- sition of the country, where obstacle upon obstacle oppose
the journey of the traveller, and whose situation would in a short time become very critical from the want of provisions.
On the 23d I made twenty-two miles through a {255} country bestrewed with mountains, but not so lofty as that which I had just passed over, and arrived at the house of one Davenport, the owner of a charming plantation upon Doe river, a torrent about forty feet in breadth, and which empties itself into the Nolachuky. I had learnt the evening before, of the person with whom I had lodged, that it was at Davenport's my father had resided, and that it was this man who served him as a guide across the mountains when on his travels to discover their productions. I was at that time very far from thinking that at the same time when this worthy man was entertaining me about his old travelling companion, I lost a beloved father, who died a victim of his zeal for the progress of natural history upon the coast of the island of Madagascar!
I staid a week at Davenport's, in order to rest myself after a journey of six hundred miles that I had just made, and during this interval I travelled over the Blue Ridges that encompass his plantation. On the 2d of October 1802 I set out on my journey {256} again, and proceeded towards Morganton, a distance of thirty-five miles. About four miles from Doe river I re-passed the chain of the Blue Ridges. Its summit is obtained by a gentle declivity, which is much longer and more rapid on the eastern side, without being impracticable for carriages. The journey over this mountain is computed to be about four miles and a half.
About five miles from the Blue Ridges are the Linneville Mountains, not quite so lofty as the latter, but steeper,
