2 Gold Region of Georgia, 



evalion. Professor Troosl, who has explored part of Smoky or the 

 Wuaka range, comparing it with other mountains he has visited, the 

 altitude of which has been ascertained, believes this mountain may be 

 safely stated at four thousand feet above the level of the sea. The 

 Blue ridge is still more elevated ; though the approach to this eleva- 

 tion is so gradual at most of the places where the road passes, that 

 we might at first doubt of its having a superior elevation. The very 

 great fall of the waters having their source in the Blue ridge to the 

 point where the Wuaka is broken down by their current, and also 

 views taken from midway elevations between those mountains are 

 satisfactory to prove the superior elevation of the range dividing the 

 waters. 



Smoky mountain separates the transition from the primitive for- 

 mation. This may however not be uniformly true ; in Washing- 

 ton county, the primitive is found at one place on the north-west 

 side, and some of the graywackes may be found in places south- 

 east ; still without descending to minutiae, the mountain, may well 

 serve for this boundary. 



From the Chilhowee mountain, which ranges north-west of the 

 Wuaka, and about twelve miles from it, until one has passed over the 

 Blue Ridge in Georgia, there is presented a series of mountains. 

 The larger streams winding amongst them afford narrow bottoms, 

 and with the exception of three or four small vallies at the heads of 

 the large streams next the Blue ridge, the country may be said to 

 be almost uninhabitable; each side of the J'^waA':a mountain presents 

 nature in her most romantic aspect — 



" Alps on Alps arise ! — " 



He who delights in the wild and picturesque will have before him 

 an ample field. To me it seemed strange that so little had been 

 known of this section, where each remove and change of position al- 

 ways presented something new and charming to the naturalist. 

 Streams, waterfalls, towering cliffs, peaks and hills of every degree 

 of acclivity, as we ascend the mountain ; these features present a 

 pleasing and striking assemblage of the beautiful and sublime. The 

 field for the painter is infinite. I might dwell upon trees, plants, 

 flowers, animals and reptiles, but my business is with the rocks. 



The natural division of the country between Chilhowee and the 

 Yeona range gives three separate sections ; one in Tennessee, one 

 in western North Carolina, and the other east of the Blue ridge in 



