GEOLOGY OF GILES COUNTY, VIRGINIA 
311 
the small projection of Giles County extends into West Virginia, 
there is a natural boundary in the East River — Peters Mountain 
range, which is a somewhat uniform ridge approximately 3500 
feet in height. 
The southern boundary is^ in the same manner, defined by a 
ridge running parallel to the mountains described above. This is 
the Walker-Gap Mountain range which is from 500 to 1000 feet 
lower than the East River — Peters range. A distance of 12 miles, 
on the average, separates the two ridges. 
The highest point in the County is Bald Knob, in the east- 
central mountain region, whose elevation is 4,348 feet. The 
point where New River enters West Virginia has, of course, the 
minimum height, which is 1472 feet. Giles County, then, pre- 
sents a maximum relief of 2876 feet. 
Johns Creek, a tributary of the James River, has its source on 
the upper eastern slopes of Salt Pond Mountain. The extreme 
eastern portion of the county, then, drains into the Atlantic by 
way of James River. The divide between the streams flowing to 
the Atlantic and those tributary to the Mississippi system, may 
be drawn in Giles County along the crest of Salt Pond and Johns 
Creek mountains. This entire basin, however, does not com- 
prise more than eight square miles so that, for practical purposes, 
it might be said that the county was drained by New River and 
its tributaries. 
New River rises near Blowing Rock, N. C., and flows northeast 
to Radford, Virginia, a distance of about 100 miles. Here, it 
turns to the northwest and cuts through the mountains of Vir- 
ginia and West Virginia to join the Ohio at Point Pleasant 
where it is called the Kanawha (as it is throughout its lower 
course). This system is, of course, antecedent to the uplifts and 
crustal movements which developed the Peters and Walker 
mountains. In fact, New River is the only one which has, in 
the Appalachians, preserved its Cretaceous or pre-Cretaceous 
course to the westward. This has been due, in large part at least, 
to differential warping which raised the headwaters so high that 
enough gradient was developed to enable the river to cut through 
the hard sandstones of the Walker and Peters ridges. These 
were elevated with the rest of the region, but slowly enough so 
that the river could maintain its course in spite of the elevation. 
From Angels Rest, or Bald Knob, New River Valley looks 
