70 THE MOUNTAIN. 



rate Gazetteer describes it as "that vast mountain system in 

 the southeastern part of North America, extending, under 

 various names, from Maine southwestward to the northern 

 part of Alabama. In New Hampshire, near the northern 

 termination of this chain, it is less than one hundred miles 

 from the Atlantic coast, but it gradually diverges as it ad- 

 vances southward, so that toward its southern extremity it 

 is about three hundred miles from the sea."* 



In these delineations there is a discrepancy in geographic 

 and topographic description of the continuance of lines of 

 elevation, necessarily involving also mooted questions as to 

 the unbroken geological continuity of formations ; geological 

 equivalency being affirmed by some, while it is alleged that 

 the superficial geology is manifestly different, whatever the 

 more profound and invisible ranges of telluric fracture, or 

 folding together with geological metamorphosis, might reveal ; 

 the statement being distinctly recorded, that "the different 

 ridges are distinguished from each other not only in external 

 features, but also in their geology." This fact alone, leaving 

 out the manifest identity of formations as geological equiva- 

 lents, would account for the disagreement in geographic no- 

 menclature, and the apparent error of generalization; the 

 separate portions of the ranges being considered dissimilar 

 in mineralogical composition, or, at least, geological arrange- 

 ment of elements, and topographic characters. 



Certain associated groups of mountains would be more 

 correctly designated "geographical dependencies of the 

 system." 



Thus, the Green Mountains of Yermout and the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire are described as belonging 

 to this range. 



They are crystalline in structure, and some of their peaks 

 attain the elevation of 6500 feet above the level of the ocean. 

 At the southwest, where the group embraces the Alleghany, 

 Blue Ridge, and Smoky mountains, they also attain a great 



* J. T. Hodge. 



