3. COOSA VALLEY REGION. 59 



ture topography. Streams are pretty numerous, but 

 many of the smaller ones now run through cultivated 

 fields, where they have eroded their channels several 

 feet below the general level as a result of the lowering of 

 the ground-water level by deforestation, and they are 

 also dry part of the time. The larger ones become muddy 

 and rise several to many feet in the rainy season (winter 

 and spring). The Coosa River, as far down as the point 

 where it leaves Etowah County and becomes a county 

 boundary, is a sluggish navigable stream with very sin- 

 uous meanders, rising and falling about 25 .feet during 

 an average year. Below that point it is shallower, 

 swifter, and straighter, and not naturally navigable, but 

 navigation has been extended down it some distance by 

 means of locks. 



Large springs, caves and subterranean streams are 

 much less frequent in the Coosa valley than in that of 

 the Tennessee, but small springs are common. Swamps 

 are almost unknown. In the narrower side valleys, ex- 

 cept Wills's, the streams do not run lengthwise of them 

 for any considerable distance, but soon turn aside into 

 the coal regions, which in many places are actually 

 lower, beyond their elevated rims, than the valleys. In 

 Wills's Valley the size of the streams is limited in an- 

 other way. The divide between the Tennessee and 

 Coosa Rivers crosses this valley near Valley Head, and 

 it is only about 50 miles from there to the south end of 

 the valley ; too short a distance to form a river. 



Climate. — Records from two weather stations in this 

 region, Gadsden and Talladega, will be found in the sub- 

 ■joined table. The average temperature is about 63°, and 

 the growing season about 210 days. The summer and 

 fall are rather dry, as in the Tennessee valley. 



Forest types. — These are closely connected with the 

 topography and soil, and are too numerous to be de- 

 scribed in detail here. Near the Coosa River all the way 

 through the region the chert ridges and even some of 

 the more level areas were originally covered with splen- 

 did forests of long-leaf pine, intermingled with various 

 oaks and a small proportion of short-leaf pine. The veg- 

 etation of the sandstone ridges is somewhat similar, ex- 



