solemn and so rare,
Since seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of wealth they thinly placed are,
Or captain jewels in the carcanet."

Five miles beyond Ramsey's the Tennessee line was crossed. The Laurel
became more rocky, swift, full of rapids, and the valley narrowed down
to the riverway, with standing room, however, for stately trees along
the banks. The oaks, both black and white, were, as they had been
all day, gigantic in size and splendid in foliage. There is a certain
dignity in riding in such stately company, and the travelers clattered
along over the stony road under the impression of possible high
adventure in a new world of such freshness. Nor was beauty wanting. The
rhododendrons had, perhaps, a week ago reached their climax, and now
began to strew the water and the ground with their brilliant petals,
dashing all the way with color; but they were still matchlessly
beautiful. Great banks of pink and white covered the steep hillsides;
the bending stems, ten to twenty feet high, hung their rich clusters
over the river; avenues of glory opened away in the glade of the stream;
and at every turn of the winding way vistas glowing with the hues
of romance wrenched exclamations of delight and wonder from the
Shakespearean sonneteer and his humble Friend. In the deep recesses of
the forest suddenly flamed to the view, like the splashes of splendor
on the somber canvas of an old Venetian, these wonders of color,--the
glowing summer-heart of the woods.

It was difficult to say, meantime, whether the road was laid out in the
river, or the river in the road. In the few miles to Egger's (this was
the destination of our great expectations for the night) the stream was
crossed twenty-seven times,--or perhaps it would be more proper to say
that the road was crossed twenty-seven times. Where the road did not
run in the river, its bed was washed out and as stony as the bed of the
stream. This is a general and accurate description of all the roads
in this region, which wind along and in the streams, through narrow
valleys, shut in by low and steep hills. The country is full of springs
and streams, and between Abingdon and Egger's is only one (small)
bridge. In a region with scarcely any level land or intervale, farmers
are at a disadvantage. All along the road we saw nothing but mean
shanties, generally of logs, with now and then a decent one-story frame,
and the people looked miserably poor.

As we pi