208 
MOUNTAIN RANGES. 
Ren wick gives the height of Mount St. Elias,'on the 
northwest coast, as 18,000 ; and Mount Fairweather, 
in the same region, as 14,913 feet above the ocean. 
These different mountain ranges thus may be 
grouped under two divisions, the Atlantic and the 
Pacific Series. The Atlantic series may be divided 
into the Eastern, the Blue Ridge, the Appalachian, 
and the Alleghany Systems. The Eastern System 
will comprehend all the mountain ranges of New- 
England, with their prolongation, the Highlands, 
which cross the Hudson at West Point, and pass 
through New-Jersey into Pennsylvania. The Blue 
Ridge *Sy5^em will embrace that long range of swell- 
ing and lofty ridges which extends from Maryland 
to Alabama, and k^iown in Virginia as the Blue 
Ridge. The Appalachian System is made up of a 
number of nearly parallel ridges, of very steep 
sides, and remarkably level outline along their 
summit, having an elevation rarely exceeding 2000 
feet above their included valleys. Commencing 
west of the Hudson, they pursue a southwest 
course parallel to the Highlands as far as these ex- 
tend, and beyond that, parallel to the" Blue Ridge 
system as far as Alabama. 
Immediately west lies the Alleghany System, which 
also extends to the northwest of the Appalachians, 
and is made up of several mountains, which rise 
from an elevated table-land, presenting little uni- 
formity in their course, except that their ridges are 
usually parallel to those of the former system. The 
eastern limits of the Alleghany system will then 
embrace the so-called Alleghany Mountains of Penn- 
sylvania, the Eastern Front-Ridge, the Green Brier 
Mountains, Great Flat-top Mountains of Virginia, 
and others in Tennessee. 
At present it will suffice to remark, that the east- 
ern system of mountains, as well as the Chippe- 
wayan, consist almost entirely of primary rocks, 
chiefly of the stratified class. The Blue Ridge sys- 
