GENERAL VIEW OF OBSTRUCTIONS BETWEEN CHATTANOOGA AND THE POT.

From this point to Chattanooga the river is made up of a succession of basins and shoals, the total length of obstructions being two miles; navigable water 17 miles with reference to low water. It may be noted here that the bed of the river in the Chattanooga chain of obstructions is a silicious limestone, passing through various gradations of hardness. In some it is an impure limestone, passing into a coarse, cherty rock, and at others it becomes hornstone, having the lustre and fracture of flint with numerous imbedded nodules of quartz variously colored.

THE RIVER LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN.

The moun

The river may be considered as ending here its mountain career. tain ridges gradually recede from the river, giving place to fertile bottom lands until the river reaches Sequatchie valley, where the bottom becomes a valley. Reefs, shoals, and eddies disappear from the river, and the only obstructions that present themselves are a few sand and gravel bars on some rock that yields to slight work.

At Bridgeport, Alabama, the river enters the plains of Alabama. For 56 miles its course is nearly southwest, with a wide, level region on its right, and sand mountain on its left.

Throughout this distance the river is very uniform in its character, having a width of 1,500 feet, and, with the exception of Widow's bar and Guntersville reef, with 12 and 14 inches of water respectively, there is an average depth of six feet. The bed of the river consists of mountain limestone, bank from 25 to 30 feet above low water, easy slope, and covered with vegetation.

Sand mountain, sometimes called Raccoon mountain, lies three miles to the left of the river at Bridgeport, and six miles to the left at Widow's bar. This ridge runs nearly south, and as the course of the river is southwest, the country spreads out into a broad valley some 20 miles below Widow's bar. On the right bank the bottom land is from one and a half to two miles wide; beyond this is the upland, 20 to 25 feet higher than the bottoms. These bottom lands and the few large islands in the river have the richest alluvial soil, subject to four feet overflow, which, however, is not considered objectionable, as the uplands furnish elevated sites for residences, and the overflow annually enriches the soil. At Guntersville the river turns almost at right angles to its former course and flows northwest. The valley below this point is one of denudation, or scooped out in the horizontal strata of the carboniferous rocks.

Near Guntersville a low ridge of mountains is cut through by the river, exposing carboniferous limestone about 100 feet high; this is the last spur of the Cumberland mountains which the Tennessee river meets in its course to the Ohio. Viewing the river between Guntersville and Bridgeport as the arc of a circle, this ridge would be the chord, passing by Huntsville, intersecting the river near Guntersville, and onward south.

CHANGES ON THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY.

One notable feature of this portion is the absence of vegetation on the slopes of the river banks, indicating the sandy character of the soil. The country having been once in a high state of cultivation, but little timber is seen immediately on the river. The strong, red soil, so characteristic of north Alabama, the numerous water-courses, and the undulating surface of the country, once justly entitled it to be called "the garden spot of the south."

From Bridgeport to Decatur the fall in the river does not exceed perhaps 20 feet in the distance of 100 miles, there being only two places-Guntersville and

Widow's bar-where the river is extremely shallow at low water. With this slight fall the current is always moderate, in few places greater than three miles per hour at high water where the river is thirty feet deep.

From Decatur to Brown's ferry, the head of the lower series of obstructions, a distance of 12 miles, is found the best part of the river, lying between Muscle shoals and the head of the river. The average depth is nine feet at low water; least depth, three and a half feet; width, from 1,500 to 1,800 feet; current, one and a half mile per hour, and navigable in any part, even in low water. The river here resembles a lake. This character, and the proximity of a large slough and Swan lake, would favor the opinion that the channel once washed against the low hills of the uplands, three miles east of Decatur. The force of the current is now directed against the Decatur bank, and as this is composed of limestone and a compact mass of gravel, cemented by oxide of iron, the present channel may be regarded as stable.

Below Decatur and to the left of the river the fertile valley of Courtland spreads out 15 or 20 miles from the river to the base of the terraced sand mountains of Alabama.

On the right of the river are the low, marshy bottoms, three miles wide to the uplands, diminishing at Brown's ferry to a few hundred feet.

As Brown's ferry may he regarded as the head of the lower group of shoals, a cursory view of the river and its valley between this point and Bridgeport will enable us to appreciate better the adaptation of the river as a great commercial highway, and the alluring advantages and bountiful natural wealth of the country.

From Brown's ferry a majestic river, broad, deep, and with gentle current at all times, is seen stretching for 100 miles above, through a valley abounding in the latent elements of prosperity; a river which, in this distance, is seldom seen to bear on its bosom a pellicle of ice, and a country whose climate is so genial that wheat is ripe for harvest by the time the green blades in the northwestern States emerge from the snow. Yet, with this favorable combination of natural resources, the valley languishes for want of a cheap transportation to market; and this portion of the river, for purposes of constant and certain navigation, is as scaled as though the river had no outlet to the Mississippi valley.

Such are the effects, not the magnitude, of the obstructions in the Chattanooga mountains and at Muscle shoals.

