Philosophy of Botany. 257 



The mildness of the climate makes this region accessible at 

 all seasons of the year, and even the highest summits remain 

 but a month or six weeks snow covered. The Western 

 national parks are, from the rigor of their prolonged winter 

 period, accessible for only about five months. 



Duly central to the Northern seacoast, Toledo, Chicago, St. 

 Louis, and New Orleans, could this region be readily reached 

 by millions of people within one day's travel. 



The tracts, as now proposed for a reservation, lie between 

 32 to 35 degrees north latitude, and 82 to 85 western longi- 

 tude. The central or highest crests of the Balsam and 

 Smoky Mountains traverse it from southwest to northeast, 

 with the greatest expanse of surface to the east. The present 

 survey takes in a strip of IVlcMinn, Blount, Sevier, Cocke, and 

 Greene Counties, in Tennessee ; nearly the whole of Graham, 

 part of Swain (and the Cherokee reservation), part of Hay- 

 wood and ]\!.adison, and nearly the whole of Yancey, in North 

 Carolina ; or probably 2,000,000 acres of mountain lands. 



The State of Tennessee ought to make a strenuous effort 

 that all the headwaters of the Hiwassee and Ocoe Rivers, to 

 their ultimate sources in North Carolina and Georgia, should 

 also be included in this reservation. The greatest opportuni- 

 ties for mining enterprises are open in this region for building 

 stones, granites, and slate quarrying, besides gold, copper, 

 iron, asbestos, and gems, not to speak of the natural and last? 

 ing products of a national forest management. 



The success of this enterprise lies within the power of, and 

 depends upon, the appreciation of its merits by the present 

 Congress. Since the writing of these lines the present Fifty- 

 second General Assembly of the State passed a joint resolu- 

 tion by both houses memorializing Congress through our Rep- 

 resentatives, and petitioning for a national grant. The Gen- 

 eral Assembly declared its readiness to cede all State rights 

 against compensation to present owners to the Government of 

 the United States, recognizing its absolute domain. 



The State of Georgia has also sent a similar petition and in- 

 struction to its Representatives in Congress, effecting thei-eby 

 a joint action of th^ three States of North Carolina, Tennessee, 

 and Georgia. 

 9 



