ASHVILLE, N. C., May 20.—A great excitement prevails throughout the western portion of this State, particularly along the ridge of Bald Mountain. About two years ago, it will be remembered, great excitement was created on account of the wonderful and inexplicable noises heard in the bowels of Bald Mountain. Scientists from all sections of the country visited the neighborhood where these strange sounds were heard, but never gave any intelligible reasons for the strange phenomena. On Saturday these rumbling sounds in the bowels of the mountain were again heard, and the people living along the mountain side and in the villages became excited, hundreds of them seeking places of safety. These sounds resembling thunder apparently proceeded from the inmost depths of the mountain. On yesterday the mountain range began to yield, and to-day it was literally split in twain, leaving a chasm three hundred feet in length and twenty feet in width, the depth of which seems a bottomless abyss. No smoke or lava has yet been thrown from the crater. Bald Mountain bids fare to become the American Vesuvius.—Selected.