NATURAL DIVISIONS.

The State has eight great natural divisions. On its eastern borders rises, in great ridge-like masses and treeless domes, the huge Appalachian chain, the loftiest peaks of which attain an elevation of more than 6,000 feet above the sea, and upon whose brows and bald summits the flora of Canada and the climate of the north may be found. These mountains form one of the natural divisions of the State, and are called the Unakas. Many beautiful and fertile valleys and coves nestle amid this grand range of mountains; but aside from these, this division is of but limited agricultural importance. Its average elevation above the sea is 5,000 feet, and it has an area of 2,000 square miles.

Adjoining this on the west, and enclosed between the Unakas and the Cumberland Table Land, is the beautifully fluted Valley of East Tennessee. This Valley, so called because of the relations it bears to the mountains on each side, is a succession of ridges and minor valleys, running in almost unbroken lines from north-east to south-west. If one could sail over it from east to west at a moderate elevation, this division would resemble the tumultuous waves of a stormy ocean that have been arrested and hardened into stony firmness, but viewed from the highest peaks of the Unakas, the ridges and valleys melt into a common plain. The innumerable valleys of this division make it, agriculturally, one of the most important in the State. The average elevation of this great Valley is 1,000 feet above the sea, and it has an area of 9,200 square miles.

Next in order comes the Cumberland Table Land, a high, elevated plateau, that rises in massive grandeur 2,000 feet above the sea, and 1,000 feet above the Valley of East Tennessee. Buried in the bosom of this plateau are huge treasures of coal and iron. On its eastern edge it forms almost a continuous line running in a north-easterly direction, and rises with an abruptness that is marked and striking, presenting a formidable, gray, rocky, cliff-lined rampart. The western edge is irregular and jagged, notched and scalloped by deep coves and valleys, which are separated by finger-like spurs pointing for the most part to the north-west. The soil of this division is sandy, thin, porous and unproductive, and it is of but little agricultural importance. Its area is 5,100 square miles.

Resting against the western edge of the Cumberland Table Land and extending to the Tennessee River, with an average elevation of

1,000 feet above the sea, are the Highlands, Rimlands or Terracelands. This division is diversified in places with rolling hills and wide valleys. For the most part, however, it is a flat plain, furrowed by numerous ravines and traversed by frequent streams. The soil of this division is of varying fertility, but altogether it is a region of great agricultural importance and wealth. Its area is 9,300 square miles.

In the center of these Highlands, and surrounded by them, is the great Central Basin, elliptical in shape, and resembling the bed of a drained lake. It may be compared to the bottom of an oval dish, of which the Highlands form the broad, flat brim. The soil of this basin is highly productive of all the crops suited to the latitude, and it has been well named the Garden of Tennessee. In this basin stands the capital of the State. It is of the first importance as an agricultural region. Its area is 5,450 square miles, and it has an average depression of 300 feet below the Highlands. This whole basin, with the surrounding Highlands, is slightly tilted towards the north-west, and has a less elevation on that side than on any other.

The Western Valley, or the Valley of the Tennessee, forms the next natural division. This is comparatively a narrow valley, with spurs from the Highlands pointing in towards it, and sometimes running down to the margin of the Tennessee River. The surface is broken and irregular. The soil is fertile, but marshy spots, covered with cypress forests, occur in places along the river. The main valley sends out various subordinate ones, extending sometimes as far as twenty or twenty-five miles before they are lost in the Highlands. The Western Valley is not considered as including all the territory drained by the tributaries of the Tennessee, but "its general limits are the lines along which the Highlands on both sides for the most part break away." The average width of this valley is ten or twelve miles, and its length the breadth of the State. It has an area of 1,200 square miles, and an elevation of 350 feet above the sea.

The Plateau or Slope of West Tennessee is the seventh natural division, and is peculiar in having but few rocks, differing in this particular from all the divisions mentioned above. It is a great plain, that slopes gradually towards the Mississippi River, gently undulating, and differing widely in the character of its soil and scenery. Here the streams are sluggish, and the banks unstable. Furrowed with river valleys, this division extends for an average distance of about eightyfour miles, when "it abruptly terminates, falling off into a long and steep bluff or escarpment, that overlooks the great alluvial low plain or bottoms of the Mississippi." The soil of this division is light,

porous, siliceous, and charged with the elements of an abounding fertility. Its superficial extent is about 8,850 square miles, with an average elevation of five hundred feet.

