176 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



SHALL OTTK FOEEST WEALTH BE DESTROYED? 



By THOMAS ELMER WILL 

 SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



IN" the sunny southland, stretching from Pennsylvania in the north- 

 east to Alabama in the southwest, are the Southern Appalachian 

 Mountains. These constitute not a single ridge or chain, but a zone or 

 belt composed of numerous parallel ridges, as the Alleghenies, Blue 

 Eidge, Black, Unakas, Smoky, etc. Connecting these ridges, often, are 

 cross ridges equaling in cases and even exceeding the longitudinal 

 ranges. 



Surmounting these ranges at many points are lofty peaks. Of 

 these the chief, Mt. Mitchell, is 6,711 feet high; 46 more, a mile or 

 more apart, with 41 miles of divide, rise to an altitude of 6,000 feet, 

 while 288 others, with 300 miles of divide, reach a height of 5,000 feet 

 above the sea. Among these may be mentioned, in the Blue Eidge, 

 Grandfather Mountain, 5,964 feet, Pinnacle, 5.693 feet and Standing 

 Indian, 5,562 feet high. In the Smoky Mountains, Mount Guyot 

 reaches a height of 6,636 feet, and Clingmans Dome, 6,619 feet. 



" Between these groups of mountains and far below them, though 

 still at an elevation of 2,000 feet or more above the sea, are the numer- 

 ous narrow valleys of this region." Many of them are marked by great 

 fertility and beauty. 



Save on the highest peaks, or on the slopes where man has inter- 

 fered, these mountains are clad with a magnificent growth of forest. 

 Near the bases are found oaks, hickories, maples, chestnuts and tulip 

 poplars, suggesting in size the great trees of the Pacific coast. Higher, 

 one passes through forests of great hemlocks, chestnut oaks, beeches 

 and birches, and, still higher, through groves of spruce and balsam. 

 Near the tops, the balsams become dwarfed and are succeeded, largely, 

 by clusters of rhododendron and patches of grass fringed with flowers. 



In this region, ranging from 60 inches in Georgia to 71 inches in 

 North Carolina, occurs the heaviest annual rainfall in the United 

 States, save on the Pacific coast. The water thus precipitated finds its 

 way to the sea, east, west, southeast or southwest, through practically 

 all the important rivers of the south. The Southern Appalachians 

 thus constitute the watershed for, practically, the entire region below 

 the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi. The descent of the 

 water from the mountainsides is marked by some of the most beautiful 

 cascades and waterfalls that ever gladdened human sight. Among 



