An Anomalous Course. 97 
determined by the flexures of the strata. To this class belong 
portions of the Tennessee and Coosa tributaries, generally rather 
small streams which in the process of drainage adjustment have 
been robbed of the greater part of their original basins by others 
more favorably situated. 
Many of the stream courses are directly dependent upon the 
structure, but occupy positions which they have acquired by a 
process of adjustment subsequent to the deformation of the 
surface. This class of maturely adjusted subsequent streams 
includes most of those within the area of folded rocks of the 
Appalachian valley.. Their courses are on or near the axes of 
anticlines, positions manifestly impossible in early stages of the 
folding or before a long process of adjustment had taken place. 
A few streams show superimposition, probably not from a 
superjacent horizontal terrane, but by wandering during the 
later stages of a very complete baseleveling period. Examples 
of this are seen in the course of the Clinch river where it crosses 
Lone mountain, and of the Ocoee where it crosses the point of 
Beans mountain. 
Finally some streams appear to have become adjusted to cer- 
tain past conditions of slope and baselevel, so that their courses 
are not such as they would seek under the influence of condi- 
tions now existing. A most striking example of such an anom- 
alous course is that of the Tennessee river. Portions of it may 
be regarded as inherited from conditions to which they were 
adjusted in the past, but which have wholly or_in part disap- 
peared. 
By a study of the drainage, especially streams of the latter 
class, a tolerably definite idea of these conditions may be reached. 
The present river courses indicate the changes in altitude and 
attitude which have taken place within recent geologic epochs. 
The history of the same period, interpreted from the topographic 
features of the province, has been presented in Part I. Evi- 
dence was found of an almost continuous succession of orogenic 
oscillations, separated by well marked epochs of tranquillity. 
These periods, both of tranquillity and orogenic activity, have 
left an unmistakable impression upon the topography, and it 
seems reasonable to suppose that they should have produced an 
equally marked effect upon the drainage. There is a third 
method of interpreting this history, which until recent years has 
been considered the only one available; this consists of a study 
