The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North CarolinaZeigler, Wilbur Gleason
History
The Heart of the Alleghanies; or, Western North Carolina
Zeigler, Wilbur Gleason
Allegheny Mountains; North Carolina -- Description and travel
point from which to view this fall is half way up the mountain on the
opposite side of the river.
Fair fishing is still to be found in the Cullasaja. It can be reached
from either Franklin or Highlands. In a beautiful valley, close by the
bank of this stream, stands the homestead of a pioneer settler of the
country, Silas McDowell. It is only a few years since he ended his
pilgrimage. In his old age he took great delight in narrating his early
experiences in the wilderness. The first trout fishing expedition
undertaken by him in 1839, and told by him to the writer, will serve as
an illustration of what the primitive angler had to encounter.
One bright morning, he, with two young companions, started up the
Cullasaja. As a matter of course, they had excellent sport, and met with
no adventure, until, in the ravines of Lamb mountain, a magnificent,
antlered buck, startled by their sudden appearance, leaped up from
behind a cliff and started up the stream. There was no outlet for him on
either side, for the walls of the gorge are perpendicular. A short
distance ahead, a cliff, over which the water tumbled, would stop his
career. They had no guns with them, and, although the game was securely
bagged, their only way to kill him was with stones. They pushed on
pelting him with these. At length, maddened with the stoning, the old
stag turned and rushed by them, breaking the narrator’s fishing rod as
he passed. Just then he fell between two large boulders, and one of the
young men, springing on the animal’s back, soon dispatched him with his
knife. They sank the carcass in the cold, rushing water; fished until
noon, catching several hundred trout, and then returned home to send two
servants with a pack-horse after the game. The return of the servants
was expected that evening, but it was not until the following afternoon
that they appeared. They related that they had found the deer, but it
was dark before they were ready to start. Thinking it was best to wait
for the moon to rise, they placed the deer on a large, flat rock in mid
stream, and then laid down beside it to sleep until that time. An
unusual sound awoke them, and by the moonlight they saw an immense
panther crossing the foot-log toward them. He had scented the fresh
meat, and was about to investigate, but on the unexpected awakening of
two human beings, he fled, as much startled as they were. The night was
intensely cold, and finding it impossible to start, and also being
afraid of wild animals along the lonely way, they remained on the rock
until the sun had risen and warmed their numbed bodies. Thus they
accounted for their long absence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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