SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



47 



Lenoir are cutting the pine in the Johns River Valley. 

 The other smaller bodies of white pine have been culled of 

 their finest trees. 



FOREST OF THE WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN REGIOIT. 



This region embraces the northwestern corner of North 

 Carolina, the northeastern corner of Tennessee, and the 

 adjacent portion of southwestern Virginia. In this portion 

 oi the Appalachians, the Unaka (here represented by Iron 

 Mountain) and the Blue Ridge ranges approach nearer 

 each other, and the intermediate land retains more of its 

 original character as a plateau lying between the great 

 Appalachian Valley, drained by the Tennessee River, on 

 the northwest, and the Piedmont Plateau on the southeast. 

 The White Top group comprises the mountains along the 

 northern rim of the elevated mountain region. 



To the irregular mountain ridge which in this more Topographic 

 northern region forms the boundary line between North 

 Carolina and Tennessee, the name of Stone Mountain is 

 applied. Here and there this ridge I'ises into peaks of 

 prominence. On one of these. Pond Mountain, which has 

 an elevation of 5,100 feet, the boundary lines between 

 North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia corner. Another 

 of these. White Top Mountain, some 5 miles to the north- 

 east, and a far more massive and imposing mountain, rises 

 to an elevation of 5,678 feet. Still another, Mount Rogers, 

 on the Balsam Ridge, about 5 miles a little north of east 

 from the White Top, rises to an elevation of 5,719 feet. 



The general course of this Stone Mountain ridge is to 

 the northeast as far as Mount Rogers and then continues 

 eastward as Iron Mountain to New River Cap. North- 

 west of it, in Tennessee, is another less regular and less 

 prominent ridge known as the Iron Mountains, reaching 

 an elevation at intervals of from 3,000 to J:,000 feet; 

 and 6 to 8 miles to the west of this latter, in Tennessee, 

 is the Holston Mountain ridge, reaching a still higher 

 elevation. These ridges are all approximately parallel, 

 having in East Tennessee a general northeasterly course. 



To the northwest of these mountains lies the broad, 

 fertile valley of the South Holston; to the southeast is the 

 more elevated valley of New River, broken into an endless 

 series of steep, round-crested hills, mostl}^ cleared, and 

 producing well in both grass and grain. Broad agricul- 

 tural valleys lie between the Iron and Stone mountains 



