3. Describe the river systems of the State. Give the dividing lines between the systems. Describe the flow of the rivers of Western North Carolina. Trace the courses of these rivers on the map. What is said of the mountain gaps? 4. Where are the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers? What portion of the State do they water? Point them out on the map. 5. Describe the rivers of the third system. Where do they empty? 6. What do our rivers afford? What is said of our water power? 7. What mention is made of the sounds? Describe the banks. Point out on the map the sounds and the banks. 8. With what do the sounds and rivers abound? What important branches of industry are mentioned? CHAPTER III. GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS. A knowledge of the geology of a State affords the key to its soils; since the soils are formed by the disintegration of the underlying rocks, more or less mixed with animal or vegetable matter. The peculiar geological structure of the State furnishes the material for every possible variety of soil. In fact, there is no description or combination unrepresented. There are, first, the black and deep peaty soils of Hyde county and the great swamp tracts along the eastern border of the Tidewater section; then come the alluvious marls and light sandy soils of the more elevated portions of the same section; then the clayey, sandy and gravelly soils of the Piedmont and Mountain section, the result of the decomposition of every variety of rock. 2. From its western boundary to the last falls of its rivers, the rocks generally belong to that formation known as "primitive". Primitive rocks are easily distinguished; they are crystalline in structure, and have no animal or vegetable remains (called fossils) imbedded or preserved in them. The soils of this formation are not very fertile, nor yet are they sterile; they are of medium quality, and susceptible, under skilful culture, of the highest improvement. The primitive rocks are chiefly represented by granite and gneiss. 3. The rocks of the secondary formation appear in certain counties of the Piedmont section, and here the coal-fields occur, embracing many hundred square miles. This formation consists of the primitive rocks, broken down by natural agents, and subsequently deposited in beds of a thickness from a few feet to many hundred, and abounds in organic remains. The soils of this formation vary more than the former, as the one or the other of the materials of which they are made up happens to predominate.