Al'l'AI A( n I AN \t<MNIAINS. ')1 



Instead, howi-wr. uf m ((Hitinuous Idiiiiitiulinal valle\' be- 

 tween these chains. Hkethe (_lieat Vallt^v »)t\'ir'j:inia, we lind 

 them connected bv transverse (;hains wliich lilccwisc "divide 

 this valley into ju^reat basins, at the i)ottoni of each one of 

 which runs one of those monntain tributaries of the Ten- 

 nessee, which by the abundance of their waters, merit the 

 name of the true sources of that noble river." 



Thus the l\o;in and Bijjj Yellow chains .separate the basin 

 of the Watauiia. from that of the Nolechucky. while the 

 northwest riili^e of the Black Mountains makes a • divide " 

 between this last, and the Fi-ench l]roa<l. 



Between the New Found and the ( ireat Balsam Mountains, 

 rises the Big Pigeon River, wliile from the basin between 

 the Great Balsam, and the Cowee ranges, Hows out the Tuck- 

 asegee. 



Next comes the J.ittle Tennessee, and then beyond the 

 Nantahela range, the Iliwassec river, separated by tin 

 Stansbury Mountains from the Toccoa, tlu' last of these 

 mountain tributaries of the Tennessee. 



And, as all these, with many other rivers, rise in tin 

 northwestern slope of the Blue Ridge, draining that large 

 area, and are then forced to cut their way through the gaps 

 and gorges and defiles of the central chain, with its average 

 altitude of nearly 0,000 feet, it is not strange that here is 

 found some of the grandest and most jiicturesquc scenery to 

 be found in the Union. 



On the Atlantic slope, the Roanoke, Catawba, Savannah, 

 and other rivers rea<'h the lower levels witli much less diffi- 

 culty. 



Says Prof Gyjyof' who has devoltd much time to moun- 

 tain exploration, and done more, perhaps, than any other 

 man to make us acquainted with our own mountains, and 

 to wdiom 1 would here acknowledge my indebtedness for 

 many of the facts and not a few of the generalizations and 

 descriptions of this lecture — ' Here, then, through an cx- 



*Article on the Appal.ichian Mountain system, .\nicrican Journal of Science, 

 March. iSoi. 



