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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  • 20 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. open out before the traveler through this region. In every direction the splendid hard-wood forests cover and protect the mountain slopes and the countless springs of water which flow from them as the sources of great rivers. There is but one discordant fact—the calamitous destruction of the forests on these mountain slopes. Some of these ridges, like the Black Mountains, are short, but high and massive and terminate abruptly. Others are longer and lower and slope gradually down to the adjacent valley or rise from a lower gap to another still higher ridge. All are more or less irregular both in their courses and their elevation. Most of them have peaks rising from their tops: but not a few have fairly uniform crests. (See peltaa'ndVidge^ PI- XVII.) Some of these peaks, like the Grandfather (PI. VII), are sharp, rugged, and rocky, others, like the Roan or the "Balds" (PI. VIIU/). are rounded domes whose tops are covered only with grass and rhododendron, while still others, equally tall and massive, like the Blacks and the Great Smokies, are heavily forest covered to the summit. (See PI. Villi.) The haziness of the atmosphere, which has found expression in the names " Blue Ridge" and "Smoky Mountain," often limits the distance of distinct vision, but it combines with the forest cover to soften the details and to render this Southern Appalachian landscape attractive beyond comparison. This succession of ridges and peaks, seen through it from an eminence, rising one above and beyond thesemountain's'another for 50 or 100 miles or more, impresses upon the observer in a manner not to be forgotten the vastnesa of this region of mountains. It has 46 peaks, a mile or more apart, and 11 miles of dividing ridges, which rise above 6,000 feet; 288 additional peaks and 300 miles of divide rise more than 5,000 feet above the sea. These are not only the greatest masses of mountains east of the Rockies; they are the highest mountains covered with hard-wood forests in America. tures'ent fea" This region, thus unique in its position, in its mountain features, in its forests, and in its climate, stands grandly out as the greatest physiographic feature in the eastern half of the continent. (See Pis. II and VI.) ^Mountainvai- Between these groups of mountains and far below them, though still at an elevation of 2,000 feet or more above the sea, are the numerous narrow valleys of this region. They border the numberless streams and arc generally more extensive nearer the sources of these streams, and
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).