SECTION FROM TEE MISSISSIPP] RIVER TO; POUND GAP; 2iL 
‘any apparent cause, except that the formation, in its present 
condition, is not adapted to chestnut growth. This matter has 
been previously discussed. 
The timbers on West Fork of Clark river have been spoken 
of especially in a previous report, and do not need mention 
here. After passing the river the barrens continue, without 
interruption, except on small streams, until Wadesboro is 
reached and passed. The shrub spirea is found near Wades- 
boro. On nearing East Fork of Clark river, about one mile 
beyond Wadesboro, considerable good timber is found, con- 
‘sisting of white oak, liriodendron, white ash, black and pig 
hickory, Spanish, scarlet, black, and post oak, dogwood, per- 
simmon, pawpaw, black sumach, spotted birch, sassafras, &c. 
On Clark river the usual swamp timbers appear in vast for- 
ests, and of the finest proportions. Sweet gum, black gum, 
shag and white hickory, white oak and liriodendron are espe- 
cially fine. 
After crossing Clark river, white oak is tolerably abundant, 
often extending to the hill-tops. This would seem to indicate 
that a part of the strip of country between West Fork of 
Clark river and Tennessee river, as well as the strip previous- 
ly mentioned, between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, 
was never swept by fires to the same extent as those parts of 
the Purchase west of this fork of Clark river. This inference 
is still further strengthened by the existence of considerable 
chestnut all through here. It may be that the fires from the 
west did not penetrate across West Fork of Clark river, while 
those from the east found a western barrier in the Cumber- 
land river. A fact to be mentioned presently, however, throws 
‘some doubt upon this, and leads me to believe that, at times, 
the fires swept across both of these streams. 
About one mile from the Tennessee river we strike the 
Protean or the Szlicious group of rocks, without any marked 
-change in the timbers. In the Tennessee river bottom are 
found splendid groves of cypress, from three to seven and 
one half feet in diameter, nearly always standing in marshy 
-places, in a few inches of water, with their knees reaching 
IQI 
