OHi^LPTER Vlir. 



THE ALPINE REGION. 



LOCATION. 



The Alpine Region of South Carolina occupies the extreme north- 

 western border of the State. Commencing at King's mountain, in York 

 county, it extends westward through Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and 

 Oconee counties, widening in the three last named, until it embraces a 

 tier of the most northern, townships, two or three deep. This wedge- 

 shaped area has a length of one hundred and fourteen miles, and a width 

 varying from eight to twenty-one miles. 



THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 



of this region present a rolling table-land, broken and hilly on the mar- 

 gin of the streams, but scarcely anywhere inaccessible to the plow. It 

 has a general elevation above the sea level of 1,000 to 1,500 feet. The 

 gently undulating surface extends to the mountains, Avhose rock-bound 

 walls often rise suddenly to their greatest height. The southeastern face 

 of King's mountain rises perpendicularly five hundred feet above the 

 plain, and its northwestern slope descends gently towards the Blue Ridge 

 mountains. Table Rock also rises eight hundred feet vertically, or a 

 little overhanging above the southeastern terrace at its base, formed of 

 the loose fragments that in the course of ages have fallen from above. 

 The steep ascent of these mountains from their South Carolina or south- 

 eastern face, and their gradual slope on their northeastern face, and their 

 gradual slope to the northwest, where the mountains of North Carolina 

 rise apparently from a level country, is the reverse of the prevailing rule 

 on the Atlantic slope, which is, that the short, steep sides face northwest, 

 and the long, gentle slopes face southeast. Lieber thinks that these 



