tradition of a burning coal mine in the mountains, accidentally ignited
in firing the woods in the fall, according to the regular Cherokee
practice, and finally extinguished by a providential rainstorm. One
of Buttrick's Cherokee informants told him that "a great while ago a
part of the world was burned, though it is not known now how, or by
whom, but it is said that other land was formed by washing in from
the mountains" (Antiquities, p. 7).
When the French built Fort Caroline, near the present Charleston,
South Carolina, in 1562, an Indian village was in the vicinity,
but shortly afterward the chief, with all his people, removed to a
considerable distance in consequence of a strange accident--"a large
piece of peat bog [was] kindled by lightning and consumed, which he
supposed to be the work of artillery." [546]
Volcanic activities, some of very recent date, have left many traces
in the Carolina mountains. A mountain in Haywood county, near the
head of Fines creek, has been noted for its noises and quakings for
nearly a century, one particular explosion having split solid masses
of granite as though by a blast of gunpowder. These shocks and noises
used to recur at intervals of two or three years, but have not now been
noticed for some time. In 1829 a violent earthquake on Valley river
split open a mountain, leaving a chasm extending for several hundred
yards, which is still to be seen. Satoola mountain, near Highlands,
in Macon county, has crevices from which smoke is said to issue at
intervals. In Madison county there is a mountain which has been known
to rumble and smoke, a phenomenon with which the Warm springs in the
same county may have some connection. Another peak, known as Shaking
or Rumbling bald, in Rutherford county, attracted widespread attention
in 1874 by a succession of shocks extending over a period of six months
(see Zeigler and Grosscup, Heart of the Alleghanies, pp. 228-229).