1i8 Hayes and Campbell—Appalachian Geomorpholoyy. 
ing the nature of the rocks over which it was flowing, this rate 
would seem quite consistent with the formation of an extensive 
peneplain. 
This difference in altitude of ine drainage on opposite sides 
of Walden plateau gave the streams flowing westward a very 
decided advantage over those flowing eastward. So long as the 
uplift continued on the line O P this advantage was not suffi- 
cient to push the divide eastward beyond that line. Before the 
close of the Tertiary baseleveling, however, this uplift probably 
ceased and the westward streams then bezan a career of conquest 
which resulted in changing the course of the entire drainage of 
eastern Tennessee. 
The process by which this conquest was accomplished is prob- 
ably somewhat as follows: The advantage which the westward 
drainage possessed by reason of its more rapid descent enabled 
the stream N to push the divide from 0 to c, capturing a portion 
of the drainage area of the eastward flowing stream G. The 
contest was thus transferred to the divides cande. The large 
volume of water coming from the plateau northward apparently 
determined the location of most rapid cutting at e, for while the 
divide ¢ was pushed back only a short distance to its present 
position at d, the stream ef was reversed and the headwaters of 
H diverted westward, f and h thus becoming the actively con- 
tested divides. As in the previous case, cutting was most rapid 
at h, and while the divide f was pushed ‘back to its present posi- 
tion at g, the branch h i was reversed and the headwaters of K 
diverted to the westward drainage. How far this process ‘had 
gone before the end of the Tertiary baseleveling it is impossible 
to say, but it was probably well under way. The warping which 
accompanied the Lafayette depression gave the westward streams 
a still further advantage, and early in that depression the divide 
i was pushed eastward, reversing the flow, first, of the stream K, 
and then Z to the junction of the latter with the Clinch-Appa- 
lachian river. Although the latter was a comparatively large — 
river, the advantages possessed by the westward stream were 
sufficient to overbalance the advantage of size, and the Clinch- 
Appalachian river was captured and led off westward through 
the newly cut gorge. The capture of the western fork of the 
Appalachian river was probably followed shortly after by that 
of the eastern fork. This was accomplished by a tributary of 
the former working backward from Kingston to Loudon. Thus 
