narrow cañon. About midway of this sloping road, the space confined
between perpendicular walls, rising to heights above on one side and
descending to the stream on the other, widens suddenly and a picturesque
old mill comes into view, it having been wholly screened from the
approach by the rich growth of shrubs and trees. Chief in abundance
among this luxury of leaf was the hydrangea,--a favorite shrub largely
imported into this country from Japan before it was discovered as a
native. The mill site seems to have been selected for its beauty
although we were told that at this point the stream is seventy-two feet
wide, and two and one half feet deep, but could be raised thirty feet
with perfect safety by a dam, for which the rock is already on the
ground and much of it broken ready for use. The flow is said to be two
hundred and eighty yards per minute, with no appreciable variation, and
never freezes. The high walls of the Greer Spring gorge will, of course,
far more than double the value it would otherwise possess, when it
becomes desirable to control and turn to practical account the power now
going so cheerily to waste, but the artistic loss will be
proportionately severe.

The old mill was the scene of great activity in former times, but was
closed on account of an unfortunate accident and for years has had no
other duty than simply to serve as a portion of the landscape.

Just beyond, the cañon makes a curving bend, the road dwindles to a
narrow path and we behold the most beautiful scene imaginable.

The cañon has come to an end and is shut in by a graceful curve of the
high, perpendicular grey walls that are crowned with trees and shrubs,
and decked below with a thick carpet of bright green moss. In this
basin, which is nearly one hundred feet across, Greer Spring plunges up