TOPOGRAPH Y. The State may be divided into three distinct topographical belts. the Appala chian mountain region in the west. the Piedmont plain in the middle, and the coastal plain in the east, the dividing lines between these running obliquely across the State from southwest to northeast. The mountain belt, taken as a whole, eonsists of a high plateau covering about 6000 square miles and lying at an average elevation of 2000 to 500(1 feet. It is hounded on the east by the Blue Ridge, which rises in a steep and rugged escarpment from the Piedmont plain to a height of nearly 4000 feet above sea level in the north. becoming lower southward. On the west the plateau is bounded by the Great Smoky Alounta ins, whose crest separates North Carolina f nessee. Between these ridges the plateau itself is much dissected by river valleys running in all di rections, and broken up into cross ranges and ir regular mountain groups. These are generally rounded, forest-covered heights, but there are sev eral pointed peaks, and some precipitous slopes and rocky cliffs. More than twenty-five peaks are over 6000 feet high. Their summits are general ly hare. The highest is Mount Mitchell, in the group known as the Black Mountains, the cul minating point of the Appalachian system and the highest peak in the eastern half of the conti nent. It rises from the centre of the plateau
in North Carolina to a height of 6711 feet above the sea.
The portion of the State east of the mountain belt is about equally divided between the Pied mont and the coastal plains. The former reaches its widest development in this State. of whose area it includes nearly one-half. It slopes grad ually from an elevation of 1000 feet at the foot of the Blue Ridge to less than 500 feet where it merges into the coastal plain. Its surface is undulating, rugged, and hilly near the moun tains, but gradually levels toward the east. It is partly forested, but consists largely of cul tivated land, being the most populous and hest developed region of the State. The coastal plain occupies the eastern belt stretching from 100 to 150 miles from the coast. It is level and sandy, consisting in parts of pine barrens, and every where is less than 500 feet in elevation. it merges through low swamps into the shallow coast lagoons, of which Pamlico and Albemarle sounds are the largest. They are bounded on the ocean front by narrow sand beaches.