÆSAR’S HEAD, SPUR OF THE BLUE RIDGE RANGE, N. C.]