CATAWBA RIVER BASIN. 275 



HEADWATERS OF CATAWBA RIVER ABOVE OLD FORT (m'dOWELL COUNTY, N. c). 



Area. Total, 42 square miles; cleared, 5 square miles; wooded, 37 square 

 miles; severely burned, 8 square miles. 



Sii7if ace. The topography of the basin is extremely rough. It is fan-shaped 

 and is penetrated by numerous high spurs, which converge toward its northern 

 part. The Blue Ridge forms its upper boundary. The valle^^s of the numerous 

 tributary streams are deep, narrow gorges, with only occasional limited areas 

 of alluvial bottom. The slopes of the dividing ridges are steep and rugged; in 

 many places encumbered with rocks and bowlders or forming cliffs. 



iSoiJ.s. The soils are gray or loose loams, generally coarse grained or grav- 

 elly, derived from gneiss. On the slopes of the steep ridges they are extremely 

 thin, and even in the valleys are seldom very deep. The bottom lands have 

 been severely washed by numerous and disastrous freshets. 



Humus and litter. On the steep upper slopes, especially those with southerly 

 exposures, there is almost no soil cover; in the hollows, however, humus has 

 accumulated to a considerable depth. The upper slopes of the mountains are 

 periodicall}^ and severely burned. 



Timher treen. Oaks form about 45 per cent and chestnut about 35 per cent 

 of the forest. On dry, especially gravelly slopes, there is a considerable inter- 

 mixture of shortleaf, black, and scrub pines, and in the hollows maple, hickory, 

 birch, linn, ash, and occasionally 3^ellow poplars are found. 



Yield. The average stand per acre is about 2,500 feet B. M. of merchant- 

 able timber; in some of the deep hollows where there has been no culling it is 

 considerably more, and on the thinly timbered slopes it is much less. 



Demand. There is an active demand for nearh' all grades of lumber, and 

 for oak and hemlock tan bark. 



Accessibility. The Southern Railway passes through the middle of the basin 

 and there are roads up nearly all the large tributary streams. 



Chitting. A large part of the basin has been cut over several times, but 

 there are several thousand acres at the head of the river which are yet unculled. 

 A large amount of tan bark has not yet been removed, but is being gotten out 

 as rapidly as possible for the tannery at Morganton. There is a small mill at 

 present cutting on the stream, with a capacity of about 10,000 feet per day. 



Second gnnctli. There is no second growth of value, as the repeated tires 

 injure stool shoots before they become large enough to be of any use. 



Undergrowth. y^\)\\e there is not very much Kalrnla or rhododendron, there 

 is, in nearly all the l)adly burned woods, a considerable undergrowth of sprouts 

 from fire-killed trees and deciduous shrubs. 



