FROM CARLISLE TO THE OHIO 231 



From New York into Virginia they have the name 

 Alleghany Mountains ; through Carolina and Georgia 

 and until, gradually diminishing, they lose themselves 

 in Florida, they are called the Apalachian Mountains. 

 To the north and east of the Hudson river, they have 

 very probably a connection with the New England and 

 Canadian mountains. Northwest of these mountains, 

 towards the Canadian lakes, the country is indeed less 

 mountainous, but its level is higher than that of these 

 mountains themselves, and so there is ground for re- 

 garding the region about the Canadian lakes and be- 

 yond them as the highest platforms of North America. 

 But considered as mountain-chains and ridges, the 

 Alleghany and Apalachian Mountains are the highest 

 within the territory of the United States, and probably 

 in all North America (the more western parts of which 

 we still know very little of) ; however they lose on 

 comparison with the mountains of South America as 

 well as with the chief systems of Europe. 



Between the principal ranges of these mountains 

 there lie smaller hills, cut-ofTs and jutties, which for 

 divers reasons show different directions. The great 

 and principal ranges are distinguished by their more 

 parallel course, their greater height, and the species of 

 their rock. This appears to be in basis a grained, 

 quartzose rock, invariably overlaid with laminated 

 sand-stone or whet-stone species, in which appear 

 pretty often traces of sea-organisms. The lower hills, 

 frequently parallel with the mountains, and the valleys 

 contain limestone, in which I at least have discovered 

 no traces of organic remains. The chief ranges such 

 as the Kittatinny, Tuscarora, Sideling, and others, 

 present on the whole very regular, uniform slopes, but 



