DAVIS: MOUNTAIN RANGES OF THE GREAT BASIN. 141 
. One of the most remarkable of these many residuals is a group of 
radiating spurs that culminate in Big Bald mountain in the older 
Appalachians of northern Georgia (Ellijay map sheet). The spurs © 
- have a notably stellate arrangement between open centrifugal valleys, 
showing that the mountain is to-day the mere skeleton of a once much 
larger body ; its emaciated form is highly suggestive of the gnawing 
erosion which it has so long suffered. 
A good example for contrast with the Basin ranges is found in the 
strong east-facing escarpment known in northern North Carolina and 
Figure 5. 
Diagram of the Blue Ridge escarpment, North Carolina, looking north. 
southern Virginia as the “Blue Ridge.” The escarpment, as, Figure 5, 
is evidently retreating westward, for it is simply the headwater slope of 
the short-course Atlantic rivers, which are actively capturing drainage 
area from the higher-lying headwaters, ap, of the much longer rivers 
of the Mississippi system. Viewed in a very general way, as on a small 
scale map, the base of the scarp is of moderate curvature, and its slope 
is essentially independent of structure; hence in both these general 
features it might be said to resemble the face of a Basin range. But 
when viewed in detail, the base of the escarpment is sinuous in a high 
degree, with numerous branching spurs that advance between well- 
carved amphitheaters ; the spurs gradually fade out forward, instead of 
