Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

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  • IQ SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. designated as the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Its general character and relations can be more easily described and better understood after a brief discussion of the Appalachian region as a whole. THE APPALACHIAN REGION. The map accompanying this report (PI. II) shows the Appalachian Mountain system extending along the eastern . portion of the continent from New York to Alabama, for a distance of 1,000 miles, and having a maximum width approaching 150 miles. These Appalachians constitute, not a single ridge or chain, but a zone or belt of mountains, the maximum development of which is reached south- Appalachiansoutawest 0f Washington. Along the southeastern front, Mountain*. <=> ° . the Blue Ridge Mountains in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are rather poorly defined, and reach an elevation in the latter State, at South Mountain, of about 2,000 feet. South- southwestward they become a more prominent and regular feature in the landscape, the highest peaks reaching an elevation of a little more than 4,000 feet in Virginia (see PI. XII), and about 6,000 feet in North Carolina. Along the northwestern front of this belt the Allegheny Mountains, starting with the Catskills in New York, cross Pennsylvania and Maryland is a series of well-defined parallel ridges, with a general elevation of 2,000 feet. The maximum development of the Alleghenies, however, is reached along the line between Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, where the elevations range from 3,000 feet to nearly 4,500 feet above the sea. Southward from this point they become less and less prominent, rising but little above the adjacent plateau surface. Between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghenies lies a great mountain valley, or succession of valleys, separated laterally by more or less subordinate ridges, parallel to the general mountain courses, and with their ends separated by low divides. This is called by the geographers Appalachian the Great Appalachian Valley. The more or less separate valleys have local names, such as the Lehigh, Lebanon, and Cumberland valleys, in Pennsylvania; the Shenandoah, or Valley of Virginia (see PI. Ilia), and the Valley of East Tennessee. (See PI. LXV.) The floor of this great valley region has an elevation above the sea of from less than 500 to 800 feet in Pennsylvania, and thence, like the mountains, rises southward to its maximum elevation of about 1,700 feet in southwest Virginia. (PI. III.)
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).