SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



29 



decades have begun to suffer seriously from river floods. 

 Each one of these streams along its course through the 

 mountains and across the hill country beyond by its water i^fidiXr'^water 

 power is already a contributor to the manufacturing in- power, 

 terests of the country (PI. XXV), and with improvement 

 in the electrical transmission of power the possibilities of 

 manufacturing developments in this direction are increas- 

 ing rapidly every year. The measurements and estimates 

 recently made by the Government h3^di'ographer show the 

 aggregate available undeveloped water power on the 

 streams rising in this region to be more than a million 

 horsepower. On these streams water-power developments 

 are constantl}^ in progress, but their value in the future 

 will diminish as the forests disappear. 



In the mountains themselves these streams have their 

 sources at elevations from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, and before 

 reaching a level of 2,000 feet many of them have reached 

 considerable propoi'tions. They subsequently flow across 

 the mountain region for distances of from 20 to 50 miles 

 before breaking through the border ranges onto the sur- 

 rounding lowlands at elevations ranging from 1,000 to 

 1,200 feet. Along their courses stretches of smooth water 

 are never long, and the descent is often accomplished by 

 numerous rapids, cascades, and falls. (See PI. XXVII; 

 also Pis. LXX and LXXI.) Such cascades, with descent Beauty of the 



' mouiitaiu 



in short distances of from 10 to 50 feet,' are abundant, streams, 

 while in some of the smaller tributaries beautiful falls of 

 from 100 to 300 feet are to be found. 



I can not adequately describe the ])eauty and infinite 

 variety of these mountain brooks and lai'ger streams. 

 Alwaj's clear, except immediately after the harder rains — 

 for the forests hold back the soil — fed regularly from per- 

 petual springs, they are among the important assets of 

 the South. 



No gorges in eastern America can equal in depth and The river gorges 



-, , of tlie region. 



wildness those carved across the Blue Ridge and the 

 Unakas by these streams in making their way through 

 the marginal ranges of the Southern Appalachians. About 

 the headwaters of the Catawba, the Linville River, after 

 flowing for some miles parallel with the Blue Ridge, at 

 an elevation of 3,800 feet, rushes down its eastern slope 

 with a fall of 1,000 feet in less than 3 miles, through a 

 gorge 1,500 to 2,000 feet in depth, a dozen miles in length, 

 and with wall so steep and bottom so narrow and rugged 

 that few persons have succeeded in following its course. 



