Description of a Natural Tunnel, 353 



extends N. E. and S. W. 1200 miles, and has a mean breadth of 

 about 100 miles between the Ohio river and the Blue ridge, in 

 Virginia. In those dells, or vales, the head waters of those rivers 

 which effect the drainage of the country east and west, have 

 their rise. In the south-western corner of Virginia, where the 

 eastern part of Tennessee, and the western part of North Caro- 

 lina meet, there are slopes which send down the great Kenhawa 

 to the north-west, the Tennessee to the south-west, and the 

 Roanoke to the south-east. The Blue ridge has its north-eastern 

 termination in York county, Pennsylvania, and from thence 

 stretches south-west in an almost unbroken line to Burke county, 

 N. Carolina, a distance of more than 350 miles, where it becomes 

 the main ridge,* dividing between the waters of the Atlantic 

 ocean and the Ohio river. West of this primary ridge lie the 

 other ridges belonging to the transition and secondary The 

 sources of the Roanoke lie at an elevation of about 1500 feet 

 above tide water, on the western side of the Blue ridge, and con- 

 tiguous to the sources of the great Kenhawa, which traverses the 

 remaining part of the distance to the Ohio river, descending 

 the vales, passing through the gaps of the ridges, and the dells 

 and vales which separate the independent hills. 



Stock creek is one of those sources of the Tennessee, and rises 

 in a dell at the foot of Powell's mountain. On its way to Clinch 

 river, to which it is tributary, and which itself is tributary to the 

 Tennessee, it encounters a spur of Powell's mountain, which 

 under the name of Cove ridge, terminates, as Col. Long has re- 

 marked, with a slope of about four degrees, affording a very con- 

 venient passage for a road. The stream passes through the tun- 

 nel not far from the termination of the spur, so that if originally 



* It should, moreover, be remarked, in reference to the main ridge dividing between 

 the Atlantic and Ohio waters, which may be regarded as the back bone of 

 the Allegheny or Apalachian mountains, although distinguished by different names 

 in different parts of its range, is nevertheless completely unbroken by ravines or 

 water courses, throughout its whole extent, from its south-west extremity near the 

 sources of the Tombeckbee river, in lat. 34 1-2 N. and long. 88° W. to the point 

 where it is intersected by the west branch of the Susquehanna, in lat. 41 1-2 N. 

 and long. 77 1-2 W. Beyond this point, north-eastwardly, the ridge or back bone 

 ceases to maintain its characteristic continuity ; but spreads in that direction into 

 numerous ramifications, dispersed over a large extent of country, and presenting 

 themselves in the form of detached knobs, or out-liers. The crest of this ridge has 

 no where an elevation less than 2000 feet above tide ; its course is very serpentine, 

 and its entire length between the points above designated, is about 600 miles. 



Vol, 1.— 45. 



