DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN FORESTS BY 



RIVER BASINS. 



By H. B. Aykes and W. W. Ashe. 



In order to present in more convenient form detailed 

 information about the forest conditions in the Southern 

 Appalachians, the following descriptions have been 

 arranged b}^ drainage basins, beginning at the northeast 

 and moving around the mountains to the place of begin- 

 ning, in the order given below. This arrangement will 

 serve an important purpose in the consideration of water 

 flow and also the question of transportation. 



The region has for this purpose been divided into the 

 following fourteen drainage areas: New River, South 

 Fork of Holston River, Watauga River, Nolichucky River, 

 French Broad River, Big Pigeon River, Northwestern 

 Slope of Smok}^ Mountains, Little Tennessee River, 

 Hiwassee River, Tallulah and Chattooga rivers, Toxaway 

 River, Saluda River and First and Second Broad rivers, 

 Catawba River, Yadkin River. 



NEW KIVER BASIN. 



[7r2,00O acres: 50 per oent wooded.] 



New River, a feeder of the Ohio through the Kanawha, Topography, 

 drains the eastern portion of the Appalachian Plateau 

 lying between the Blue Ridge on the southeast and Iron 

 Mountain on the northwest. The sources of the tributa- 

 ries are high, from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, but the river valley 

 below the junction of the North and South forks has been 

 eroded down to an altitude of 2,500 to 2,000 feet. The 

 resulting topography is a .s3\stem of deep, narrow vallej^s 

 and ravines, among which area few isolated peaks (having 

 an altitude of 5,000 feet and upward) and occasional flats, 

 which are of two classes — (1) in high altitudes remnants 

 of the old plateau, and (2) along the larger streams, nar- 

 row, sedimentary flats. 



