126 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



number to over 6,000 feet. The mountain slopes, though 

 usuall}' steep, are forest-covered, and have a deep, fertile 

 soil of varying- physical character, which is very readily 

 eroded and washed away when the forest covering is re- 

 moved. The Blue Ridge, though not so high as the moun- 

 tains to the west, is an older range and constitutes the 

 divide between the waters flowing to the east and those 

 flowing to the west, the streams flowing in either direction 

 having their head springs in or near the gaps of this 

 divide. (Pis. LXIX, LXX.) 

 tiwgreat divf/e^ Considering the Blue Ridge as the great divide of 

 this region two portions of it are especially notable. 

 (See PI. XII.) Near Grandfather Mountain, the highest 

 point on the Blue Ridge, the New or Kanawha River rises 

 and flows northward through Virginia and thence north- 

 westward into the Ohio; the Yadkin rises a few yards dis- 

 tant on the east and flows northeast and then southeast 

 into the Atlantic; the Linville, a branch of the Catawba, 

 rises on the west side and flows south-southeast, cutting 

 across the Blue Ridge in a deep gorge, while a few miles 

 farther west the Watauga and Nolichucky flow northwest 

 and southwest, respectively, into the Tennessee and the 

 Gulf. One hundred and fifty miles farther southwest, 

 where the Blue Ridge is somewhat broken up near its 

 junction with the Balsam cross ridge, the French Broad 

 rises and flows eastward; the Saluda flows southeast; the 

 Savannah south, and the Tuckasegee west-southwest, into 

 the Tennessee. (PI. LXXI.) 



The most striking characteristic of the Blue Ridge is 

 the great apparent difl'erence in height when viewed from 

 its two sides, the streams flowing toward the east plung- 

 ing down its sides in nari'ow V-shaped gorges for a thou- 

 sand feet or more in a distance of a few miles until they 

 reach the gentle slopes of the Piedmont Plain. (See PI. 

 XXVII). Those flowing westward have a much easier 

 descent. 



gOTges ^^^^^ This is well shown by the great falls on the Linville 

 River, which, rising on the western slopes of Grand- 

 father Mountain, in Mitchell County, flows in a general 

 southerly course to its junction with the Catawba River, 

 near the southern end of the Linville Mountains. The 

 falls proper, which are located about 3 miles below the 

 Mitchell-Burke Countj^ line, have a perpendicular plunge 

 of 40 feet, and the cascades above are about 50 feet in 

 height, this fall of 90 feet occurring in a linear distance 



