Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-08-11
The Highest Points i'm Virginia
STAUNTON, VA,
July 18th. 1876,

|
Editors of Vsndicator:- The Lynchburg
"Virginian," of late date, contains the
following:
HIGHEST POINTS IN VIRGINIA.-Mr.
A. L. MoSman in charge of the United
States Coast Survey party now located at
the Peaks of Otter, has furnished the fol-
lowing authentic statement of the altitude
OF various high points in this region Of
| Virginia, which will be found interesting
as settling some disputed questions:
HEIGHTS OF STATIONS ABOVE SEA.
Flat Top, Peaks of Otter, 4,O14.1 feet.
s. w. Peak, Peaks of Otter, 3,SSS.O feet.
| Apple Orchard, 4,257.9.
| Mount Pleasant, Amherst Co.; 1907, S
feet
Bald Fryer. Amherst Co.. 1921 feet.
Three Ridge Mountain, Nelson Co.,
| 3,991.1 feet.
Fork Mountain, Madison Co., 1853. 9
feet.
Cahas Knob, Franklin Co., 3,5e9.s feet.
Elliott's Knob, Augusta Co., on North
Mountain Range, Is miles from Staunton,
4,4568 feet
Belfry roof of Courthouse, Lyachburg,
8Q9.S feet.
Amherst Courthouse, top of belfry, $751;
feet.
No Business Mountain, Bedford Co.,
2,S2S.4 feet.
Smiths Mountain, Franklin Co., 2,O4S. 3
feet.
Height U. s. Coast Survey camp, near
Lawless House, Peaks of Otter, 1855 feet
| above sea.
A Fincastle paper has similar article,
but it gives the tenth of feet as so many
| inches. 1t is to be presumed that so ac-
complished an engineer as Assistant Mos
man gave the figures as above, but do not
think he intended to- have it understood
that he had determined these elevations
with the utmost precision known to science,
| and it is best to let others so understand
| it. The Coast Survey parties, now con-
| Quoting the great triangulation intended
| to extend from the Atlantic Coast to the
J Blue Ridge, have i'll charge the duty Of de-
| termining the erdct position, of the stations
selected. This is done with all the accuracy
attainable by modern geodetic methods of
measurement. but the determination of the
elevation of the stations is matter OF
secondary Importance, and from the means
used to ascertain it, is only intended to be
an approximation. Assistant McCorkle,
Of the same service, in furnishing some
elevations to the volume on the Resources
of w. Va, recently issued, says: II ap-
pend some elevations obtained with a
compromising anerOid barometer, and give
them for what they are worth. Goo0 enough
for reconnaissance, but not entirely re-
LIABLE"
| l take it that the elevations above given
were obtained by Assistant Mosman, by
''compensating aneroid barometer" also.
and make this statement that I may not
even seem to call in question the accuracy
of my friend Mosman. who is known in
both hemiSpheres as one of the most &C
cOmplished and accurate of geodetic en-
| gineers-One TO whom we owe the careful
determination of the latitude and longi-
tude Of Staunton, in 1869, for our county
map.
Now for the corrections:
| The Peaks of Otter, by the measurement
of Prof. Guyot, with m1ercurial barometer
and simultaneous observations at a known
elevation, were 1898 feet above tide.
Elliot's Knob, in the Great North Noun
tain in this county, by the triangulations
of Engineer H. D Whitcomb, from the
| line of the Chesapeake & Ohio r. R., has
an elevation of A, 44S feet.
The highest measured point in the State
is the Balsam Mountain, in Grayson Co.,
not far from the corner of Virginia North
Carolina and Tennessee, which Guyot made
! $500 feet in altitude. White Top. south
west of Balsam, at no great distance, the
same observer made S, 80 feet high.
| ASSlSGduU DOuGelle VI GIle OOdSG survey,
reports the ''Hump' of Humpback Noun
tain, in Augusta, near Shropshire's Gap,
as 1855 feet high; the Bull Run Mountain
east of Thoroughfare Gap, 1871 feet, and
Mount Marshall in the Blue Ridge, near
Front Royal, as 1869 feet aneroid bar
ometer determinations, presume.
Gen. Haupt reports that Bald Knob,
near Mountain Lake 1.-THE Salt Pond), in
Giles Co., is 4, 443 feet above the sea. and
enters it on a published map as ''the high
est point in Virginia" His was an an.
eroid measurement.
am inclined to believe that the highest
SUBMITS west of the Great Valley, will be
found near the sources of Dry River in
! Rockingham.
1t is we'll established that the highest
SUBMITS of the Blue Ridge Mountain sys-
| tenn are to be found in North Carolina, and
that they decrease in elevation towards the
northeast. Yours, &C.,
JED. HoTCHKIss.