THE HIGH MOUNTAINS 103 
the Great Smoky Mountains familiar to all through 
the stories of Charles Egbert Craddock, where they 
are so truly and charmingly portrayed. 
The plateau, narrower and higher in the north and 
gradually lowering as it runs southward, is crossed 
by a number of short high ranges. At its narrowest 
point just north of the Grandfather Mountain, it is 
only about fifteen miles across, and all this northern 
portion has a general elevation of about four thou- 
sand feet, that is to say, its larger valleys lie at that 
elevation surrounded by mountains. South of the 
Grandfather the plateau widens out to about sixty- 
five miles across and drops until its larger valleys 
lie at a general elevation of from two to three thou- 
sand feet. But while the valleys here are lower, the 
mountains are higher, there being in this region 
many of the highest and grandest mountains of the 
whole Appalachian uplift. 
Along the crest of the Unaka runs the boundary 
line between North Carolina and Tennessee. On 
this line or close to it, now on one side and now on 
the other, lie some of the highest mountains of the 
region, although the most remarkable uplift is per- 
haps the short Black Mountain Range, in North 
Carolina, well away from the Tennessee border, and 
where, although the range is only fifteen miles long, 
there are more than a dozen summits above six 
thousand feet in elevation, one of these. Mount 
Mitchell, 67 1 1 feet high, being the highest point 
east of the Rockies. 
It is not very long since the geographies taught 
