SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



51 



northward 10 miles to a rather abrupt ending. The larger 

 part of this ridge rises above 6,000 feet, and Mount 

 Mitchell, the highest of half a dozen grand peaks, reaches 

 an elevation of 6,711 feet. From near the southern end 

 of the Blacks the Craggy Mountain ridge extends south- 

 westward for a distance of nearly 10 miles, and from this 

 same point the Yates Knob ridge extends northwestward 

 in a less regular form toward the Unaka range. These 

 mountains lie between Toe River on the north and the 

 Swannanoa on the south. At the southern end of the 

 Blacks they touch the Blue Ridge. They are from 15 to 

 30 miles south of Roan Mountain and 30 miles southwest of 

 the Grandfather. The group has an area of more than 

 170,000 acres, about 20,000 acres of which are cleared. 

 Forests cover nearly the entire area of the Craggy Moun- 

 tains, though they are not so dense, nor so nearly in their 

 original condition as are those on the Black Mountains, as 

 more or less lumbering has been done along both the eastern 

 and the western slopes. Some of these slopes, too, have 

 suffered much from fire and are almost destitute of young 

 trees and undergrowth. The densest and most primitive 

 forests of the region lie on the west slope of the Black 

 Mountains about the headwatei's of Caney River. (See 

 PI. XIII.) Those on the east slope of the Blacks are much 

 lighter and have suffered more from fires. 



FORESTS OF THE CENTRAL INTERIOR MOUNTAIN RIDGES. 



The Balsam Mountains make up the longest of the cross Topography, 

 ridges in the Southern Appalachians, extending from 

 Mount Guyot, the highest of the Unakas, on the Ten- 

 nessee line, in a genei"al southeasterl}^ course to Mount 

 Toxaway (Hogback) on the Blue Ridge, near the South 

 Carolina line, a distance of 40 miles. They reach their 

 highest point in Richland Balsam — 6,640 feet 



Northeast of and less prominent than the Balsams are 

 the Newfound Mountains, which form another and shorter 

 cross ridge, extending from Mount Pisgah northward to 

 the Unakas. South of the Balsams, the Cowee and Nan- 

 tahala mountains each form short cross ridges, rising to 

 less than 5,500 feet, which extend from the Blue Ridge 

 on the Georgia State line northwesterh^ to the Great 

 Smokies of the Unaka Range. 



These cross ridges are in their general features all much Agriculture, 

 alike, with frequent steep rocky slopes and sharp crests. 

 There is very little land on them suited to agriculture, 



