INTRODUCTION. 
27 
by east to south, around the head springs of that river to the Grand- 
father, from which point it reaches the southwest corner of Alleghany 
county near the Peak mountain by a zigzag lines — east, north, east, and 
again north ; after which its course is nearly east, until it touches the 
border of Surry county, when it takes a N. E. course, in which direction 
it leaves the State at Fisher's Peak. 
The chain of the Smoky Mountains is broadly contrasted with the 
P>lue Ridge in its greater regularity both in direction and elevation, its 
greater elevation, and especially in the excessive depth of its gaps, which, 
from the peculiar structure of the plateau already noticed, become enormous 
chasms or water gaps of 3000 and 4000 feet depth, through which the 
drainage of the plateau escapes. These gaps are more than a thousand 
feet lower than those of the corresponding parts of the Blue Ridge. 
Balds . — These are natural meadows which are found on the rounded 
tops of many of the highest mountains. They are treeless, and are in fact, 
like the savannahs of the east, simply prairies. The mountains are usually 
covered with heavy forests, cjuite to their summits, but a number of the 
highest knobs, especially in the Smoky chain, and in Mitchell and Yan- 
cey counties, have their dome-like tops cjuite bare of trees. The eleva- 
tions of these balds is generally near or above 6000 feet. Their baldness 
of course has a different cause from that of savannahs and prairies. 
The heavy forest growth of the valleys and lower slopes and benches 
of the mountains is gradually dwarfed toward the bald summits, so 
that these are surrounded by a fringe of stunted shrubby oaks, beeches, 
&c. Doubtless, therefore, the rigor of the climate on these exposed 
heights has much to do with their botanical features, the vegetation 
having a very high latitude aspect, as the abundance of firs, hemlocks, 
&c., testify. But this alone will net account for them, since there are 
many much higher peaks and ranges both in the Smoky and Black which 
are clothed with dense forests of large trees. 
The most extensive and best known of these balds is that of the Roan. 
There is, in fact, a succession of them, five or six miles. Dr. Mitchell 
thus describes the Roan with its bald top: “It is the most beautiful of 
all our high mountains. With the exception of a body of rocks, looking 
like the ruins of an old castle, near its southwestern extremity, the top 
of the Roan may be described as a vast meadow, without a tree to ob- 
struct the prospect ; where a person may gallop his horse for a mile or 
two, with Carolina at his feet on one side, and Tennessee on the other, 
and a green ocean of mountains raised in tremendous billows imme- 
diately around him.” 
The Big Bald, a mountain of 5550 feet elevation, in the northwest 
