nd lakes.
There are no large lakes as in the eastern section of the United States
and few small ones though the country has numerous cascades, rapids, and
waterfalls.

The Blue Ridge is a well-watered region, and characteristic of the
country are the innumerable springs which form creeks and small streams.
A mild and bracing climate results from these physical features. The
rapidity with which the streams rise and their swiftness, together with
almost constant breezes in the mountains, reduce the humidity so
prevalent in the southern lowlands. Although the rainfall is greater
than anywhere else in the United States, except Florida, the sudden fall
in the topography of the watercourses brings quick drainage. The sun may
be scorching hot in an unprotected corn patch on a hillside, yet it is
cool in the shade. And, as in California and the north woods, a blanket
is needed at night. The climate is contrasting, being coldest in the
highlands where the temperature is almost as low as that of northern
Maine. Yet nowhere in the United States is it warmer than in the
lowlands of the Blue Ridge.

In the highlands, carboniferous rocks produce a sandy loam which is
responsible for the vast timber growth there. Throughout it is rich in
minerals, coal, iron, and even gold, which has been mined in Georgia. In
some sections there are fertile undulating uplands contrasting with the
quagmired bottoms and rocky uplands of other parts of the Blue Ridge.
There are high and uninviting quaternary bluffs that lure only the eye.
It was the fertile valleys with their rich limestone soil producing
abundant cane that first proved irresistible to the immigrants of Europe
and lured them farther inland from the Atlantic seaboard.

Long before man came with ax and arrow the wilderness of the Blue Ridge
teemed with wild animal life. The bones of mastodon and mammoth remained
to attest their supremacy over an uninhabited land thousands upon
thousands of years ago. Then, following the prehistoric and glacial
period, more recent fauna--buffalo, elk, deer, bear, and wolf--made
paths through the forest from salt lick to refreshing spring. These salt
licks that had been deposited by a receding ocean centuries before came
to have names. Big Bone Lick located in what today is Boone County,
Kentucky, was one of the greatest and oldest animal rendezvous in North
America, geologists claim. It took its name doubtless from the variety
of bones of prehistoric and