Between Brown's ferry and Second creek, below, a distance of 70 miles, there is a chain of obstruction more or less serious, the difficulties culminating at Big Muscle shoals, and dividing the length of the river into what might be called the upper and lower Tennessee.

This chain may be divided into Elk river, Big Muscle, Colbert and Bee Tree shoals, the latter being understood by many as included in Colbert shoals.

Cox's island, length five miles, greatest width one mile, the beginning of this chain, divides the river into two chutes 1,500 feet wide each, the left chute conveying two-thirds of the water in the river. From 30 feet at Brown's ferry, low water, the depth diminishes to six feet in channel at Cox's island. The current is one mile per hour.

From this point to Milton's bluff, seven miles below, the channel is from 50 to 150 feet wide, and 18 inches deep in the shallowest places.

Opposite Elk river mouth and across the river there is a shoal," Big Jump;" the aggregate fall is 25 feet

The bed of the river is composed of a series of bars of a very hard mountain limestone, in strata of various thickness, usually dipping in the direction of the current. These break at right angles to the surface over which the water washes with a great but far from uniform velocity.

From Brown's ferry to mouth of Elk river a low flat alluvial bottom, subject

to inundation, extends on the right bank. In some places it is a mile wide, and is only interrupted at Potter's bluff, one-half mile above Elk river, which rises from the water's edge. The limestone bluff extends up the bottom as far as Poplar Creek slough, where it is only a few feet high.

On the left bank, from head of Cox's island to Milton's bluff, 14 miles below, the bottom varies in width from two miles at the head of the island to nothing at Milton's bluff, which is a precipitous wall of mountain limestone springing from the river.

Except at these places, viz: Lamb's ferry, at the head of Muscle shoals and at the mouth of Town creek, where short flat bottoms intervene on an extent together of four miles, the left bank of the river from Lamb's ferry to Florence is high, rocky, generally abrupt; distance 23 miles. The river between Elk river and Muscle shoals, with the exception of Nance shoals, minor impediment, is always in a fair navigable condition. At low water its least depth is three feet; from 1,500 to 1,800 feet wide, and a very slow current.

Five miles below Elk river occurs the obstruction which more than all others combined has crippled the navigation of the Tennessee river. The channel as far back as Bridgeport has been in carboniferous limestone, sometimes chert and interstratified with flint, especially at Elk river shoals. This formation now thins out, and the underlying rock appears which produces Muscle shoals.

It is the lowest of the silicious formation, and lies at the bottom of the carboniferous rock. It is of a dark color, and flinty structure and hardness. This quality has enabled it to withstand the abrasion of the water, and has compelled the river to expand suddenly from 1,500 feet to one, two, and three miles in width, making up in width what it lacks in depth for the accommodation of its

waters.

Big Muscle shoals are 15 miles long, with a fall of 85 feet in this distance. Owing to the horizontal position of the strata and their thinness, being only from one to three feet thick, there is a succession of cascades, or steps (see sketch on map of Muscle shoals) in the whole extent of the shoals; corresponding to the thickness and the direction of the steps across the river is also that of the joints that intersect the strata.

The most favorable chutes are found where the strata are thinnest, and consequently where there is least fall of water. There are 60 islands, averging two acres in extent, and about as many "towheads," or patches of vegetation scattered in the shoals.

There is no channel at low water in this part of the river; in many places a person can walk across the river without wetting his feet, and the lightest flatboat cannot descend the shoals without being assisted in many places on rollers.

On the right bank the upland makes towards the river at the head of the shoals, leaving a narrow bottom a few hundred feet wide extending to Shoal creek, ten miles below, upon which the old canal is built.

There is a vertical escarpment of the same rock as that in the bed of the river, extending from Second creek to Bainbridge, and gradually increasing from a few feet in thickness to 100 feet at the lowest end of the canal. This may be taken

as the total thickness of the strata in the bed of the shoals.

The difference between high and low water at the shoals is only five feet, corresponding to a 50-foot rise at Chattanooga; velocity of current at high stage from 5 to 10 miles per hour; bottom lands overflowed only in very low places. Second creek, Blue Water creek, and Shoal creek, on the north bank, and Livingston creek, Clear creek, Town creek, and Big Nance creek, on the south bank, are large streams with fertile bottom lands at their mouths. They drain some of the richest portions of the Tennessee valley, and as they are much depressed below the general surface of the country, might admit of slack water improvement when the interests of the country demand it.

Between Big Muscle and Little Muscle shoals there are three miles of good water, due to the presence of limestone which forms the bed of the river; but the silicious rock of the Big shoals, with its strongly marked stratification, again appears at the end of three miles, producing Little Muscle shoals, some three miles long. Though not of the same magnitude as the upper shoals, yet navigation upon them at low water is impracticable, there being only 10 inches at low water, though in many parts the water is three feet deep.

At Florence, stratified limestone again sets in and forms a perpendicular bluff on the left bank for seven miles below. Beyond these bluffs the Tuscumbia and Courtland plains are reached by gentle acclivity. On the right bank are extensive river bottoms, in some places two miles wide, bounded by the rough hills of the north uplands.

