96 Hayes and Camphell—Appalachian Geomorphology. 
ward the southeast. The westward-flowing streams in the north- 
ern portion of the province drain only the plateau region. Far- 
ther southward New river heads well toward the eastern side of the 
montanic tract and flows northwestward across the Appalachian 
valley and the plateau to the Ohio. Between New river and the 
Tennessee-Georgia line most of the montanic tract and the Ap- 
palachian valley are in the drainage basin of the Tennessee, 
whose many branches flow northwestward across the former 
region and southwestward within the latter to Chattanooga, 
where the river turns abruptly and enters the plateau region. 
It crosses first the Walden plateau through a deep canyon, and 
after flowing seventy miles in Browns valley, parallel to its former 
course, again enters the plateau and flows northwestward to the 
nee: n corner of Mississippi, the margin of the former 
Mississippi embayment. Here it makes another abrupt change 
in its course, flowing directly northward to the Ohio. South of the 
Tennessee-Georgia line the Appalachian valley, with the adjacent 
portions of the montanic tract, are drained by the Coosa-Alabama 
river, which flows directly to the Gulf. The greater part of the 
plateau region lying between the New-Kanawha and Tennessee 
rivers is drained toward the northwest by streams flowing into 
the Ohio. The most important of these are the Kentucky and 
Cumberland. 
’ CLASSIFICATION OF DRAINAGE. 
Applying to the streams of the southern Appalachian proy- 
ince the accepted principles of classification, representatives of 
all the main divisions are found. - 
A few show indications of following, in part at least, antecedent 
courses in which they have persisted through all the vicissitudes 
the region has suffered. The most striking example of this class 
is perhaps the New- Kanawha, which seems to hold the course 
occupied antecedent to the development of the present structure 
of the region. To the same class belong probably the eastern 
tributaries of the Tennessee and Alabama systems which cross 
the montanic tract from its eastern border northwestward to the 
Appalachian valley; also the streams of the plateau flowing 
into the Ohio river may be placed in this, although there are 
some grounds for placing them in the next class. 
A few of the streams are directly consequent upon the structure 
of the region, flowing in synelines where their position has been 
