If we suppose a traveller arrived on the bank of Tennessee, immediately below its passage through Cumberland mountain, and who had no knowledge of the geography of the higher valley, he would be far from suspecting himself on a stream draining 24,000 sqaare miles, and formed by such constitu ents as Clinch, Holston, and French Broad. If such an observer had previously and completely explored the lower valley, he would in the supposed situation regard the main Tennessee as a mere branch.
The importance of this physical section has been fully developed, and may be safely compared with any other of equal extent on the earth in rich ness, grandeur, and variety of scenery ; in fertility of soil, and salubrity of air, and purity of water.
Politically, Upper Tennessee valley contains, in Virginia, part of Russell, Tazewell, and Wythe counties, and all Washington, Scott, and Lee coun ties : in North Carolina part of Ashe, and all Bun combe and Macon, with the far greater part of Hay wood county : in Georgia, with a section of the Cherokee territory, about one half of Rabun county : in Tennessee, with a section of the Cherokee terri tory, all the counties of Hamilton, Marion,M'Minn, Monroe, Rhea, Bledsoe, Roane, Knox, Sevier, Cooke, Greene, Jefferson, Granger, Hawkins, Washing ton, Carter, Sullivan, and Claiborne counties, with part of Campbell and Anderson counties ; and in Alabama, with a triangular section of the Cherokee territory on the left, and about one half of Jackson county on the right bank of Tennessee river.
Advancing from S. to N. Tennessee is the first and far most important of a series of rivers which have corresponding curves. It is difficult to make the force of this observation clear to the mind by verbal description, but a single view on a map of the United States, will exhibit Tennessee, Cumber land, Greene, Salt, Kentucky, and Licking rivers flowing in channels which sweep in semicircles round each other; and, in fact, that part of Ohio river above the influx of Great Miami conforms to this remarkable system.
The volume of Tennessee has gained its extreme southern curve where it passes Cumberland moun tain, and a small creek which enters above the pass is at its source the most southern fountain of the valley. It is here, at the head of Black Warrior river, that the two mountain chains of Cumberland and Blue Ridge merge into each other ; and along the northern sources of Mobile the A ppalachian system changes its distinctive character, and the confused masses of hills follow each other west wardly towards the Mississippi river over the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Below the Cumber
land pass, the deflection of the river exceeds that of the mountains. The former flows NW. by W. 150 miles by comparative course, traverses under the name of Muscle Shoals, a minor chain, and at the northwestern angle of Alabama, and the north eastern of the Nlississippi state, re-enters Tennessee, and curves to a northern course ; which latter di rection it maintains across a little more than two degrees of latitude to its entrance into Ohio, after an entire comparative course of 680 miles.
In a comparative channel exceeding 300 miles, Lower Tennessee does not receive from the left a single confluent above the size of a large creek; but on the opposite side, it is augmented in descend ing, by Pigeon-Rock, Elk, and Duck rivers, with numerous creeks.
Elk river rises in Franklin county, state of Ten nessee, and in the northwestern spurs of Cumber land mountain ; and flowing thence something W. of SW. over Franklin, Lincoln, and Giles counties, Tennessee, enters Alabama, where after passing obliquely over Limestone county, falls into Tennes see river in the SE. angle of Lauderdale county, and below the head of the Muscle Shoals, after a com parative course of upwards of 100 miles. It may be remarked, that the extreme sources of Elk river are within little more than 20 miles from the main channel of Tennessee, at a place called The Suck," 25 miles above Nickajack, and following the latter stream 140 miles above their junction.
Duck river heads in the same region with the sour ces of Elk, but the former assumes a course a little W. of NW. and very nearly parallel to the opposing courses of Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Rising in Warren county, Duck river traverses Bedford, Maury, Hickman, the northeastern angle of Perry, and falls into Tennessee in the south ern side of Humphries county, after a comparative course of 125 miles entirely in Tennessee.