rare, and floods seldom occur. The average annual snow fall is 

 eight inches ; the snows are generally light and seldom iay on the 

 ground more than a few days. 



Tennessee is a long rhomboid with a width at its widest place of 

 109 miles, and a length of 385 miles. Its area in nearly 42,000 

 square miles, about 27,000,000 acres. It touches on its borders 

 eight States, more than any other State, except Missouri. It has 

 within its borders more miles of navigable waters than any other 

 State in the Union. Hundreds of beautiful streams drain the 

 land, supply motive power, and enliven the valleys. Springs of 

 cold limpid water bubble up from out of the depths of the earth 

 in every section of the State. It has for its western border two 

 hundred miles of the great "Father of Waters," the mighty Mis- 

 sissippi. The beautiful Tennessee, as picturesque as the Rhine, 

 has its source in Virginia and North Carolina, flows in a south- 

 westerly direction across the State, swoops with a long, graceful 

 curve down into Alabama, then returns and crosses Tennessee 

 from south to north, crosses Kentucky and pours its flood into 

 the Ohio. It furnishes to Tennessee 320 miles of navigable water. 

 The Cumberland, a no less beautiful stream than the Tennessee, 

 has its source in the mountains of Kentucky, and after gaining 

 considerable volume drops down into Tennessee, flows through 

 the great Middle Tennessee Basin, the Garden of the Gods, then 

 returns to Kentucky and empties its waters into the Ohio a few 

 miles from the mouth of the Tennessee. It affords the State 315 

 miles of navigable water. Other streams of more or less import- 

 ance, some of them navigable, are numerous in every division 

 of the State. 



No State in the Union has a more varied surface than Ten- 

 nessee. Its topographical features embrace mountain and plain, 

 upland and lowland, hill and valley. Its elevation above the sea 

 ranges from 300 feet along the Mississippi River in the western 

 end of the State to 6,600 feet in its eastern extremity. The soils 

 are as diversified as is the surface of the State, embracing almost 

 every variety. For these reasons, and the fact that the climate 

 corresponds with the topography, no State has a greater variety 

 of products. Any thing that will grow any where in a temperate 

 climate will grow as well or better in Tennessee. 



Tennessee is separated from North Carolina by a line which 

 for the most part follows the crest of the great Unaka Moun- 

 tains. The Unaka is the greatest mountain range in the Appa- 

 lachian system and is the largest mountain mass in the United 

 States east of the Mississippi River. It is a continuation of the 

 Blue Ridge of Virginia, and consists of several mountain 

 ridges which run in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction 

 for a distance of nearly two hundred miles across the State. The 



