TAZEWELL, one of the south-eastern counties of Virginia, bounded on the north by the Tug Fork of Sandy river, separating it from Logan county ; north-east by Giles; east and south-east by Walk er's mountain, separating it from \Vythe ; south by Clinch mountain, separating it from Washington ; south-west by Russell, and west by Floyd county of Kentucky. Length from west to east 80 miles ; mean width 20, and area 1600 square miles. Ex tending in Lat. from 36° 54' to 32' N. and in Long. from 4° to 5° 12' W. from W. C.
The central part of this county is a very elevated mountain table-land. The eastern part declining northeastward, and drained by confluents of Great Kanawha ; the southern section gives source to Clinch and Holston rivers, the extreme northern constituents of Tennessee river. The western and much the most extensive section declines northwest wardly and discharges in that direction the extreme highest sources and branches of Sandy river.
Compared with the ascertained elevation of the water in Great Kanawha at the influx of the Green brier river, which is 1333 feet above the ocean level, the lowest elevation than can he given to the central mountain vallies of Tazewell must be 1500 feet, and the mean relative height of the arable soil of the county must be, at the lowest estimate, 1200 feet of similar relative height. This comparative height is equivalent to four degrees of latitude, therefore if we allow 37° IS' as the central latitude of Tazewell we have 41° 13' N. as about the mean of its winter climate, when compared with the At lantic coast.
By the post office list of 1831, there were but three post offices in this large county. These were, Tazewell court-house, the seat of justice, Bluestone and Burkesgarden.
Tazewell court-house, or as named and laid down on Tanner's United States, Jeffersonville, is situated at the foot of Rich mountain, on the height of ground between the extreme source of clinch river and that of Bluestone branch of Great Kanawha, about 150 miles northeast by east from Knoxville in Tennessee; and by post road 352 miles southwest by west from NV. C., and 290 a little south of west from
Richmond. N. lat. 37' 5', Long. 30' west from W. C. In 1820, the space since laid out and formed into Logan county was included in Tazewell, and jointly contained 3919 inhabitants. DARBY.
TEA is the name given to the leaves of the Tea tree, an infusion of which in boiling water is now a favourite beverage among all civilized nations. The natural history of this valuable substance has been so fully detailed in our article CHINA, Vol. VI. p. 166---167, that it is unnecessary to resume the subject.
Nothing is more remarkable than the rapid gress of the tea trade, as appears from the follow ing tables : During 100 years from 1710 to 1810 inclusive' there were sold at the East India Company's sales 750,219,016 lbs., the value of which was £129,804, 595 ; of the above quantity 116,470,675 lbs. were exported, and the remainder 633,748,341 retained for home consumption.
The following table, which has just been pub lished, brings down the state of the tea trade in Britain to the present year.
Those who wish for farther information on this subject, will find an excellent account of the rise, progress, and present state of the tea trade in Mil burn's Oriental Commerce, vol. ii. p. 520-542. See also Staunton's Embassy to China. Appendix to Dr. Latham's Natural History of the Tea Tree, 1772. See also AmmeNTs.