18 JOURNAL OF THE 



about the central part of Wataugfa county and ran en- 

 tirely across the basin at that point. These rocks had no 

 influence upon the streams until the streams had levelled 

 the country down to them. Then they formed a natural 

 divide and fixed definitely the headwaters of New Riven 

 The Wataug-a was probably captured by a westward flow- 

 ing stream on the southwest of these and therefore could 

 not capture any of the New River's headwaters. Fur- 

 ther on 'the south of the Watauga and ruunmg- parallel 

 to it there is another outcrop of rocks which run across 

 the basin and join the Blue Ridg-e at Grandfather's Moun- 

 tain, thus fixing definitely the divide between Linville 

 and Watauga rivers. From this divide the river which 

 goes south is Linville, which runs in the channel occupied 

 formerly b}^ the original river. This channel has the 

 highlands of the Blue Ridge on the south and east; and 

 on the west there is a rangx of mountains which separate 

 Linville and Toe River. Linville River now runs down 

 this valley about twenty miles and then enters what is 

 known as the gorge. The original river formerly passed 

 over and went down Brush Creek, Linville gorg-e not 

 having been cut at that time, to Toe and down Toe as far 

 as where South Toe enters. The Linville gradually 

 gnawed its way back through a vast plateau and tapped 

 the orig'inal river, thus leading off a few miles of it. We 

 Will also note that Linville is the only river that captured 

 a stream from this basin and led it out to the east, all 

 the rest have been captured and led off to the west through 

 the Great Smokies. 



The next capture was that of the headwaters of the 

 Toe bv the Nolichucky. This led all the North Fork of 

 the original river out except the Swannanoa which still re- 

 tains its old position. As the Nolichucky cuts through 

 the Smoky Mountains it gradually lowers its channel and 

 lowers the whole of the river. As the Nolichucky cuts 

 its way back it furnishes a shorter route to the lowlands 

 an.l being shorter it has a more rapid current which cuts 



