JOHNSON: TALLULAH DISTRICT. 
243 
to produce the capture. Acceleration of stream activity in the upper 
Savannah, due to warping, may have aided the capture, after the 
manner pointed out by Hayes and Campbell, but it is evident that 
the capture must have occurred in any case. The shorter streams 
of the Atlantic drainage are pushing the Blue Ridge escarpment 
westward all along its length, robbing the headwater areas of the 
Gulf drainage. 
Evidence of the Gravels. 
Thus far we have considered topographic evidence alone. It 
remains to examine other lines of evidence, the first of which is that 
furnished by waterworn river gravels. If the Chattooga River depos¬ 
ited gravels along its course, and was then diverted, the abandoned 
portion of its valley should be marked by the occurrence of these 
gravels. Were the capture recent, we should expect to find these 
gravels on the well preserved upland surface, but if the capture oc¬ 
curred long ago, the great lapse of time would be sufficient for stream 
erosion to dissect the upland surface, wash the gravels down to lower 
levels, and transport them from the area. Under these conditions we 
might find occasional scattered gravels over the hills or along the 
valleys, or even larger deposits of them in unusually favored places. 
They should be sought, not along the main streams where erosion is 
greatest, but on the divides, or near the little brooks which have 
been too weak to remove them. 
South of Tallulah Falls, where the headwaters of Panther Creek 
have greatly dissected the divide across which the Chattooga formerly 
had its course, waterworn gravels were found in a number of places. 
As a rule only scattered pebbles were found, but in one place a con¬ 
siderable deposit was encountered forming an indistinct terrace above 
one of the little brooks. There can be no mistaking these gravels. 
They are beautifully rounded and waterworn, whereas the material 
found in the present streams is all angular, and shows its local origin. 
In size they vary from small pebbles to large cobbles. Those found 
at the surface are broken and pitted as the result of long exposure to 
the influence of the weather, but those dug up from a little depth 
are smooth and fresh. Large numbers of them have been thrown 
up in piles where the farmers attempted to clear a field along the 
brook near the largest deposit. 
