SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



17 



THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



This general Appalachian s_ystem is usually separated 

 into its northern and southern divisions in southern Vir- 

 ginia by a line drawn nearl}" eastward from the most east- 

 erly point of Kentuck}', and where the New or Kanawha 

 River breaks across the Appalachian Valle\' and the Alle- 

 ghenies. New River rises on the Blue Ridge in North 

 Carolina, flows northward and then westward through the 

 Ohio into the Mississippi drainage. It thus Adolates the 

 rule established b}' the eTames, the Potomac, the Susque- t\reenthe°north- 

 hanna, and the Delaware rivers, to the north, of I'isitig A'^pa^'acWaM?'^" 

 about the AUeghenies and breaking eastward across the 

 Blue Ridge into the Atlantic drainage; and it here estab- 

 lishes a new rule that controls the drainage of the larger 

 mountain streams to the south, which, following its exam- 

 ple, rise on the western slopes of the Blue Ridge and flow 

 across the mountain region to the northwestward and into 

 the Mississippi drainage through the Tennessee. To the 

 southwest of this line which separates the two sj^stems of 

 drainage lie the Southern Appalachians. 



Referring again to the maps (Pis. IV and XII), it will 

 be seen that bordering these mountains on the east and 

 south in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama, 

 is a region which is termed by the geogi'aphers the Pied- 

 mont Plateau. From the base of the mountains, where it 

 has an elevation of from 1,000 to 1,200 feet, the hilly, pill'elu^'^'^"'''"' 

 undulating surface of the plateau (see PI. Ill 1>) slopes 

 gently seaward for a distance of from 100 to 1.50 miles, to 

 where these hills give place to the sandy plains of the 

 coast region. This Piedmont Plateau represents the finest 

 ag'ricultui'al and manufacturing portions of these States. 

 Across its surface wind the rivers, fed hy mountain streams, 

 whose waters furnish power for large and rapidh' grow- 

 ing manufacturing interests, and whose bordering lands 

 are among the most productive in the region. The future 

 of these water powers and of these bordering lands depends 

 upon the regularity of the mountain streams, and these 

 in turn depend upon the px'eservation of the mountain 

 forests. 



To the west of these mountains lies the Valley of East ^ J^^'^f 

 Tennessee, which constitutes the southern portion of the 

 great Appalachian Valley. It has an elevation of 1,700 

 feet in southwestern Virginia and 1,000 feet at Knox- 



*S. Doc. 81: 2 