Between Florence and Waterloo, 34 miles, occurs only one serious obstruction, Colbert shoals; the others, Little Buck shoals and Bee Tree shoals, admitting of easy removal, as they are formed by small sand and gravel bars.

At Colbert shoals the bed of the river is composed of cherty limestone, stratified. It is flinty, tough, and difficult to work, breaking nearly always at right angles to the surface of the rock. The layers are thick, dip slightly in the direction of the current, and in some places they break into steps similar to, but not so frequently as the strata do at Muscle shoals. These few reefs, together with some sand and gravel bars, and island, constitute the obstructions.

The river at this point is a mile wide, least depth ten inches, upon a rock 50 feet long in the direction of the current. With this exception there are 20 inches of water on the shoals.

As there is ample water below Colbert shoals, with the exception of Bee Tree, where only a few large isolated rocks make it unsafe to boats at low water, this general view need not be extended.

To arrive at a correct idea of the comparative difficulties of the navigation of the different parts of the Tennessee river, the following points may be recapitulated:

Relative and absolute fall in the river from Chattanooga to Waterloo, 242 miles.

A total fall of little over 200 feet in 242 miles, more than one-half of which is concentrated at Big and Little Muscle shoals, in a distance of only 22 miles. Now, if with this idea of the relative magnitude of these shoals and the other obstructions is mentioned the fact that during only from three to four weeks in the year can boats pass over Muscle and Elk River shoals, and then with danger, while steamboats of three feet draught can navigate from head of Elk river shoals to Knoxville, 300 miles above, nine months in the year, the shoals in the vicinity of Chattanooga cease to be obstructions in this point of view.

Nor is navigation limited to Knoxville. For six months in the year boats of two feet draught can ascend 125 miles above Knoxville up the Holsten river,

100 miles up the Little Tennessee river, 150 miles up the Clinch river, 75 miles up the Nianassee, 125 miles up the French Broad river, and 50 miles up Powel's river, making 625 miles of tributary navigation.

If to this be added the first 300 miles, there are 925 miles of six months, and 300 miles of nine months' navigation, with only three weeks precarious outlet at Muscle shoals to the lower Tennessee and Mississippi valley, from a region whose drainage into the Tennessee embraces 15,000 square miles.

These figures include only the extent of natural navigation. But these six tributaries having narrow or no bottom land, and walled in by precipitous bluffs, would admit of easy slackwater improvement, their fall being no greater than that of the Tennessee at Muscle shoals. By this means navigation on the Holsten could be extended 60 additional miles to Bristol and Virginia Salt Works, 160 miles above Knoxville; on the Clinch river, 50 miles above natural navigation, or 200 miles above its mouth; on the Nianassee river, 100 additional miles, or 175 miles above its mouth; on the French Broad river, 100 additional miles, which would extend its navigation to Ashville, North Carolina-its present head of navigation being at Dandridge, Tennessee; on Powel's river, 50 additional miles. Total slackwater navigation in the mountains 360 miles, making a total navigation above Muscle shoals of nearly 1,300 miles.

Besides the above facts, appertaining strictly to the Tennessee river and its valley, there are others continental in their character, and deserve some consideration in connection with this general description of the Tennessee river.

In examining on the map the anomalous course of the Tennessee river, it is observed to approach very closely to the rivers of the Gulf slope. At Guntersville the distance between the Tennessee and Coosa rivers at Gadsden is only 45 miles.

As the obstructions of the Tennessee islands below Gadsden, on the Coosa, will be surmounted in time, it becomes an interesting question as to whether a water connection by canal can be made between the Tennessee and Coosa rivers at Guntersville and Gadsden, thus giving a direct water communication from the Tennessee valley to the Gulf.

The topography of this part of the country indicates the feasibility of this work, and from the records of the Gadsden and Guntersville railroad survey sufficient data might be obtained to determine the magnitude of the undertaking, but the commercial advantages that would attend the construction of this work are so great as to demand an examination of the country with this special view. Another locality inviting attention is that between Ashville, North Carolina, mentioned as the head of future slackwater navigation on the French Broad and Catawba rivers, in North Carolina, emptying into the Atlantic ocean. This distance is about 40 miles. No opinion can yet be advanced as to the practicability of this enterprise, but it is entitled to notice in this birds's eye view of the Tennessee valley.

It is by such a broad and comprehensive view of the subject that is obtained a proper estimate of the interests involved in the removal of the difficulties to navigation at Muscle shoals. These interests are not confined to the Tennessee valley, but may in time be made to affect the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, for the impetus which would be given to commerce and trade in the Tennessee valley by this improvement would demand the slackwater improvement of its tributaries pointed out, and then, in time, as the country became fully developed, would lead to the consummation of a direct connection by water of the Tennessee valley and the waters of the Atlantic and Gulf.

Such are the immediate and distant results which must attend the removal of the obstructions at Muscle shoals. But as it is, the Tennessee river for purposes of commerce is a great national artery, severed at Muscle shoals. To restore a healthy circulation to trade and vitality to a great section of the United States, wasting away under influences that can be counteracted only by bringing it in