THE REGIONS IN DETAIL. 



THE HILL COUNTRY— (REGIONS 1-5) 



1. The Tennessee Valley. 



UNDER this designation is included all that portion 

 of the state north or northwest of the plateau of 

 the coal region (described a little farther on), including 

 not only the main valley of the Tennessee River but also 

 several narrower valleys almost surrounded by portions 

 of the plateau. This region includes quite a number of 

 rather diverse kinds of country, such as the ''barrens'* 

 adjacent to the Tennessee line, the fertile plains border- 

 ing the Tennessee River, the chert ridges in the western 

 half, the limestone slopes bordering the plateau, the Lit- 

 tle Mountains of Morgan, Lawrence and Colbert Coun- 

 ties, and Brown's Valley, a direct continuation of the Se- 

 quatchie Valley of Tennessee, which extends southwest- 

 ward into Blount County. Of these the barrens will be 

 described separately, and the rest treated as a unit. 



References (for both the Barrens and the Tennessee 

 valley proper). McCalley 1, McCalley 4, Mohr 3 (528- 

 529), Mohr 8 (21-22, 80-89), Smith 4 (9-18, 20-58), 

 Smith 6 (38-44, 69, 109-119), Smith 7 (217-234, 297, 

 407-433), Smith 9 (10-11, 77-80, 100-107), Tuomey 1 

 (65-71), Tuomey 2 (1-24, 30-42). 



A. The Barrens. 



(Figures 1, 2.) 



Location, area, and external relations. — This name is 

 applied locally to a strip of country covering about 800 

 square miles in the northern edge of Lauderdale, Lime- 

 stone and Madison Counties. It is a part of the "High- 

 land Rim" which surrounds the Ordovician (formerly 

 called Lower Silurian) limestone basin of Middle Tennes- 



(37) 



