Tennessee

TENNESSEE (ten"e-se'), popularly known as the "Volunteer State," is a S. central State of the American Union. It lies between lat. 35° and 36° 4o' N. and between long. 81° 37' and 9o° 28' W. of Greenwich. Tennessee is bounded on the north by Kentucky and Virginia ; on the east by North Carolina along the line of the crest of the Unaka mountains to within 26 m. of Georgia, where the boundary turns due south ; on the south by Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi along the 35th parallel of N. lat. ; on the west by the Mississippi river, which separates it from Arkansas and Missouri. The extreme length of the State from E. to W. is 432 m., and the extreme breadth is 109 m., its area being 42,022 sq.m., of which 335 are water surface. The popular name "Volunteer State" was given to Tennessee because of her remarkable record in furnishing volunteers in the Civil War.

Physical Features.

The State is popularly divided into three large divisions known as east, middle and west Tennessee. The first extends from the heights of the Unaka ridges along the North Carolina border, across the valley of the Tennessee river to the heights of the Cumberland plateau. The middle section includes a part of the Cumberland plateau, all the Highland Rim plateau and the Central basin, and extends westward to the Tennessee river. The western division includes the plateau region from the Tennessee river to the precipitous escarpment overlooking the Mississippi Flood plain ; also a narrow strip of low land which extends to the Mississippi river. From a maximum elevation of 6,593 ft. at Mt. Le Conte near the North Carolina border, in Sevier county, the surface descends to 182 ft. on the Mississippi river in Shelby county. The mean elevation of the State is ap proximately goo feet. The general slope, however, is west by north. The Unaka mountains, which occupy a belt 8 to io m. wide along the State's eastern border, are a series of somewhat irregular ridges developed on complexly folded and faulted crystalline rocks. Sixteen peaks exceed 6,000 ft. in height. That part of the Great Appalachian valley which traverses Tennessee is commonly known as the valley of East Tennessee. It consists of parallel ridges and valleys developed by erosion on folded sandstones, shales and limestones, the valley quality predominating because the weak limestones were of great thickness. The valley areas vary in

height from 600 ft. in the south-west to 1,400 ft. in the north east. In the north-east the ridges are more numerous and higher than in the south-west, where White Oak ridge and Taylor's mountain are among the highest, although Missionary and Chicka mauga ridges are better known, because of their association with battles of the Civil War. Along the north-west border of the val ley a steep escarpment, known as the Cumberland Scarp, rises to the Cumberland plateau. This plateau has a mean elevation of about 1,800 ft., is only slightly rolling, and the northern portion slopes gently toward the north-west. The western edge of the plateau is much broken by deep indentations of stream valleys, and drops suddenly downward about 1,000 ft. to the Highland Rim plateau, so named from the scarp formed by its western rim about the Central and (farther north) Louisville basins. It is fairly level generally except where it is cut by river valleys. The Central basin, with a more rolling surface, lies for the most part 400 to 600 ft. below the Rim; a few hills or ridges, however, rise to the level of the Rim. The Basin is elliptical in form, ex tending nearly across the State from north-east to south-west with an extreme width of about 6o m. ; near its centre is the city of Murfreesboro, and Nashville lies in the north-west. Westward from the lower Tennessee river the surface of the East Gulf Coastal plain rises rapidly to the summit of a broken cuesta or ridge and then descends gently and terminates abruptly in a bluff overlooking the Mississippi Flood plain. The eastern slope, about a quarter of the length of the western slope, is steep and rocky, and the western slope is broken by the valleys of numerous streams. The bluff, 150 to 200 ft. in height, traverses the State in a rather straight course ; between it and the meandering Mis sissippi, except at a few points where that river touches it, lie low bottom lands varying in width according to the bends of the river and containing numerous swamps and ponds. In the northern portion, principally in Lake county, is Reelfoot lake, which oc cupies a depression formed by an earthquake in 1811. It is 18 m. long, has a maximum width of 3 m., and is the only large lake in the State.