Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/34

24 Having no ports but our rivers and creeks, this Queary has been anſwered under the preceding one.

 

NOTICE of its Mountains?

For the particular geography of our mountains I muſt refer to Fry and Jefferſon's map of Virginia; and to Evan's analyſis of his map of America, for a more philoſophical view of them than is to be found in any other work. It is worthy notice, that our mountains are not ſolitary and ſcattered confuſedly over the face of the country; but that they commence at about 150 miles from the ſea-coaſt, are diſpoſed in ridges one behind another, running nearly parallel with the ſea-coaſt, though rather approaching as they advance north-eaſtwardly. To the ſouth-weſt, as the tract of country between the ſea-coaſt and the Miſſiſippi becomes narrower, the mountains converge into a ſingle ridge, which, as it approaches the Gulph of Mexico, ſubſides into plain country, and gives riſe to ſome of the waters of that Gulph, and particularly to a river called the Apalachicola, probably from the Apalachies, an Indian nation formerly reſiding on it. Hence the mountains giving riſe to the river, and ſeen from its various parts, were called the Apalachian mountains, being in fact the