38 CHARLES H. WHITE 



sumably of the same age as the gorges on the west, have 

 already been noted. 



It appears, then, that evidence favoring the existence of the 

 Appalachian River is small, although this has been the view of 

 some observers for more than twenty years. Long,' in his report 

 of the survey of the Tennessee and Holston Rivers in 1875, 

 states this as his view, but gives little evidence for its support. 



A trans- Appaladiian river. — What seems to the writer a more 

 tenable view of the history of the drainage of this part of the 

 Appalachian province follows. Up to the close of Cretaceous 

 time the rivers flowed off toward the northwest from the axis of 

 the Great Smoky Mountains, or in general, at right angles to this 

 axis; and the more nearly base-leveled the Cretaceous peneplain 

 became, the more the streams meandered upon it. The headwaters 

 of these old rivers, which cut directly across the strike of the 

 present valley strata, are now represented by the Doe- Watauga, 

 Nolichucky, French Broad, Big and Little Pigeons, Little River, 

 Little Tennessee, upper Tellico, Hiwassee, Ocoee, and upper Con- 

 nasauga. After the uplift of the Cretaceous peneplain, by 

 differential erosion the great valley began to be formed, and 

 lateral subsequent branches pushed their way back along the 

 strike of the valley-making strata. The uplift being greater in 

 the northern part, the south-flowing subsequent streams, being 

 the more accelerated, have cut back more rapidly than those 

 flowing toward the north, and have made practically all the cap- 

 tures in this region. This process of capturing has gone on until 

 now all the original transverse streams have been turned from 

 their courses across the Cumberland plateau southward into the 

 Tennessee River, which alone maintains its course across the 

 Walden plateau. The upper course of the original Walden gorge 

 river has already been taken south by the Connasauga, while the 

 Tennessee awaits a friendly pirate to conduct it south directly into 

 the Gulf through a shorter and easier course. That the position 

 of the master stream has been west of Lookout Mountain rather 



'Lieutenant-Colonel S. H. Long, "Report Relative to the Improvement of 

 the Navigation of the Holston and Tennessee Rivers," House Executive Document, 

 Forty-Third Congress, Second Session, Vol. XV, No. 167, p. 16. 



