Overhead, apparently weaving in and out like a silver thread, winds the glistening track over which the tourist must pass to gain the summit of the Blue Ridge. So great and difficult is the ascent that at one point four parallel tracks may be seen, one above the other, while at another point, as the train passes over a winding trestle sixty feet high, the tourist might easily drop his hat on the track below over which he had passed a few minutes before, but now going in an entirely opposite direction, having gained nothing on his journey save about ninety feet in elevation. So often does the track turn, twist and double upon itself to gain the summit, that at one place of observation it may be seen at seventeen distinct points. After having gained a distance of over five miles of the ascent, the train is again within one-fourth of a mile of the Knob, now lying far below, but still the center of this grand system of iron loops, by means of which the train is gradually rising to the region of the clouds. From this point to the summit, in the short space of one and a half miles, the train passes through six tunnels and across numerous gorges, whose sides are clothed with the primeval forest where perhaps the foot of man never trod. The most noted of these is “Royal Gorge,” seen from the car window, whose precipitous sides and deep- yawning chasm form a scene of magnificent grandeur, from the top of whose butting cliffs the mountains of South Carolina are visible, two hundred miles distant. As the train rushes forward, suddenly it plunges into Swannanoa Tunnel, which is nearly two thousand feet long, and upon emerging at the western end, along the massive walls, we reach the highest point in that Land of the Sky, where the waters of a spring divide, a part flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and an equal share being contributed to the Gulf of Mexico. Having crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and passed through Hickory-Nut Gap to the valley, the road leads into one of the grandest cañons of the Broad River. Here for a distance of nine miles on either side of the river giant mountains rise to a dizzy height, forming massive walls of blue granite, often reaching a height of more than a thousand feet, while not a sprig of vegetation appears on their surface. A creek large enough to turn a mill plunges over one of these embattlements and falls in a single stream a distance of over thirteen hundred feet, known as Hickory-Nut Falls, said to be the third highest falls in the United States. Passing on down this great gorge, we see Chimney Rock on the right, a circular column four hundred feet high, while on the opposite side is Round Top, with its pyramidal dome resting against the sky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: