Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/111

 THE SCIEISTTIPIC MONTHLY

��AUGUST, 1916

��CHANGIXG COXDITIOXS IN THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS^

By B. H. Schockel state kobmal school^ tbbbe haute^ ind.

THIS summary of changing conditions in the plateau of eastern Kentucky is based upon a month's field work, supplemented by previous and subsequent studies. The order of treatment is as follows : an introductory view of the topography, surroundings and settlement; the changing conditions with respect to the chief natural resources; manufacturing, transportation ; the people, with reference to their num- bers, distribution and condition, their institutions, and their customs and habits; the future.

Topography and Surroundings

Eastern Kentucky is a part of the Cumberland Plateau, and con- sists of 35 counties with an area of some 12,943 square miles, that is, about one third of Kentucky. It is a part of the Southern Appalachian Highlands. To the east of it are the parallel ridges and valleys of the Greater Valley of the Appalachians; to the west is the Blue Grass region. The top of the plateau was an old plain with low hills on it (a part of the Cretaceous Peneplain, with monadnocks) and sloped gently westward in Kentucky from an elevation of about 2,000 feet to a height of 1,200 to 1,500 feet. Since then this plain has been so thoroughly dissected by streams, in pattern like the branches of a tree, that probably not more than 4 per cent, of the land is level (topographic stage of mature erosion by dendritic drainage), the valleys being from 500 to 800 feet deep with narrow bottom lands, and the tops of the ridges averaging in many instances from 10 to 50 feet in width. The ridges, locally known as mountains, in general bear on their shoulders and crests hardwood forests sprinkled with conifers. Most of the lower slopes are cleared. From the top of Pine Mountain the Kentucky country appears to be a billowy wilderness. One can not see any vallo}> nor any sign of life ; but beneath those forested waves are sylvan slope? to enchant one, and a sinister labyrinth of gashed valleys to grip one in mountain poverty.

1 Illustrations by the author.

VOL. m. — 8.

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