104 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
us that Mount Washington in New Hampshire, with 
an elevation of 6293 feet, was the highest mountain 
in the East. But since then the surveyors have been 
at work in the Southern mountains, to find in the 
Great Smokies, the Blacks, and the Balsams over 
twenty peaks higher than Mount Washington. A 
North Carolina government report, after giving a 
list of altitudes of the principal mountains, concludes 
thus: " In all, forty-three peaks of six thousand feet 
and upwards. And there are eighty-two mountains 
which exceed in height five thousand feet, and closely 
approximate six thousand, and the number which 
exceed four thousand, and approximate five thou- 
sand are innumerable." 
The principal mountains between the two border- 
ing chains are placed in a somewhat orderly manner 
in short ranges that for the most part lie nearly 
parallel one to another, crossing the plateau in a gen- 
erally northwesterly direction. The most northerly 
of these, however, the beautiful dome-shaped Black 
Mountains lying to the north of Asheville, is not 
parallel with the others, but runs almost north from 
the point where it leaves the Blue Ridge. 
Southwest from the Blacks and to the south of 
Asheville rises the range of the Newfound Moun- 
tains, and south of that the charming Pisgah Range 
that takes a northeasterly direction. Next in order, 
and nearly parallel to the Newfound Mountains, is 
the high Balsam Range containing some fifteen 
summits exceeding six thousand feet. Then comes 
the wild Cowee Range, then the bold and beautiful 
