24 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
waters which unite with the Warrior River have a fall of only 161 feet, 
or 5 inches in a mile. It is for this reason that the Warrior River 
rises during freshets to the height of 50 feet at Tuscaloos: , the water 
being suddenly checked by the diminished fall and therefore accumu. 
lating at that point. Above Tuscaloosa the Warrior or Black Warrior 
River is not navigable. 
COOSA RIVER. 
This is the largest of the tributaries of the Alabama and is formed 
by the junction of the Oostenaula and Etowah rivers at Rome, in 
northern Georgia. After a southerly course of 100 miles, the river 
enters Alabama in Cherokee County, where, continuing its southerly 
trend, it joins the Tallapoosa River at a distance of 334 miles from 
Rome. The river is navigable from Rome to Greensport, a distance 
of 180 miles. From the latter point to Wetumpka, a distance of 137 
miles, navigation is interrupted by a series of shoals and reefs of 
ragged rocks, but from the latter point it is navigable again to its 
confluence with the Tallapoosa River. The chief tributaries of the 
Coosa River take their rise in the Blue Ridge and the Allechenies of 
Georgia. The hanks of this river are mostly high. It passes through 
a country rich in its mineral, agricultural, and forest wealth, 
CAHABA RIVER AND SMALLER STREAMS. 
The Cahaba is one of the smaller tributaries of. the Alabama, into 
which it empties 289 miles above Mobile. It takes its rise In the 
lower hill country in or near St. Clair County, draining a mineral 
region containing the coal field of the same name. and passing through 
the rich agricultural counties of Perry and Dallas. In former years 
steamers ascended from its mouth to Centerville. in Bibb County, a 
distance of 80 miles. 
Smaller streams affecting the drainage of the Coastal plain east of 
the basin of the Alabama River are the Escambia River and the Choe- 
tawhatchee River, the former emptying into Pensacola Bay. The 
Chattahoochee River, with an almost directly southern flow, forms the 
boundary between Alabama and southwestern Georgia, forming by its 
confluence with the Flint River of the latter State the Apalachicola 
River, a deep stream, to its mouth inclosed mostly between extensive 
forest-clad swamps and cypress brakes, and emptying into Apalachi- 
cola Bay. The Chattahoochee River is navigable throughout the year 
between Bainbridge and Columbus, Ga. Its banks are lined with 
steep bluffs of the later Tertiary strata. 
CLIMATE. 
Owing to its geographical position, extending from its northern 
confines to the Gulf shore, over five degrees of latitude, and further to 
