Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors]

riking fituation, contains about 150 houses, a court-house, gaol, and barracks large enough for 700 men. There is a college eftablished called Blount college. It is 200 miles S. E. of Frankfort in Kentucky, and 730 S. W. of Philadelphia. Lat. 35. 40.

Abingdon, a thriving town in Washington diftri&t. It contained in 1788, about 20 houfes, but in 1798 upwards of 200. It is 143 miles from Campbell's ftation near Holftein and 310 miles as the road runs from Richmond in Virginia. Lat. 36, 30 N.

Climate.

THE climate in general is moderate und healthy. In the traft lying

Between the Great Ifland, as it is called, and the Kanhawa, the fummers are remarkably cool, and the air rather moist. fouth-weft of this, as far as the Indian towns, the climate is much warmer, and the foil better adapted to the productions of the fouthern States.

The diseases to which adults are moft liable, are pleurifies, rheumatifms, and fometimes, though rarely, agues and fevers: fo healthy have been the inhabitants, that from the first fettlement of the country to 1788, not a fingle phyfician had fettled among them. It is to the inhabitants a real advantage, that they are almoft beyond the reach of thofe luxuries which are enjoyed, and thofe epidemical difeafes which are confequently frequent in populous towns on the fea coaft. An inhabitant of this diftrict writes, "Our phyficians are, a fine climate, healthy robuft mothers and fathers, plain and plentiful diet, and enough of exercife: there is not a regular bred phyfician refiding in the whole diftri&t.”

Face of the Country, &c.

CUMBERLAND

BERLAND mountain, in its whole extent, from the Great Kanhawa to the Tenneffee, confifts of the moft Aupendous piles of craggy rocks of any mountain in the western country; in feveral parts of it, for miles, it is inacceffible even to the Indians, on foot; in one place particularly, near the fummit of the mountain, there is a moft remarkable ledge of rocks of about thirty miles in length and two hundred feet thick, fhewing a perpendicular face to fouth-eaft more noble and grand that any artificial fortification in the known world, and apparently equal in point of regularity. Through this upendous pile, according to a modern hypothefis, had the waters of all the upper branches of the Tenneffee to force their way; the attempt would have been impracticable at any other place than the one mentioned, for more than one hundred miles callwardly. Here then feems to have been the chaẩm, left by the Creator, to convey off those waters which muft otherwife have overflowed, and rendered useless a vast tract of valuable country enclosed within the mountains.

The Tenneffee, called alfo the Cherokee, and abfurdly the Hogohege river, is the largest branch of the Ohio; it rifes in the mountains of Virginia, latitude 37°, and purfue a courfe of about one thousand miles fouth-weft, nearly to latitude 34° receiving from both fides a number of large tributary ftreams it then wheels about to the north in a circuitous courfe, and mingles with the Ohio. 1 early fixty miles from its mouth; from its entrance into the Ohio ve the Mufcle thoals, a diftance of two hundred and fifty miles, the current is very gentle, and the river deep enough, at all feafous, for the largest row

boats: the Mufile fhoals are about twenty miles in length. At this place the river fpreads to the width of three miles, and forms a number of iflands and is of difficult paffage, except when there is a fwell in the river. From thefe fhoals to the whirl or fuck, the place where the river breaks through the Great Ridge, or Cumberland mountain, is two hundred and fifty miles, the navigation all the way excellent.

The Whirl, as it is called, is in about latitude 35°; it is reckoned a great curiolity. The river, which a few miles above is half a mile wide, is here compreffed to the width of about one hundred yards; juft as it enters the mountain, a large rock projects from the northern fhore in an oblique direction which renders the bed of the river fill narrower, and caufes a fudden hend; the water of the river is of course, thrown with great rapidity againft the fouthern fhore, whence it bounds round the point of the rock and produces the whirl, which is about eighty yards in circumferrence. Canoes have often been carried into the whirl, and escaped by the dexterity of the rowers without damage. In lefs than a mile below the whirl the river fpreads into its common width, and except the Mufcle fhoals already mentioned, flows beautiful and placid till it mingles with the Ohio.

