I902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



337 



VIEW OF A DEFORESTED HII^I^SIDE, SHOWING EFFECT OF EROSION, SOUTHERN APPAI.ACHIAN 



REGION. 



shed. This great mountain s^'stem 

 forms the backbone and watershed of 

 the eastern part of the United vStates. 

 The greatest masses and the highest 

 peaks are in western North Carolina and 

 eastern Tennessee, which region may 

 be considered a high plateau, bounded 

 on the west by the Smoky Mountains 

 and on the east by the Blue Ridge. 

 These ranges, almost touching on the 

 north, part company, and then almost 

 come together again in the south, thus 

 enclosing this upland plateau, which 

 has a maximum width of 55 miles and 

 an area of about 6,000 square miles. 



The report further shows that the en- 

 tire region is well watered. The main 

 divide of the river systems is the Blue 

 Ridge. The States of Virginia, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 

 bama, Tennessee, and West Virginia are 

 partially watered by rivers rising in the 

 mountains near the North Carolina and 

 Tennessee state lines. One of the prin- 

 cipal tributaries of the Ohio and one of 

 the largest feeders of the Mississippi 

 head in the same mountains, and the 

 region may be justly termed one of the 



chief watersheds of the United States. 

 Grandfather Mountain, at the junction 

 of Watauga, Mitchell, and Caldwell 

 counties, in North Carolina, probably 

 the most massive of the Southern Appa- 

 lachians, may be taken as the center of 

 this watershed . Thence the waters pour 

 north, east, south, and west. From the 

 many other springs on the southern 

 slope of Grandfather Mountain flow 

 some of the headwaters of the Catawba, 

 which, rising in the Black Mountains 

 and descending in leaps of from 5 to 100 

 feet to the Piedmont Plain, likewise 

 crosses into South Carolina and, as the 

 Wateree, passes on to the Atlantic. 

 F'lowing from this region into the At- 

 lantic, besides the Catawba, are the 

 Yadkin, Broad, Saluda, Chatooga, Tu- 

 galoo, and Oconee ; into the Gulf are 

 the Chattahoochee and the Coosa ; into 

 the Missi.ssippi are the New River and 

 the Tennessee. From the western 

 slopes of the Blue Ridge flow the head- 

 waters of the great Tennessee River sys- 

 tem, asdoitslargertributaries, the Hols- 

 ton, the Nolichucky, and the French 

 Broad. 



