SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



15 



region, the stand of timber, the extent to which the timber 

 has been and i.s now being cut or damaged by fire, the 

 nature of the present holdings, and the prices at which 

 these lands can be purchased. The agricultural investiga- 

 tion included the stud}' of the cleared lands, methods of 

 their clearing, the crops which they 3'ield, and the extent 

 to which these lands deteriorate by erosion and by the leach- 

 ing out of their fertility both on the mountain slopes and 

 in the valleys. 



The officers of the Geological Surve}' meanwhile made 

 a careful stud}" of the quantity of water flowing out through 

 the various streams having their sources in this region, 

 and of the effect of forest clearings on the regularity of 

 their flow at different seasons. Fifty-four regular stations 

 were maintained, covering every large stream which rises 

 in these mountains. These streams flow through West investigation 

 Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, °^ ^'^'^ 

 Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and rank among the 

 important rivers of the country. At each station daily 

 records of stream heights were kept, and measurements 

 of the volume of flow were made from time to time. In 

 addition to this, more than 1,000 miscellaneous gagings 

 were made on the tributaries of the James, Roanoke, 

 Yadkin, Catawba, Broad, Savannah, Chattahoochee, Coosa, 

 Hiwassee, Tennessee, French Broad, Nolichucky , Watauga, 

 Holston, and New (Kanawha) rivers. (See PI. XII). 



A brief preliminary report embodying the more salient 

 results of this investigation during the year 1900 was sent 

 to Congress by the President in January, 1901. It was 

 accompanied by a letter from President McKinley com- 

 mendatory of the plan for an Appalachian forest reserve 

 here suggested anew. The present report will be found to Nature of this 



... . . report. 



contain the results of the investigations carried on during- 

 the past two years, together with some conclusions based 

 upon them. The general statement is followed by a series 

 of supplemental papers, each containing a more detailed 

 account of the results of the examinations and inquiries 

 along some one single line. 



The region examined during this investigation embraces The region ex- 

 that part of the Appalachian Mountain system which begins 

 in southern Virginia and includes portions of that State, of 

 southeastern West Virginia, western North Carolina, east- 

 ern Tennessee, northwestern South Carolina, and northern 

 Georgia, and especially that portion of this region usually 



