GEOLOGY CF NORTH CAROLINA. 
f)4 
Ridge, 12 miles, 
Cane Creek, 14 miles, bank.. 
Ridge, 15 miles, 
Mud Creek, 17 miles, 
Ridge 19 miles, 
Crabtree Creek, 19 1-4 miles, 
Ridge, 20 miles .c 
Little Mud Creek, 24 miles,. 
Ridge, 29J miles, 
Green River, 32 miles, 
Saluda Gap, 34 miles, 
.2,279 
.2,124 
.2,259 
,2,118 
.2,395 
.2,203 
.2,311 
.2,138 
.2,472 
.2,057 
.2,393 
Feet. 
There is a large amount of material bearing on the topography of the 
State still in hand, which is not ready for publication, and there are also 
a great many surveys, of railroads and canals, and plank roads of which 
copies have not yet been obtained. 
But any one who will take the trouble to study the above data with 
the State map in hand will be able to realize for himself the prominent 
and peculiar features of the topography of the State, and no one who 
does so can fail to see the important bearing which the subject has on the 
system of internal improvements, or to see the defects of our present sys- 
tem, if such it can be called ; defects, the most glaring of which are due 
to a want ot the necessary topographical knowledge on the part of the 
public, and of those who organized some of the dominant and most ex- 
pensive parts of the scheme. A topographical map, though only approx- 
mate, and even rude, will be of inestimable value in preventing the like 
expensive mistakes in the future. And this is especially true of the more 
interior or western extensions of our public works ; the influence of the 
topography of this section ought to be controlling. It is proposed, as 
soon as all the existing sources of materials for the purpose are exhausted, 
and a few important connecting lines of barometrical levels can be run, to 
construct a relief map of the State, beside the geological map, on the walls 
of the Museum. 
Latitudes and Longitudes. — Inasmuch as no astronomical observa- 
tions had ever been made, (so far as appears from any record, with one 
exception, to be mentioned presently), to determine the geographical po- 
sition of even the most important points in the middle and western sec- 
tions of the State, it seemed desirable to ascertain at least approximately 
the errors of the positions commonly assigned to some of these points. 
For this purpose a good marine sextant and pocket chronometer were 
carried from Raleigh, as a base, (whose position has been accurately de- 
termined by the Coast Survey), and a series of double altitude observa- 
tions of the sun were taken at a number of selected stations, from Char- 
lotte and the neighborhood, to the western limit of the State. It will be 
