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 Tuscaloosa, 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 Alleghenies of 

 Georgia. The banks 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 Choc- 

 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 }^ear 

 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 



