coaft. An inhabitant of this district writes, " Our physicians are, a fine climate, healthy robust mothers and fathers, plain and plenti. ful diet, and enough of exercife: there is not a regular bred phyfician refiding in the whole district."

FACE OF THE COUNTRY, &c.

Cumberland mountain, in its whole extent, from the Great Kanhawa to the Tenneffee, confiits of the most ftupendous 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 the south-east more noble and grand than any artificial fortification in the known world, and apparently equal in point of regularity. Through this ftupendous 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 eastwardly. Here then feems to have been the chafm, left by the Creator, to convey off thofe waters which must otherwise have overflowed, and rendered useless a vast tract of valuable country enclosed within the mountains.

The Tenneffee, called alfo the Cherokee, and abfurdly the Hogo+ hege river, is the largest branch of the Ohio; it rifes in the moun tains of Virginia, latitude 37°, and purfues a course of about one thousand miles fouth and fouth-weft, nearly to latitude 34°, receiving from both fides a number of large tributary streams; it then wheels about to the north in a circuitous courfe, and mingles with the Ohio, nearly fixty miles from its mouth; from its entrance into the Ohio to the Mufcle fhoals, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, the current is very gentle, and the river deep enough, at all feasons, for the largest row boats: the Mufcle fhoals are about twenty miles in length. At this place the river spreads 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 these shoals 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

The Whirl, as it is called, is in about latitude 35°; it is reckoned a greater curiofity than the bursting of the Potomack through the Blue ridge. The river, which a few miles above is half a mile wide, is here compressed to the width of about one hundred yards; juft as it enters the mountain, a large rock projects from the northern shore in an oblique direction, which renders the bed of the river ftill narrower, and causes a fudden bend; the water of the river is, of course, thrown with great rapidity against the southern fhore, whence it bounds round the point of the rock and produces the whirl, which is about eighty yards in circumference. Canoes have often been carried into this whirl, and efcaped by the dexterity of the rowers without damage. In lefs than a mile below the whirl the river spreads into its common width, and, except the Muscle shoals already mentioned, flows beautiful and placid til it mingles with the Ohio.

Six miles above the whirl are the Chiccamogga towns, on the banks of the river, and of a large creek of the fame name; from these towns to the mouth of the Hiwaffee is fixty miles by water, and about forty by land; this river is a fouth branch of the Tenneffee, 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 Hiwaflce, called Amoia, there is but a short portage to a branch of the Mobile, and the road all the distance firm and level.

Pailing up the Tenneffee, fixty miles from the mouth of the river Hiwaffee, 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 course, befides inferior ftreams, Powell's river, which is nearly as large as the main river, and boatable for one hundred miles: this laft-mentioned river runs through Powell's valley, an excellent tract of country abounding with fine fprings.

From the Pelefon to the junction of the Holstein and Tenneffee is computed 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 vast number of Indian villages, and the chief town of the Cherokee Indians, called Chota, and was therefore called Cherokee river; but the name of Tenneffee has of late obtained a preference; it croffes 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 Holstein branch, comes in Frank river, vulgarly called French Broad, four or five hundred yards wide; thence, pursuing the Holstein two hundred miles, you come to Long-lfland, which is the higheft navigation yet ufed; thence about one hundred miles is the fource of the river. One mile below Long-Island comes in North-Holftein, and twenty miles above it the Wattago; the former is one hundred yards wide at its mouth, and, with a small expenfe, might be made navigable to Campbell'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.

The head waters of the Great Kanhawa afe in the western part of North-Carolina, in the moft eastern ridge of the Allegany or Ap. palachian mountains, and fouth of the 36' of latitude. Its head branches encircle thofe 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 Allegany 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 confiderable tributary stream in all that distance. About forty miles below the mouth of Green Briar river, in Virginia, in the Kanhawa, is a remarkable cataract. 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 Tenneffee, 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 Castle rivers, befides many smaller streams.

Of this territory, above half is covered with mountains which are uninhabitable; fome of thefe, particularly Cumberland, or Great Laurel ridge, are the moft ftupendous piles in the United States; they abound with ginfeng and stone coal. Clinch mountain is fouth

of

of thefe, in which Burk's garden and Morris's nob might be described as curiofities.

The Iron mountain, which constitutes the boundary between this district 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 innumerable,

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS,

The farmers on Cumberland river, for the fake of defcribing their lands, diftinguifh them by firft, fecond, and third quality. Land of the first 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 States. 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 best land; fixty or seventy bushels 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 against 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 1 thrive in great perfection; the ufual 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 Miffiffippi, 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 Miffiffippi within the ceded territory; but there is a fmall fettlement farther down the river, within the limits of the United States, on a fimilar foil, where the growth and quality of cotton is fo remarkable, that its culture is more profitable than any other crop. The foil on those rivers is deep and light, having a fmall mixture of fand with a black earth; hence, as the planters alledge, it proves favourable to the culture of all kinds of roots, as well as of indigo and cotton.

The lands on the waters of Tenneffee and Cumberland rivers are generally well timbered; in fome places there are glades of rich.

land

Jand without timber, but thefe are not frequent nor large. The general growth is poplar, hickory, back walnut, buck eye, or the horfe chefnut, fycamore, locuft and the fugar maple. The undergrowth, in many places, is cane fifteen or twenty feet high, fo clofe 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, ginfeng, Virginia and Seneka fuake root, angelica, fweet anife, 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 stately red cedars; many of thefe 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 buffaloes; but the improvident or ill-difpofed among the firft fetlers have deftroyed multitudes of them out of mere wantonnefs; they are still to be found on fome of the south branches of Cumberland river. Elk, or moofe, are feen in many place, chiefly among the mountains. The deer are become comparatively icarce, fo that no perfon makes a business of hunting them for their skins only. Enough of bears and wolves yet remain. Beavers and otters are caught in plenty in the upper branches of Cumberland and Kentucky rivers.

They have pheatants, partridges or quails, and turkies in abundance through the year. During the winter their waters are covered with fwans, wil geefe, brant and duck. Cat-fish have been caught in thote rivers that weighed above one hundred pounds, and perch that weighed above twenty pounds.

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

Camp's falines are the only ones that have yet been difcovered on the upper branches of the Tenneffee and on this fide the wi dernefs, theng a great fearch nas been made for them. The tract which contains thefe falines is a great natural curiofity; it was discovered by Captain Charles Campbell about 1745, who was one of the firft explorers of the weften country. In 1753, he procured a patent for it from t e governor of Virginia. His fon, the late General William Campbell, who behaved fo gallantly in the American war in th years 1780 and 1781, became owner of it on his death. But it was not till the time of his death, when falt was very scarce and dear,