32 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



<ura\'ing''\RW'^^^^ Here aiul tlun-c iiiuoiio' the Southern Api):ihichiiui,s a hiiid- 

 ucoossiiy'oi-'^^^^^^^^^^^ extending over an acre, or (several acres, has started, 

 est cover. bearing on its surface a section of the forest, but the larger 

 trees below have blocked its course within a few feet or a 

 few yards of its original position. (See PI. XXXII.) The 

 trees on its surface were tilted, but the sul)sequ(Mit upwai'd 

 bending of their tops shows that the slip took place ten, 

 fif t}', or more than one hundred years ago. The abundance 

 of such evidence shows that these rain storms among the 

 primeval forests have been both frequent and heavy, but 

 during the centuries these densely forest-covered slopes 

 have not lost their soils nor the soils their fertility, nor 

 loreiS^tfo v'c rc d '^'^^•'^ furrow been washed. Trees of four centuries stand 

 ™">drn"irsiow^ " bottom of shallow ra\'ines and minor 

 depressions (see Fl. XXXIII), eroded before these forests 

 covered the mountains. Plad these forests l)een removed 

 a few of these great rains that started these landslides 

 would ha^'e cleaned the mountain slope of its recently 

 formed soil, and would have swept the valley beloAV. 

 The future will These mountains will contiiuie to be the home of stoi'ms. 



nave its storms. 



ForestsaioneciinXheir heavy rains will continue to drench the slopes, if 



protect moun- _ _ _ _ _ J- ' 



•^^i"^- cleared of their forests, with increasing violence. Whether 



in the future these rains shall be caught by fern and grass 

 and hunuis, and received b}' a deep, porous soil, to l)e given 

 out as needed to the vegetation above and the perpetual 

 springs below, or whether it shall rush down bare, rocky 

 slopes to fill the gorges and carr}^ destruction through the 

 valleys beyond, depends upon whether or not these forests 

 are preserved. 



Daruages froin xhe terribly destructive work of the heavv rains in wash- 

 recent floods m _ " 

 this region. {^g away the farm lands on the mountain slopes and in the 



valle3\s of this region, especial!}^ where the clearings have 

 been greatest, has already been described. It should be 

 understood clearl3% however, that the dangers from these 

 floods are not limited to the region about the mountains. 

 The floods from the Ma}'^ storm of the present vear on 

 the Blue Ridge, about the sources of the Catawba, swept 

 the best of the farm lands along the course of that 

 stream for upward of 200 miles, and cost the farmers 

 more than a million an/d a half of dollars. An August 

 storm in the same region added a loss of half a million 

 more by further destruction on the Catawba lowlands. 

 (See PI. XXXIV.) Similarly , the same May floods swept 

 the valleys of the Yadkin in North Carolina, the New (Kana- 

 wha) in Virginia and West Virginia, and the upper tribu- 