Six miles above the whirl are the Chiccamogga towns, on the banks of the river, and of a large creck of the fame name; from these towns to the mouth of the Hifwaffe is fixty miles by water, and about forty by land; this river is a fouth branch of the Tenneffe, and navigable till it penetrates the mountains on its fouth fide. The climate, the fine fprings, and fertile plains, render the banks of this river a most delightful place of fettlement. From a branch of the Hiwaffee, called Amoia, there is a fhort portage to a branch of the Mobile, and the road all the distance firm and level.

Paffing up the Tenneffee, fixty miles from the mouth of the river Hiwaffe, you come to the mouth of Pelefon or Clinch river, from the north, which is large and navigable for boats upwards of two hundred miles, receiving in its courfe, befides inferior ftreams, Powell's river, which is nearly as large as the main river, and boatable for one hundred miles: this !aft mentioned riverruns through Powell's valley, an excellent tract of country abounding with fine fprings.

From the Pelefon to the junction of the Holftein and Tenneffee is compu ted forty miles; this laft is the branch which formerly gave its name to the main river, not from its fize, but from its notoriety, having on its banks a val number of Indian villages, and the chief town of Cherokee Indians, cal led Chota, and was therefore called Cherokee river; but the name of Tenneffec has of late obtained a preference; it cruffes the valley at nearly right angles with the mountains, and has on its banks a number of beautiful plains, which are chiefly improved as corn fields by the Indians. In 1788, the whites had advanced their fettlements within ten miles of the Indian villages. Forty miles from the Tenneffee up the Holftein branch, comes in Frank river, vulgarly called French Broad, four or five hundred yards wide; thence, purfu ing the Holstein two hundred miles, you come to Long Island, which is the highest navigation yet ufed; thence about one hundred miles is the fource of the river. One mile below Long-Iland comes in North-Holstein, and twenty miles above it the Wattago; the former is one hundred yards wide at his mouth, and with a small expence might be made navigable to Camp bell's Salines feventy miles farther up. In the Tenneffee and its upper branches are great numbers of fish, fome of which are very large and of an excellent flavour.

No. 27.

The head waters of the Great Kanhawa are in the western part of North Carolina, in the noft eaftern ridge of the Alle,hany or Appalachian mountains, and fouth of the 36 of latitude. Its head branches encircle those of the Holftein, from which they are feparated by the Iron mountain, through which it paffes, ten miles above the lead mines; thence fteering its courfe along the foot of the Alleghany mountain, until it receives Little river from the east, it turns to the north, which is its general course till it meets the Ohio. About fixty miles from Little river it receives Green Briar river from the eaft, which is the only tributary ftream in all that diflance. About forty miles below the mouth of Green Briar river, in Virginia, in the Kanhawa, is a remarkable catara&. A large rock, a little elevated in the middle, croffes the bed of the river, over which the water fhoots and falls about fifty feet perpendicularly, except at one fide, where the defcent is more gradual.

The Shawanhee, now called Cumberland river, of the fouthern branches of the Ohio, is next in fize to the Tennessee, and extends eastwardly nearly as far, but runs in a much more direct course; it is navigable for small craft as far as Nashville; from the fouth it receives Harper's Coney, Obey's and Clear Fork rivers; and from the north, Red and Rock Caftle rivers, befides many finaller ftreams.

Of this territory, above half is covered with mountains which are uninha-bitable; fome of thefe, particularly Cumberland, or Great Laurel Ridge, aro the muft ftupendous piles in the United States; they abound with ginfeng and ftone coal. Clinch mountain is fouth of thefe, in which Burk's garden and Morris's nob might be defcribed as curiofities.

The Iron mountain, which confitutes the boundary between this distric and North-Carolina, extends from near the lead mines, on the Kanhawa, through the Cherokee county, to the fouth of Chota, and terminates near the fources of the Mobile. The caverns and cascades in these mountains are in

numerable.

Soil and Productions."

