ALABAMA. A Gulf State of the United States, the ninth in order of admission to the Union. It is bounded on the north by Tennes see, south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, east by Georgia, west by Mississippi. Its ex treme length is about 336 miles from north to south; its greatest breadth 200 miles; its area 51,998 square miles, of which 719 square miles is water. The population as estimated in 1916 was 2,332,608, of which 58 per cent are white. In 1910, Alabama ranked as the 18th State of the Union in and the 27th in area. It is divided into 67 counties. The capital is Montgomery.
The State lies partly in the Gulf Coastal Plain and partly in the Appa lachian Highland which extends in the United States from Maine to middle Alabama. A southward bending arc drawn from the north west corner of the State to Columbus, Ga., divides it into two distinct regions, the north eastern, the southern extremity of the Appa lachian, a mountainous section; the south western, belonging to the Gulf Coastal Plain. The mountain portion contains all the features of the Appalachian system. (1) A Piedmont region in the east, called the Ashland Plateau. (2) Ajacent to the Piedmont, a number of parallel mountain ridges, with valleys between, extending from northeast to southwest, which gradually reduce in elevation to the southern plain. (3) On the west a hilly region, the southern end of the Cumberland Plateau.
The average elevation of the State is ap proximately 600 feet. In the north and east the surface is generally above this level; in the south and west, below it. The greatest elevation is 2,500 feet, found in the sharp crested Talladega ridges composed of granite, slate and marble. These represent the extreme southern end of the Blue Ridge of the Appalachians. The great Tennessee River enters Alabama at the northeast corner from the State of Ten nessee between two parallel ridges. At Gunters ville it turns abruptly to the northwest and flows through the valley which it has made across the Cumberland Plateau and emerges from the State at its northwest corner.
The coast line of the State is about 120 miles in length including both shores of Mobile Bay, an inlet 36 miles long and from 8 to 18 miles in width with a channel 30 feet deep in course of construction. The smaller bays are Perido, Grand and Bon Secours.
There are three major and two minor drainage basins in the State: The Mobile; (2) the Ten nessee; (3) the Chattahoochee.
The Conecuh, forming the Es cambia of Florida; (2) the Choctawhatchee.
The Mobile system drains the greater part of the State. Mobile River, 44 miles long, is formed from the Alabama and the Tombigbee, both crooked alluvial streams. The Alabama is navigable 320 miles to the junction of its two chief tributaries, the Coosa and the Tallapoosa. The Coosa, since the completion of several great locks by the Federal government, is navigable to Rome, Ga., and its falls are the source of immense water power. The Cahaba, another tributary of the Alabama, enters it from the north and flows through important coal fields.
The Tombigbee, 500 miles in length, has its remoter sources in Mississippi. Its chief tribu tary in Alabama is the Black Warrior, 300 miles long, rising on the divide near the great bend in the Tennessee River. This tributary flows through the greatest coal measures of Alabama, and has been made navigable by a series of locks and dams built by the Federal govern ment.
The Tennessee, chief affluent of the Ohio, is navigable from its mouth to Knoxville, Tenn., about 700 miles, 300 of which lie in Alabama. Navigation on this was originally interrupted by mussel shoals, but now a canal with nine locks is in operation, extending 28 miles between Decatur and Riverton. The power available at the foot of the shoals in this mighty stream is second only to that of Niagara.
The Chattahoochee, flowing between Georgia and Alabama, is navigable to the aFall-line" where the stream leaves the Piedmont and enters the Coastal Plain, a distance of about 200 miles.