Ap'pala'chian Mountains, also called Alleghanies, a vast mountain range in North America extending for 1300 miles from Cape Gaspe, on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, southwest to Alabama. The system has been divided into three great sections: the northern, including the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains and the White Mountains, from Cape Gaspe to New York; the central, including a large portion of the Blue Ridge, the Alleghanies proper and numerous lesser ranges, from New York to the valley of the New River; and the southern, including the continuation of the Blue Ridge, the Black Mountains and the Smoky Mountains, from the New River southward. The chain consists of several ranges generally parallel to one another, the altitude of the individual mountains increasing on approaching the south. The highest points are Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, 6688 feet, and Mount Washington in New Hampshire, 6293 feet high. Lake Champlain is the only lake of great importance in the system, but numerous rivers of considerable size take their rise here. Magnetite, hematite and other iron ores occur in great abundance, and the coal deposits are among the most extensive in the world. Marble, limestone, fire-clay, gypsum and salt abound. The forests, covering many of the ranges, yield large quantities of valuable timber. See ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS; BLUE RIDGE; CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.