THE farmers on Cumberland river, for the fake of defcribing their

lands, diftinguish them by firft, fecond and third quality. Land of the brit quality will bear Indian corn or hemp, but it will not bear wheat without great reduction. Land of the fecond quality does not bear wheat to advantage until it has been reduced by two or three crops of corn, hemp, tobacco or cotton. Land of the third bears every kind of grain that is ufually fown on dry ground in the Atlantic flates. It is agreed by all who have vifited the Cumberland fettlement, that one hundred bushels of Indian corn are frequently gathered from an acre of their beft land; fixty or feventy bufhels from an acre is very common, but the farmer who expects to gather fuch a crop must be careful, while the corn is foft, to guard it againft bears and racoons, Wheat, barley, oats, rye, buck-wheat, Indian corn, peafe, beans, potatoes, flax, hemp, tobacco, indigo, rice and cotton, have already been planted in that fettlement, and they all thrive in great perfection: the ufuad crop of cotton is eight hundred pounds to the acre; the ftaple is long and fine. It is alledged, however, that the lands on the small rivers that run into the Miffippi, have a decided preference to thofe on the Cumberland river, for the production of cotton and indigo. No experiments have been made on land near the Mijippi within the ceded territory; but there is a fmald fettlement farther down the river, within the limits of the United States, om Vol. IV. Hh

a fimilar foil, where the growth and quality of cotton is fo remarkable, that' its culture is more profitable, than other crop. The foil on thote rivers is deep and light, having a (mall mixture of fand with a black earth; hence, as the planters alledge, it proves favourable to the culture of all kinds, as well as of indigo and coiton.

The lands on the waters of Tenneffee and Cumberland rivers, are generally well timbered; in fome places there are glades of rich land without timber, but these are not frequent nor large. The general growth is poplar hickory, black walnut, buck eye or the horse chefnut, fycamore, locull and the fugar maple. The und r-growth, in many places, is cane fifteen or wenty feet high, to close together as to exclude all other plants: where the cane does not abound, we find red bud, wild plum, fpice wood, red and white mulberry, ginseng, Virginia and Seneka fake root, angelica, fweer arife, ginger and wild hops. The glades are covered with clover, wild rye, buffalo grafs and pea vine. On the hills, at the head of rivers, we find flately red cedars; many of these trees are four feet in diameter, and forty feet clear of limbs.

A few years fince, this country abounded with large herds of wild cattle, improperly called bffaloes; but the improvident or ill-difpofed among the firft fettlers have deftroyed multitudes of them out of mere wantonness; they are fill to be found on fome of the fouth branches of Cumberland river. Elk, or moofe, are feen in many places, chiefly among the mountains. The deer are become comparatively fcarce, fo that no perfon makes a business of hunting them for their fkins only. Enough of bears and wolves yet remain, Beavers and otters are caught in plenty in the upper branches of Cumber land and Kentucky rivers.

They have pheasants, patridges or quails, and turkies in abundance through the year. During the winter their waters are covered with fwans, wild geefe, brant and duck. Ca fish have been caught in those rivers that weighed above one hundred pounds, and perch that weighed above twenty pounds.

The mammoth appears to have been an inabitant of this country, as his bones have been dug up by labourers at Campbell's Salines, on North-Hol flein, when finking falt piis; they were from three to feven feet below the furface of the earth.

Campbell's falines are the only ones that have yet been difcovered on the upper branches of the Tenneffee and on this fide the wilderness, though great fearch has been made for them. The tract which contains thefe falines is a great natural curiofity; it was difcovered by captain Charles Campbell about 1745, who was one of the first explorers of the western country. In 1753, he procured a patent for it from the governor of Virginia. His fon the late General William Campbell, who behaved fo gallantly in the American war in the years 1780 and 1781, became owner of it on his death. But it was not till t. e time of his death, when falt was very fcarce and dear, that fait water was discovered, and falt made by a poor man ; fince that time, under the direction of Colone! Arthur Campbell, it has been improved to a confi derable extent, and many thousands of inhabitants are fupplied from it with falt of a fuperior quality, and at a low price. The tract confifts of about three hundred acres of flat marth land, of as rich a foil as can be imagined: in this flat, pits are funk in order to obtain the falt water; the best is found from thirty to forty feet deep. After palling through the rich foil or mud, from fix to ten feet, you come to a very brittle lime-flore rock, with cracks or chafins, through which the falt water iflues into the pits, whence it is

« ZurückWeiter »