KENTUCKY (Cherokee, °prairie,'" °the Barrens,° and not meaning °dark and bloody ground° as popularly supposed), a south-central State of the Union, one of the °Border (q.v.) bounded on the north by the Ohio River; the second district •settled beyond the Alle ghanies and the first to become a State; ad mitted to the Union 1 June 1792, next after Vermont. Capital, Frankfort; largest city, Louisville. It is irregular in shape, varying from a breadth of 171 miles between Cincinnati and Cumberland Gap to about 40 miles in the narrow part near the Tennessee, and being 458 miles in length from east to west. Total area, 41,283 square miles. Lat. 36° 30' to 39° 9', N.; long. 82° 2' to 89° 40' W. • It ranks first in caves and caverns, cannel 'coal, hemp, race horses and tobacco; third in distilled liquors; fifth in coal production, Topography and Hydrography, Its northern boundary is the low-water mark on the northern bank of the Ohio River; its western, the course of the Mississippi as described in 1763. The eastern boundary is a large angle formed by the Tug Fork of Big Sandy and the main Big Sandy flowing northwest, the other side lying against Virginia, along the main Cumberland Range to Stone Mountain; thence across a divide to Little Black Mountain, thence by the range northward to Pine Mountain Range, to the breaks of the Russell fork of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy, thence north east to the Tug Forlc. The southern line separates it from Tennessee by a boundary which is straight excepting a ((jog') of 12 miles at the Tennessee River, where the original surveyors made an error. The surface is mainly a plateau averaging about 800 feet above sea-level, sloping in a northwesterly direction to the Ohio from the southeastern mountains. The Poor Fork Valley of the Cumberland, lying between Pine Mountain and the main Cumberland Range, is 15 miles wide and 75 miles long, from 1,000 to 1,500 feet in elevation, and is buttressed by peaks sometimes 3,500 feet high, thus presenting the finest scenic portion of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The Pine Mountain, which is an erosion scarp fault, forms a long even-topped ridge about 2,500 feet above sea-level, with its steep face toward the northwest. The high est points in the State are in Harlan County, from 3,600 to 4,100 feet above sea-level. The
great north and central Blue Grass region (limestone) is an undulating plateau circled by a continuous hill-ridge taking many different local names (Muldraugh Hill, King's Mountain and Big Hill), and extending in a great curv ing sweep from the mouth of Salt River to the mouth of the Scioto. In the west it forms the edge of a limestone plateau, while in the east this limestone is surmounted with the basal conglomerate of the coal measures, giving to it a very rugged aspect.
The drainage system is mainly a series of rivers flowing northwest into the Ohio, follow ing the surface trend: the Big Sandy with its Levisa Fork, the Licking, Kentucky, Salt and Green. In the western end of the State the great rivers Cumberland and Tennessee, after pursuing widely eccentric courses, follow the same direction to the same goal 15 miles apart. The Cumberland, rising near the eastern edge, flows crookedly through the southern part, dips into Tennessee, and returns to Kentucky. The Tennessee takes a wider sweep southward into Alabama, but turning back almost joins the Cumberland. These streams are noteworthy for their rock channels. The Kentucky, in particular, has cut a superb gorge through more than 300 feet of limestone in its lower courses; and where it trenches across the Cin cinnati Arch has walls nearly perpindicular, as at High Bridge.
Southwest from the centre of the. State only the larger stream channels appear on the sur face. Here is a ((Karst" region, full of de pressions through which the water sinks away, finding subterranean paths to the master stream, the Green River. A clogging of these frequently results in forming ponds. This is the great cavernous district of the State, made famous by Mammoth Cave (q.v.), the largest in the world. As in all limestone dis tricts, the underground waters have dissolved the rocks irregularly, leaving fantastic chan nels and sculptures, huge chambers and narrow flumes, making deep pools and cascades, and creating stalactites and stalagmites, pendant and upright shafts. Its magnificent propor tions, with the presence of a considerable stream navigable in one of its pools for row boats, make it convenient for exploration and a fascinating spot for tourists. Colossal Cave and Great White Onyx are equally attractive.