Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/25

Rh will admit a safe steerage. The Rapids at Louisville descend about 30 feet in a length of a mile and a half. The bed of the river there is a solid rock, and is divided by an island into two branches, the Southern of which is about 200 yards wide, and is dry four months in the year. The bed of the Northern branch is worn into channels by the constant course of the water, and attrition of the pebble stones carried on with that, so as to be passable for batteaux through the greater part of the year. Yet it is thought that the Southern arm may be the most easily opened for constant navigation. The rise of the waters in these rapids does not exceed 10 or 12 feet. A part of this island is so high as to have been never overflowed, and to command the settlement at Louisville, which is opposite to it. The fort, however, is situated at the head of the falls. The ground on the South side rises very gradually.

The Tanissee, Cherokee or Hogohege River is 600 yards wide at its mouth, a quarter of a mile at the mouth of Holston, and 200 yards at Chotee, which is 20 miles above Holston, and 300 miles above the mouth of the Tanissee. This river crosses the Southern boundary of Virginia, 58 miles from the Missisipi. Its current is moderate. It is navigable for loaded boats of any burthen to the Muscle Shoals, where the river passes through the Cumberland Mountain. These shoals are 6 or 8 miles long, passable downwards for loaded canoes, but not upwards, unless there be a swell in the river. Above these the navigation for loaded canoes and batteaux continues to the Long Island. This river has its inundations also. Above the Chickamogga towns is a whirlpool, called the Sucking Pot, which takes in trunks of trees or boats, and throws them out again half a mile below. It is avoided by keeping very close to the bank, on the South side. There are but a few miles portage between a branch of this river and the navigable waters of the River Mobile, which runs into the Gulf of Mexico.

Cumberland, or Shawanee River, intersects the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina, 67 miles from the Missisipi, and again 198 miles from the same river, a little above the entrance of Obey's River into the Cumberland. Its clear