L26] 



should on account of its geological formation more properly be- 

 long, is known under the names of Pilot Mountain, Mack Aloun- 

 tain, Poplar Camp Mountain arid Iron Mountain and continues 

 into Tenneseee as the Chiliiowee Mountains.* Tiie Balsam 

 (£5719 feet) and W'hite Top Mountain (5673 feet) in Grayson 

 County, the highest in the Virginias, are in close proximity to the 

 Iron Mountain but form a diverging range, that continues into 

 North Carolina as the Unaka or Smoky Mountains. 



Between the Blue Ridge and North Mountain ami their contin- 

 uations, lies the Valley a limestone region about thirty miles 

 wide. It is sub-divided into the Shenandoah Valley proper, 

 (separated into two parts for a distance of fifty miles by the 

 Massanutton range) and portions of the valleys of the James, 

 Roanoke, New and Holston Rivers. Its altitude where the 

 Shenandoah enters the Potomac is 243 feet. As we proceed 

 southward along the line of the Shenandoah Valley and Norfolk 

 & Western Railways, it gradually rises to the height of 1S63 feet 

 at the Augusta County summit, then sinks to 706 feet in the 

 valley of the James. At the summit between the James and 

 Roanoke rivers, the elevation is 1293 feet; at the Roanoke S25 

 feet. At the divide between the Roanoke and New rivers which 

 separates the waters flowing into the Atlantic from those flowing 

 into the Mississippi, the altitude is 2049 ^^^^ '^'^^ ^' ^^^*^ New 

 River itself 17S0 feet. The Valley then rises to its highest ele- 

 vation of 3594 feet at Mt. Aii-y. summit and again gradually falls 

 in the valley of the Holston to 167S feet, at the Tennessee line. 



To the westward of the Valle)' are irregular moimtain ranges 

 of the Appalachian system, alternating with valleys or plateaus 

 of more or less extent, until we come to the comparatively level 

 Trans-Appalachian region belonging to the valky of the Oliio. 

 The waters of the region east of the Blue Ridge and of the 

 northern portions of the Valley and Appalachia, flow into Ches- 

 apeake Bay or into Albemarle and Currituck Sounds, part of 

 those of the south-western districts of the two latter divisions 

 into the Ohio, the remaining part flowing into the Tennessee, 

 while the streams and rivers of the Trans-Appalachian region 

 find their way, with the exception of those forming the head 

 waters of the Potomac, into the Ohio. 



*The Virginias, Vol. IV. p. 180. 



