The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-07-10
For the VIRGINIAN
A Northern Man in Virginia. s.

For the v1RGIN1AN
A Northern Man in Virginia.-No. s.
THE NEW RIVER AND ITS SOURCE-BEAU-
TY AND RESOURCES OF THE BLUE RIDGE
PLATEAU OF NORTH CAROLINA AND
vIRGINIA-THE COPPER MINEs-GREAT
ADVANTAGES OF THE LIMESTONE VAL
LEY.
From the summit OF the water shed at
Christansburak we descend two hundred and
fifty-five feetSfn the twelve miles to New
River Bridge, down the fertile limestone
valley of Grab creek. The New York far
mer by my side noted with pleasure the love-
ly rolling landscape bounded by distant
mountains, the fine rms and blue grass
pastures dotted with sheep, horses and
short horned cattle. remarking that so rich
country should have its immense estates
cut up into smaller tracts and give even
greater prosperity to denser population.
A mile or so above Central, the half way
station between Lynchburg and Bristol.
where engines are changed, we burst sud-
denly upon New river, noble stream,
whose broad, turbid current flows along
precipitous limestone cliffs on enc side and
rich bottom lands or the other, from which
the hills rise in gentle slope. Beautiful in
deed was the viowas We thundcred along
the river bank and crossed the long bridge,
fifty or sixty feet above the water, into Pu-
all tho D1o rs
power in the steady flow of mighty river
gives it peculiar fascination to the practi-
cal, as we'll as the poetic man. But aside
from this, New river has its own peculiar at
fractions.
II imagine,' said my companion, "that
trip down the river in one Of those bat
eaux would be very interesting. The only
way to see a river properly is to float down
its tide, and the scenery OF New river, l
have heard, is very fine. Besides, smooth
ly as it flows here, there must be some ex-
citing passages, judging from spirited pic
ture in Harper's, by Sheppard, that clever
Richmond artist of yours. l have never
seen negro character in particular, better de-
picted than by his pencil, and I was struck
with the sturdy black boatman toiling at the
oars. as the great flat-bottomed boat shot
down the rocky and turbulent rapids
at is interesting" responded, ''and not
the least interesting part of it is to listen to
the wild quaint hymns and refrains of the
Gusky oarsmen under the moonbeam's spell.
From its mountain sources to where it is
joined by the Greenbrier and forms the
Great KanawhB, and thence on to the Ohio,
the scenery of New river is beautiful and
picturesque. Neither the storied Rhine nor
the lordly Hudson, loveliest of rivers. sur
passes it in wildness orin grandeur, and it is
| full OF interest alike to the lover OF nature,
the artist, the geologist, and the practical
man of affairs who deals in figures, though
| not figures OF speech. Some four hundred
miles in length, from its source to the Ohio,
| and with numerous tributaries, falling some
two thousand feet, and navigable nearly
three hundred miles for bateaux, calculate,
| if you can, its vast water. power and its val
ne for transportation, The stores of cop
per, iron, coal Limestone, lead and other min
erals in its valley, are vast enough.to supply
the world for generation at least. Mr..
Gradgrind would find plenty of arithmetic
in it.
"Open your map and will ry to tell you
briefly the story OF New river and its valleyy
Rising way up yonder in Watauga county,
North Carolina, in the wild and untrodden
gorges of the Blue Ridge and Unaka noun
tains, it crosses the whole Appalachian sys-
TEN. draining a country wonderful in
its wealth of mineral and agricultural re-
sources. For seventy. five or eighty miles
from its springs, on the sides of peaks, ri S
ing more than six thousand feet above the
sea, in the midst of some of the grandest
scenery on the continent, it flows northeast
wardly through the counties of Watauga,
Ashe and Allegheny, North Carolina, and
Grayson and Carroll, Virginia, over rocky
bed of Gpturned granite, gneiss, schist and
slate, before it breaks through Iron and
Poplar Camp mountains-local names for
| the Unaka or western range OF the Blue
Ridge, which forms the boundary OF the
Great valley. Little river, one of its tribu-
taries, also drains the county of Floyd.
Col. Albert, Of the U. S. Engineers, speaks
of this part OF the Blue Ridge plateau as
composed OF fertile valleys and hill slopes CIV
cred with forests Of fine white, black and
red oak, hickory, chestnut, poplar and pine,
which are found in large quantities and Of
considerable size. The mountains, for the
most part, are well wooded, or cultivated to
hetops; the slopes affording good grazing for
hocks and herds of sheep and horned cattle !;
the valleys and low hills are extremely pic
turesque ard we'll farmed by a thrifty pop
ulatioD.
''The average yield per acre in Grayson
county is twenty-seven bushels of corn,
twelve bushels of wheat, fifteen bushels Of
rye, twenty-five bushels of oats or buck
wheat, and two TO four tons of hay. This
average, ex.Congressman DAVIS thinks,
would be doubled by proper tillage which
would follow the improvement of the ave-
nues to market. At present it is unproflta-
BILE to ship much else than cattle, which are
driven to the railroad. The country roads
are rough and mountainous, and the i'm
provelnent OF the navigation Of New river,
under spasmodic Congressional legislation
goes on but slowly. A narrow-guage rail-
road could. be easily and cheaply built all the
way down the valley from Ore Knob, and
must come. in time. The three Blue Ridge
counties of Grayson. Carroll and Floyd, in
Virginia, have QS7e) about eight thousand
horses and mules, over twenty five thousand
eattle, twenty-three thousand sheep and forty
thousand swine-a large increase over the
number in 1860, save in sheep, which have d.
minished almost swenty per cent. owing to
want CT protection from canine ravages.--