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Appalachians, the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains ; its length being more than two hundred miles, and breadth from 30 to 50 miles.
Mountains. This plateau is not only the most elevated region of the United States east of the Mississippi River, but is the culminating region of the Appalachian mountains, and contains its highest peaks, and most massive spurs, the Black Mountain in this State being some 400 feet higher than Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire.
This plateau is traversed also by half a dozen cross chains, which are higher and more massive than the principal ranges above mentioned. Many of these mountains are more than 0,000 feet, and quite a number reach nearly 7,000; the Black is 0,710, and Clingman’s 0,000 feet; Mt. Washington, N. Ii., 0,288. The plateau is subdivided therefore into a number of' smaller plateaus or basins, bounded on all sides by mountains, and each having its own independent drainage system. The Blue Ridge, which bounds this plateau eastward, separates it from the
Middle Region of the State, which may also be described as a low plateau, whose western side has an elevation at the foot of the Blue Ridge of 1,000 to 1,200 feet, and is roughened by many spurs of that chain two and three thousand feet high, and many of them 20 and 30 miles long. This region descends very gradually towards the east, preserving an elevation of 600 to 800 feet for 150 miles, constituting the hill country of the State, and having an eastward extent of more than 200 miles, and an area of more than 20,000 square miles.
The Eastern Section , which lies on the seaboard and extends inland 120 to 150 miles, is for the most part comparatively level, or but little rolling and hilly towards the west, and is about equal in area to the last, containing about 20,000 square miles of territory. This region is diversified by many Sounds , Bays and Lakes, communicating with its many large navigable rivers and constituting, with the con-