Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/609

NORTH CAROLINA 559 than 300 miles. Its area is 52,286 square miles, of which 3620 are covered by water. Physical Features. The western section is a rugged mountainous plateau ; it forms a narrow, irregular, much indented trough, lying between the bifurcating chains of the western and dominant arm of the southern prolonga tion of the Appalachians, the Smoky Mountains and the Blue liidge, the former being the western boundary of the State. The length of this plateau from north-east to south west is more than 200 miles, its breadth 15 to 50 miles, and its area nearly 6000 square miles. The Smoky chain has a general elevation of from 5000 to 6000 feet, rising in many summits to 6500 feet and upwards, but is broken down by half a dozen deep water-gaps or canons to the level of 2000 and even 1200 feet. The Blue Ridge, which constitutes the eastern boundary of the plateau, is a very sinuous and angular and straggling mountain chain, with a general elevation of from 3000 to 4000 feet and upwards, a few of its higher summits, about midway in the State, reaching nearly 6000 feet. These two bounding chains are connected by many north and south cross-chains, of equal elevation with themselves, or greater, and separated by deep valleys. On one of these cross-chains, called the Black Mountains, is Mitchell s Peak, the highest point east of the Mississippi, its altitude being 6688 feet (400 feet above Mount Washington in New Hampshire). The cross-valleys or river-basins have an altitude of from 2000 to 3000 feet, with smaller benches and marginal plateaus of from 3500 to 4000 feet. Seen from the east or Atlantic side, the Blue Ridge appears as a steep, ragged, and broken escarpment, springing suddenly 2000 to 3000 feet above the Piedmont plateau at its base. This plateau has along its western margin an altitude of 1200 to 1500 feet above sea -level, and is mountainous, with high and precipitous spurs projected eastward and southward from the Blue Ridge. A few of these extend in irregular straggling ranges all across the breadth of the Piedmont section, which is 60 to 75 miles wide, and carries an elevation of 1000 feet to its eastern margin. This middle region of the State is a country of hills and valleys and rolling uplands, its prominent topographical features being a succession of broad -backed swells with eastward or south-eastward trends, constituting the water sheds between a number of large rivers, which take their rise in the Piedmont or on the flanks of the Blue Ridge, and reach the Atlantic through a system of wide valleys, 300 to 500 feet below the intervening divides. The area of this region is about 20,000 square miles ; its alti tude, descending gradually from 1000 to about 200 feet, averages about 650 feet. Eastward, to the sea, lies a great champaign, 100 to 120 miles wide, and 20,000 square miles in area. The surface is generally quite level, but in places undulating and hilly towards the western border, especially near the larger rivers. Towards the coast it is diversified by numerous and extensive sounds, bays, rivers, lakes, marshes, swamps, and islands, the whole surface for 50 miles inland from Hatteras and the eastern shore being less than 20 feet above sea -level. The sea is walled off from this low-lying territory by a long linear chain of sand- islands or dunes, ranging from 75 to 100 feet and upwards in height, and separated in half a score places by inlets which connect the sounds with the ocean. Rivers and Drainage. The features above described give the main outlines of the drainage system, the Blue Ridge being obviously the chief factor. The streams which rise east of that chain empty into the Atlantic, either directly through the territory of this State or by crossing also that of South Carolina ; those which rise west of it seek the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, partly by way of the Tennessee, many of whose chief affluents have cut their way in a north-westerly course across the mountain plateau and through the Smoky range, and partly by way of the Ohio, leaving the plateau in a north-easterly direction and reaching that river by the Kanawha through Virginia. Several of the most considerable rivers take their rise in the midland region. The numerous rivers of the eastern section, as they approach the sounds and the sea, broaden into bays of 2, 3, and 5 miles width, through which the movement of the tide is felt to a distance of 50 and 60 miles inland, and many of them are navigable for more than a hundred miles to the lower falls near the western border of the alluvial region. Climate. In climate North Carolina resembles France and Italy. The position of the eastern end on the Atlantic and its projection southward beyond the parallel of 34, together with the near approach of the Gulf Stream, give this part of the State a sub-tropical climate, its isotherm (66) being that of the southern half of the Gulf States and of Nicolosi in Sicily, while the great elevation and inland recession of the western section bring its climate to that of the cold temperate zone, the isotherm for the higher plateaus (51) being that of New England and Upper Canada. The average annual mean temperature of the State is 59 ; for the eastern region it is 61, for the middle 58, and for the mountainous region 52. The summer temperature is, for the State 77, and for the several regions respectively 79, 77, 70 ; and the winter temper ature, 43 for the State, and for the regions named 46, 44, 38. During a recent winter of unusual severity the thermometer several times indicated 30 and 40 below zero in Michigan and New England, while in North Carolina 10 above zero was reached but once. The aver age of the minimum temperature for the State is 15, for the middle region 13, and for the west 8 ; a record of 10 is rarely made east of the Blue Ridge, or of west of it. The mean annual rainfall is nearly double that of England and France, the average for the State being 52 inches, and for the east, middle, and west respectively 60, 45, 58 inches. This precipitation is distributed nearly uniformly through the different seasons, with a slight pre ponderance in the amount of summer rain and a corre spondingly less quantity in the autumn. Notwithstanding this large amount of rainfall, the tables of humidity show that the climate is as dry as that of France ; and the cultivation of the vine, cotton, silk, &c., furnishes the strongest practical proof of the fact. The prevalent winds are westerly, south-west winds being more common in the east, north-west winds in the middle, and west winds in the mountain region. The rain-bearing winds are mostly from the west and south-west, but the winter rains often come from the north-east. Situated westward of the track of the Atlantic cyclones, and sheltered by high mountains and by distance from the western tornado, the State enjoys almost complete immunity from these destructive visita tions. The climate is favourable to human health, except in limited malarial tracts in the lowlands on some of the rivers. The death-rate for this State is less than the aver age for the United States, and one of the two areas where consumption is unknown is found here. Geology. The geological structure of the State is very simple; the formations are arranged quite regularly in zones parallel to the Appalachian axis and the Atlantic coast, and belong almost entirely to two horizons, the Archaean (or Azoic) and the Tertiary. The rocks of the several subdivisions of the former, the Laurentian, Montal- ban, Huronian, tc., occupy the western and middle regions and succeed each other in broad terranes, consisting of granites, gneisses, and schists, separated by narrow belts of quartzites, limestones, sandstones, and slates. The dip of these rocks is almost uniformly eastward and generally at a