CRT Re Oe a ee a 
W. ©. Kerr—New points in North Carolina Topography. 217 
I have elsewhere described briefly one of these classes of 
_ phenomena, and shall discuss them more at length very soon; 
of the other I give here some outlines, sufficient to indicate the 
character of the evidence and to direct the attention of observ- 
ers to similar phenomena elsewhere. 
The accompanying diagram represents the facts better than 
any description can do. It is an ideal cross section of the 
ydrographic basin of the Catawba River, which takes its rise in 
numerous tributaries along the flanks of the Blue Ridge, and 
after gathering up a multitude of these, traverses the Piedmont, 
or cismontane plateau (of an elevation of 1,000 to 1,500 feet), 
WY YY) We 
Ideal section of the Catawba River basin, between S., South Mountains, and 
W., Warrior Mountains. 
in a wide basin or trough, flanked by two ranges of mountains, 
which rise on either hand to an additional elevation of a thou- 
sand feet and upward. The direction of the axis of this 
trough and of the bordering ranges is 60° to 70° east of north, 
which is about coincident with the strike of the rocks 
These rocks are Archean — hornblendic and feldspathic 
luents have dug their channels along the softer and more 
yielding strata, and have left the tougher and more resisting 
