38 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
square miles, in a southerly direction, into Albemarle Sound. Of these 
the Chowan is the largest, — with the Meherrin , about 100 miles long, and 
navigable beyond the State line; and having a fall from the point where 
the latter crosses the border of some 40 feet. The other of these rivers, 
Perquimans, Little River, Pasquotank and North River , rise in the great 
tracts of swamps near the State line, and have a scarcely perceptible fall 
of less than one foot to the mile, terminating in wide bay-like arms of the 
sound. And the other rivers which drain the alluvial and swampy re- 
gions near the sounds are of the same character,- — broad and navigable, 
but withlittle fall, and therefore of no interest in a manufacturing point of 
view. 
On the south side of the Albemarle enter two such streams from the 
great swamps of Hyde and Tyrrell counties, the Alligator and the Scup- 
pernong. 
Pungo River is a wide stream of like character, which flows from these 
last swamps southward into Pamplico Sound, entering at the same point 
with the Tar, (or Pamplico) Piver, and is not less than three miles wide 
at its mouth. Midway between Tar andj Meuse, is Bay River , 1 to 3 
miles wide. Between the Meuse and Cape Fear ar.e several other very 
short and broad tidal streams, as, White Oak River , from the swamps of 
J ones county, and Newport and North River in Carteret county ; and 
south of the Cape Fear, Lockwood’s Folly and Challotte. 
It will be found, by summing the aggregates of the river-lengths of all 
the river systems of the State, that the total aggregate is about 3300 
miles, (just the length of the Missouri from its source to the Gulf), and 
their total fall about 33,000 feet, or an average of 10 feet to the mile. 
If, then, we imagine a river of about the average size of those above 
described, say the Haw, or the Meuse, with a length and fall equal to the 
above aggregates, we shall reach a very simple conception of the matter. 
Or perhaps we may even more readily grasp the totality of these results by 
taking one of the above described river systems as furnishing, in its 
length, fall, and drainage area, units of which the grand aggregates for 
the whole are simple multiples. The Meuse for example, drains an area 
of 5000 square miles, has a total length (with its tributaries) of about 
325 miles, and the aggregate of the falls of the main river and its prim 
cipal affluents is nearly 1100 feet, so that this river system, if the fall 
were three times as great, would bear the simple ratio of one-tenth to all 
the total aggregates for the State ; that is to say, ten river systems equal 
to that of the Meuse, but with three times its fall will represent the ex- 
tent and dynamical effect of the whole river system of the State. 
Water Power. — I t will be apparent from the foregoing rapid sketch, 
