Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/702

 682 BLACK MOUNTAINS BLACK SEA attacked by the wits, and especially by Pope in the " Dunciad ;" in reply he wrote the " Sa- tire upon Wit." His name has come to be a synonyme for dulness ; but his " Creation " has been praised by Addison, Johnson, and other high authorities. BLACK. MOUNTAINS, the culminating group of the Appalachian system (see APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS), named from the dark growth of balsam firs and other evergreens which cover their summits, situated in Yancey and Bun- combe counties, North Carolina, between the main central ridges on the west and a portion of the Blue Ridge on the east. Unlike the other ridges of the Alleghanies, they lie for the most part transverse to the general trend of the range, and give this direction to the great valleys and rivers included between them. They rise from a district of great elevation, the height of the valley at Asheville, on the French Broad River, being about 2,000 ft. above the sea, and that of Toe river at Burnsville, Yancey county, about 2,500 ft. From this plateau the drainage is toward the Ohio in a northerly direction by the branches of the Great Kanawha, by those of the Hol- ston and the French Broad toward the south- west, and by those of the Yadkin and the Ca- tawba into the Pedee and Santee toward the southeast. This position at the sources of streams flowing in such diverse directions long since pointed out this district as probably the most elevated east of the Rocky mountains. The botanists Michaux, father and son, were led to the same opinion by their observations upon the northern character of the forest growth with which these mountains are cov- ered. In 1835 the first attempts to determine the elevation of the greatest heights were made by Dr. E. Mitchell, professor in the uni- versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The principal peak, called Clingman's peak, but known in North Carolina as Mt. Mitchell, he es- timated to be 6,476 ft. above the sea ; and in 1844 he visited the locality again, and made the height 6,672 ft. In 1855 the Hon. T. L. Clingman of North Carolina made the eleva- tion 6,941 ft., and in 1856 Prof. Guyot deter- mined the highest point, which he then called the Black Dome, to be 6,760 ft. high. The following are the elevations and names of the 12 highest points, all of which are higher than Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, as pub- lished hi 1857 from the investigations of Prof. Guyot : BLACK MOUNTAINS. 1. Clingman's Peak 6,701 2. Guyot's Peak, or Balsam Cone 6.661 8. Sandoz Knob 6 612 4. Hairy Bear 6,597 6. Cat-Tail Peak 6595 6. Gibbe's Peak 6,586 7. Mitchell's Peak 6,576 8. Sugar-Loaf, or Hallback Peak.. . 6,401 9. Potato Top ' 6,889 10. Black Knob ..6^877 11. Bowler's Pyramid 6^845 12. Koan Mountain 6,318 The summit of Mt. Washington is 6,285 ft. above the level of the sea. In 1857 Dr. Mitch- ell lost his life in a third excursion to these mountains, for the purpose of establishing his claim to having first measured the elevation of the highest summit, the honor of which was also claimed by the Hon. Mr. Clingman. BLACK RIVER. I. A river of New York, which rises in Herkimer county, pursues a N. W. course through Oneida and Lewis counties, and as far as Great Bend, in Jefferson county, and thence flows W. by Watertown, and emp- ties through Black River bay into Lake On- tario. Near Turin, in Lewis county, it has a fall of about 63 ft. Below the fall it is navi- gable to Carthage, a distance of 40 m. From Carthage to Watertown is a series of rapids, rendering navigation almost impossible. A canal has been opened from the upper falls to Rome on the Erie canal. The whole length of the river is 125 m., and its breadth at Water- town (6 m. from its mouth) is 60 yards. II. See BIG BLACK RIVEE. BLACK SEA (ane. Pontus Euxinus, the hos- i Europe, enclosed N. and E. by Russia and S. i and W. by Turkey, and connected N. E. with and S. W. with the Mediterranean through the Bosporus, the sea of Marmora, and the Darda- nelles. It lies between Ion. 27 25' and 41 50' E., and lat. 40 50' and 46 45' N. Its extreme length is 700 m. from E. to W., its extreme breadth nearly 400 m. on the 31st meridian. It has a coast line of more than 2,000 m., and a superficial area of about 180,000 sq. m. It re- ceives from Europe the waters of the Danube, Dniester, Bog, and Dnieper, and through the sea of Azov those of the Don, and from Asia the waters of the Kizil Irmak (Halys) and Sa- karia, besides smaller rivers, and drains a ter- ritory in Europe and Asia of scarcely less than 1,000,000 sq. m. There are geological indica- tions that the Black sea was at one time much larger than it is now, having no outlet to the Mediterranean, flooding a considerable part of southern Russia, and reaching even to the Cas- pian and Aral seas, with which it formed one body. Natural features probably assisted in suggesting the name of Black, which is given it in all modern European languages. The ancient name, Euxine, is supposed to have been a euphemistic modification of a former appellation, Pontus Axenus, meaning inhos- pitable sea. The prevalent wind is from the N. E. ; it comes laden with moisture from a wide swampy territory, and frequently veils the sea in darkness by fogs and rain. Owing, too, to the confined extent of the water, a strong wind quickly lashes it into a tempest, and gives to the whole sea something of the appearance of a whirlpool. These brief but troublesome tempests are especially frequent during the winter. The difficulties which the atmosphere offers to the navigation of the Black sea are compensated by the character of the sea itself. Both its shores and its interior
 * pitable sea), an inland sea between Asia and
 * the sea of Azov through the strait of Yenikale,