Cape Fear river, the largest stream which rises and has its entire basin in North Carolina, has its most remote source in the South East Moun tain, between and overheaded by those of Yadkin and Dan river branch of Roanoke. Cape Fear ri ver is formed by two confluents, Haw river and Deep river. Both rise on the south-eastern border of Stokes county, but Haw river derives the larger ,hare of its higher streams from Guilford, Rock ingham, and Orange counties; from which, flowing to the south-eastward, they unite in the latter, and entering Chatham join Deep river at Haywood boro'. Deep river, from its highest fountains in Stokes, flows to the south-eastward over Guilford and Randolph into Moore county. Curving from the latter to N.E. by E. it enters Chatham, and, uniting with flaw river, the combined waters are thence known as Cape Fear river. Below Ilay woodboro' the main volume of Cape Fear river, forming two great elliptical curves first to tha east ward and secondly westward, and passing Fayette ville, Elizabeth, and Wilmington, falls into the At lantic Ocean almost exactly on the intersection of N. Lat. 34° and Lon. 1° W. from W.C.
''he general course of 'law river is continued in the mai:: volume, and the range of the basin is very nearly from N.W. to SY.; length 200 miles. Where broadest, the width falls short of 70; and is fully estimated by a mean of 40 miles; or the area is about 8000 square miles. This basin ex tends in I,at. from 34° to 36' 22', and in Lon. from 0° 40' to 3° 08' W. from W.C.
From the right, below the junction of Haw and Deep rivers, the main volume of Cape Fear river receives no tributary above the size of a large creek, and on the left also, the confluents are few and limited in length, until a short distance above Wilmington, enter in rapid succession, South ri ver and North Branch of Cape Fear river. In either volume or length of course, those two minor branches would not deserve specific notice, but from their relative position they derive great im portance amongst the natural channels which may be made subservient to canal improvement.
South river, or Black river, as it is called in the higher part of its course, rises in Cumberland and Johnson counties, within 10 or 12 miles from the main volume of Neuse river, and flowing thence S.S.E. almost parallel to Cape fear river, and re ceiving large accessions of water from Sampson county, it falls into Cape Fear river, between Brunswick and New Hanover counties, and in a direct line 28 miles above the mouth of the main stream.
North Branch of Cape Fear river has the ex treme source in Wayne county, within three miles from the right hank of Neuse river, from whence it pursues very nearly a southern comparative course of about 70 miles, to where it falls into Cape Fear river at Wilmington, having traversed Duplin and New Hanover counties.
Pamtico, the first advancing from the south and the most extensive of the two great sounds of North Carolina, is the estuary or common recipient of two rivers, Neuse to the south•west. and Tar ri ver to the north-east. Both Neuse and Tar rivers derive their sources below the South East Moun tain, and in Person county, North Carolina. Neuse river, leaving Person and traversing Orange, Wake, and Johnson, and passing Raleigh the capi tal of the State, pursues a comparative south eastern course of 100 miles to Waynesboro, in Wayne county. About twenty miles above the latter place, the main volumes of Neuse and Cape Fear rivers approach within 25 miles of each other, approaching by counter curves, and then rapidly receding. Below Waynesboro, with a southern curve, the course of the Neuse is nearly east 40 miles, to where it receives a large tributary branch, Contentney creek, on the border between Craven and Pitt counties; bending thence to south-east 40 miles, it widens into a bay, which, inflecting to north-east another 40 miles, is lost in the wider ex panse of Pamtico Sound. The entire valley of Neuse lies in a direction of S.E. by E. and the re verse. Length 180, mean breadth 40, and area 7200 square miles.
Tar river rises in Person, but flowing thence traverses Granville and Franklin, and to the cen tral part of Nash county, 65 miles, by a compara tive course. Inflecting to a little north of cast 30 miles receives a large augmentation of volume from the influx of Sandy and Fishing creeks in Edgecomb county. Fishing and Sandy creeks drain the space between Tar river and the Roanoke, and the sources of the former approach very near the actual margin of the Roanoke. Immediately below the union of its main branches, the volume of Tar river passes Tarboro, and sweeping a large southern curve, but by a general south-eastern course of 40 miles, reaches Washington in Pitt county, below which latter place, widening into a bay of 40 miles in a south-eastern direction, the water is lost in Pamtico Sound.
The basin of Tar river is 160 miles in length by 25 mean width, area 4000 square miles. Extend ing in Lat. from 15' to 36° 25', and in Lon. from 0° to 30' E. to 1° 50' W. from W.C.
If taken into one view, and including in it the narrow slope of Onslow, between Cape Fear and Neuse rivers, and Pamtico Sound, the basin of Pamtico will reach from Cape Hatteras to the source of Neuse river, 230 miles; mean breadth about 60, and area 13,800 square miles. Of this space, however, Pamtico Sound and its minor bays occupy 1800 square miles, leaving to the land sur face 12,000 square miles.