thorized by legislative act of 1894 to hold mountain and forest lands as historic sites. The club aims to preserve the beauty of mountain forests and resorts, to render them attractive to visitors and excursionists, to publish accurate maps thereof, and to collect scientific data concerning the mountains. Appalachia, the club journal, has (1901) reached 27 numbers, constituting 9 complete volumes. An annual Register has been published since 1879. Several books relating to mountaineering, touring trips, etc., have been published under the auspices of the society. The club library consists of over 1000 volumes, 500 pamphlets, 1300 maps or sets of maps, and several notable collections of photographs of mountain views. The club, which in 1901 had 1200 members, conducts excursions and field meetings every year.
APPALACHIANS. The general name for
the extensive mountain system in the eastern
United States. It extends in a northeast-southwest
direction from northern Alabama and
Georgia, to the vicinity of Albany, N. Y. Some
writers include the Adirondack Mountains, but
these constitute an independent though
comparatively small system, geologically distinct
from the Appalachians. The Taconic, Green,
and White mountains are often, and with more
reason, considered a part of the general system,
as also are the ranges stretching from northern
Maine to the Gaspé Peninsula, and reappearing
in Newfoundland. At its southern end the system
curves slightly to the westward, and beyond
the Mississippi Valley is resumed as the
Ouachita uplift of southern Arkansas and Indian
Territory.
General Character. The region proper may be described as a long, narrow plateau, from 70 to 200 miles in width, with an altitude of 1500 to 3000 feet. It is bordered on the east by the well-defined Blue Ridge, and on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, which two ridges lie approximately parallel, and 75 to 100 miles apart, throughout their lengths. Between these outer ranges lie a great number of smaller disconnected mountain ridges, chiefly parallel to the main axis of the system in the central and northern part, but much broken in the southern and southeastern Appalachians. These mountain ridges maintain a remarkably uniform altitude, gradually increasing from both directions toward the central mass in western North Carolina. Lying between the comparatively narrow and regular wall of the Blue Ridge and Alleghanian ranges, west of it, is the great Appalachian Valley, which is a characteristic feature of the topography, for it extends the entire length of the mountain system. Here and there it is broken by minor ridges into two or three parallel valleys, but the general nature of a trough between mountain ranges is maintained throughout. In New York it is known as the Wallkill Valley; in Pennsylvania, the Lebanon, Lancaster, and Cumberland valleys; in Virginia it is the historic Shenandoah Valley, or “Great Valley of Virginia”; and still farther south it is the Tennessee Valley, extending into Alabama and Georgia.
Divisions. The Appalachian region has not a uniform conformation throughout its extent, but is divided into two sections, the Northern and the Southern Appalachians, with the line of separation in western Virginia. This division is not merely of an arbitrary nature, but is founded on well-marked differences in the structural and physiographic features of the two regions. In the northern division the Blue Ridge range has gentle slopes, rising usually to rounded crests, which show a gently undulating sky line, with here and there a peak rising a little higher than the usual level. (See Blue Ridge.) To the west of this ridge is a more or less elevated northerly extension of the great Appalachian Valley, which in general presents a succession of depressions and heights, the former worn by streams to a depth, in some cases, of 200 feet, while the latter rise to a height of usually less than 1000 feet above the depressions. The Alleghany Mountains rise west of the valley in bolder sculpturing than that of the Blue Ridge, the side toward the great interior valley, the “Alleghany front,” being steep and rugged; but on the side of the Mississippi Valley the slope is gradual, descending westward in lessening ridges from the plateau which marks the summit region; this configuration is due to the fact that the stratified rocks (see below) incline westward, exhibiting their upturned edges in precipices toward the east. Beginning with the Catskills, the line is broken by the broad valley of the Delaware, but reappears in several prominent ranges in Pennsylvania. The westernmost, or ‘front’ range, is confusingly called First, or Blue Mountain, with Peter's, or Second Mountain, behind it, east of the Susquehanna. East of the Susquehanna, the Tuscarora, Blacklog, Jack's, Standing Stone, and Tussey's are well-defined ranges westward, filling the whole region with crowded heights to the long range distinctively termed Alleghany, which stretches from the border of New York down into West Virginia. In the Virginias both the Blue Ridge and the western ranges become loftier and better defined. The front range is here called the Great North Mountain, and west of it lie successively the Shenandoah and several broken ranges, rising to the continuation of the Alleghanies proper. These draw together at the southwest extremity of Virginia, where a new uplift, the Cumberland Mountains (q.v.), rises west of them, and terminates in the Clinch Mountains. The valley of the Tennessee makes a break, south of which the range reappears in the prolongations of the Cumberland Mountains in northern Alabama. In New Jersey the ‘Highlands’ of the Blue Ridge rise to heights of 1000 to 1500 feet; in Pennsylvania to 2000 feet; in Virginia from 2000 to 4000 feet (Hawk's Bill, 4066 feet), and with a breadth of 16 miles. In North Carolina, near the Virginia line, the Blue Ridge forks, the Unaka Mountains, of somewhat greater altitude, but of lesser continuity, branching off toward the southwest, while the Blue Ridge proper takes a more southerly course. The Alleghanies, which really begin with the Catskills, in New York State (highest 4200 feet), have in the northern part a general elevation of about 2000 feet, which increases to 4400 feet in Virginia and Kentucky, and still farther south decreases from 200 to 2500 feet. The absence of any isolated peaks is highly characteristic of the whole Alleghanian region; the mountains everywhere present the appearance of long, evenly topped ridges, and the name applies to the whole ridge.
The prominence of the Blue Ridge is the characteristic feature of the southern division of the Appalachians. This rises suddenly from