The Bottoms of the Mississippi form the eighth and last natural division, and constitute a low, flat, alluvial plain, teeming with a rank luxuriance of vegetable life that is almost tropical. Lakes and morasses are frequent. The soil is of exuberant fertility, and will produce year after year, with no apparent diminution in quantity, enormous crops of corn and cotton. Its agricultural resources are immense, and when reclaimed from the dank, dark forests, will subsist a larger population than any other portion of the State in proportion to its area. The surface embraces 900 square miles, and it has an average elevation of 295 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.

We have thus hurried rapidly over the eight natural divisions of the State, giving the salient points of each and leaving out all details, in order that the reader may have a clear conception of them, for these divisions furnish the best possible basis for the classification of our soils and for a thorough understanding of the extent of our mineral wealth.

To recapitulate:

I. The Unakas. High, mountainous, with enclosed valleys.

II. The Valley of East Tennessee. A fluted region; a succession of parallel valleys and ridges. One of the most beautiful, populous and fertile portions of the State.

III. The Cumberland Table Land. The region of coal. A high plateau or table, capped with sandstone.

IV. The Highlands, or Rimlands, or Terrace-lands, that encircle a basin of rich lowlands in the center of the State. Soil clayey, siliceous, and for the most part productive, but of great variableness of aptitudes and capabilities.

V. The Central Basin, enclosed by these Highlands. The center of wealth and political influence, and rich in all the elements of a splendid civilization.

VI. The Western Valley of the Tennessee. Narrow, irregular, low, swampy, productive, but sparsely settled; in a condition of comparative wildness.

VII. The Plateau or Slope of West Tennessee. Slightly rolling; streams sluggish; soil for the most part light, siliceous, fertile, and capable of sustaining an immense population.

VIII. The Mississippi Bottoms. Dark with a dense vegetation; spotted with lakes and marshes; soil of inexhaustible fertility.

CIVIL DIVISIONS.

These eight natural divisions have been reduced to three civil divisions:

I. East Tennessee. Comprising all the territory from the North Carolina line to about the center of the Cumberland Table Land, embracing the first and second natural divisions and about half of the third.

II. Middle Tennessee. Extending from the dividing line on the Cumberland Table Land to the Tennessee River, and comprising the whole of the fourth and fifth natural divisions and about half of the third and sixth.

III. West Tennessee. Extending from the Tennessee River to the Mississippi, and including the whole of the seventh and eighth natural divisions and half of the sixth.

These three civil divisions are sub-divided into 93 counties, of which East Tennessee has 33, viz:

CHAPTER II.

CLIMATE.

THE climate of a country is the result of all its meteorological influences. It is modified by latitude, height, mountains and their direction, proximity of large surfaces of water, winds, and the nature of the soil. It acts an important part in agricultural development. If it is too hot, muscular energy is relaxed; if too cold, it is benumbed. If the climate is too moist and too hot, the exuberance of vegetation renders the labors of man insufficient to keep it in subjection, and the infections of malaria destroy the habits of systematic and hardy industry; if too dry, vegetation withers and the labors of the husbandman are not rewarded by a bounteous yield of the fruits of the earth. If the growing season is short, the variety of crops is small; if continuous, the ameliorating effects of freezes are lost. The most happy combination of climate appears to be that in which the amount of humidity and sunshine is just sufficient to produce the highest degree of perfection and maturity in the crops, and where the degree of cold is just enough to invigorate the physical system, ameliorate the soil, and destroy the germs of disabling disease. Such a combination is to be met with in by far the larger portion of the State of Tennessee. Healthy breezes, by reason of elevation, sweep over the State and dispel the noxious exhalations of the soil. The atmosphere is kept in purity by motion, as the waters of a stream. The miasmata which arise from low spots, charged with disease and death, are dissipated almost as fast as formed. The malarious districts of the State are very small. The days of rain and sunshine, of heat and cold, are beautifully ordered. Health is the rule, sickness the exception. Visitors often wonder at the large number of healthy old men, active, strong and vigorous. No State can boast of greater health, with greater advantages of soil and climate, and at the same time such a variety of crops, that are grown to perfection. The hills, the knobs, the