The mountains of the Appalachian system are composed of two parallel series of elevations, an old eastern range of peaks which are worn down to mere shreds; so that in place of being as high as the Alps, as they once were, they have no peaks that rise seven thousand feet above the sea. This outer range is traceable from Newfoundland to Alabama; but it only rises above six thousand feet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Black Mountains of North Carolina. In form these mountains are steep and rugged. Their steep sides hold the little untillable land that exists east of the Mississippi; their actual area is small, for the chain is very narrow, not exceeding a score or so of miles in width, except in the Carolinas and in the White Mountains, where it is somewhat wider. The total untillable area in this chain does not exceed twelve thousand square miles. West of this, the old Appalachian mountain system, separated from it by a broad, elevated, somewhat mountainous valley, lies the newer Alleghany range. This valley intermediate is one of the most fertile and admirably situated in the world; it extends from New Jersey to Georgia, with an average width of about forty miles and a length of about six hundred, having an area of over twenty thousand square miles. The Alleghany Mountains on the west are composed principally of round, symmetrical ridges, often like gigantic works of art, so uniform are their arches; none of them rise to more than five thousand feet above the sea, and their surfaces are so little broken that they generally afford tillable though as yet generally untilled land. Practically no part of this great range, which extends from near Albany to Alabama, is completely unfit for the uses of man, and it includes some of the most fertile valleys of America. The most important feature connected with this double mountain system of the Appalachians is the great area of table-lands which it upholds; these bordering uplands are found all around the mountain system. The greater part of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio owe the considerable elevation of their surfaces to the table-land elevations bordering the Appalachian mountain system. Taken altogether, this mountain system is perhaps the finest region for the uses of man that the world affords; its great length, of more than fifteen hundred miles from north to south, gives it a range of climate such as would be had in Europe by a mountain chain extending from Copenhagen to Rome. The total area of this Appalachian district, mountains as well as table-lands, is about three hundred thousand square miles. This is an area equal to near thrice the surface of Great Britain.