Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/672

 642 TENNESSEE 13,854 in South Carolina, and 43,387 in Vir- ginia and West Virginia. Of the foreigners, 4,539 were horn in Germany, 2,085 in Eng- land, and 8,048 in Ireland. The density of population according to the federal census was 27'6 persons to a square mile. There were 231,365 families, with an average of 5*44 persons to each, and 224,816 dwellings, with an average of 5 '6 to each. The increase of population from 1860 to 1870 was 13-4 per cent. There were 429,592 persons from 5 to 18 years of age, 222,903 males from 18 to 45, and 259,016 male citizens 21 years old and upward. There were 290,549 persons 10 years of age and upward who could not read, and 364,697 unable to write; of the latter, 178,725 were white and 185,952 colored, 163,206 males and 201,473 females; 225,724 were 21 years old and over. The number of paupers sup- ported during the year ending June 1, 1870, was 1,349, at a cost of $99,811. Of the 1,332 receiving support at that date, 314 were col- ored. The number of persons convicted of crime Curing the year was 722. Of the 981 in prison June 1, 1870, 560 were colored. The state contained 876 blind, 570 deaf and dumb, 925 insane, and 1,091 idiotic. Of the total population lo years old and over (890,872), there were engaged in all occupations, 367,- 987 ; in agriculture, 267,020, of whom 136,925 were laborers and 129,550 farmers and plant- ers ; in professional and personal services, 54,- 396, including 1,256 clergymen, 24,563 do- mestic servants, 16,780 laborers not specified, 1,126 lawyers, 2,220 physicians and surgeons, and 2,250 teachers not specified ; in trade and transportation, 17,510 ; in manufactures and mechanical and mining industries, 29,061. The total number of deaths from all causes was 14,239, being 1-13 per cent, of the entire pop- ulation; from consumption, 2,377, there be- ing 6 deaths from all causes to 1 from this disease; from pneumonia, 1,298, or 11 deaths from all causes to 1 from this disease. There were 652 deaths from croup, 571 from inter- mittent and remittent fevers, 72.9 from cere- bro-spinal, enteric, and typhus fevers, and 750 from diarrhoaa, dysentery, and enteritis. The state presents eighf great topographical divi- sions. On its E. border the TJnaka, Smoky, Bald, and other mountains, belonging to the Appalachian chain, have an average elevation of 5,000 ft. above the sea, and an area (ac- cording to state measurements) of 2,000 sq. m. Between these mountains and the Cum- berland table land on the west the valley of East Tennessee comprises a succession of ridges and minor valleys running in almost unbroken lines from N. E. to S. W. The av- erage elevation of this valley is 1,000 ft., and its area 9,200 sq. m. The Cumberland table land rises about 1,000 ft. above the valley of East Tennessee, and has an area of 5,100 eq. m. Its E. side forms an almost continuous N. E. line, and presents an abrupt, rocky rampart. The W. edge is irregular and jagged, with deep coves and valleys. Next on the west, with average elevation of 1,000 ft. above the sea, an area of 9,300 sq. m., are the highlands, rim lands, or terrace lands, which extend to the Tennessee river. This division is for the most part a plain, traversed by numerous ravines and streams. In the centre of these highlands is the great central basin, elliptical and resem- bling the bed of a drained lake ; its average de- pression is about 300 ft. below the highlands, and it has an area of 5,450 sq. m. This whole basin, with the surrounding highlands, is slight- ly inclined toward the northwest. The next natural division on the west is the western valley, or valley of the Tennessee, 10 or 12 m. wide, with an elevation of 350 ft. above the sea and an area of 1,200 sq. m. The surface is broken and irregular, various subordinate val- leys extending from 20 to 25 m. into the high- lands. The plateau or slope of West Tennessee, which constitutes the seventh grand division, is a great, gently undulating plain, which slopes toward the Mississippi. It has few rocks, is fur- rowed with river valleys, and extends westward for an average distance of about 84 m., when it abruptly terminates in a long and steep bluff or escarpment that overlooks the great alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi. It has an area of about 8,850 sq. m., with an average elevation of 500 ft. The extreme western natural divi- sion comprises the bottoms of the Mississippi, a low, flat, alluvial plain, having an area of 900 sq. m. and an average elevation of about 300 ft. It is covered with forests, and has numerous lakes and morasses. The state is also popularly divided into East, Middle, and West Tennessee ; the first extending from the North Carolina border to about the middle of the Cumberland table land, the second from this line to the. Tennessee river, and the third from the Ten- nessee to the Mississippi. The rivers of Ten- nessee afford extensive commercial facilities and abundant water power. The most impor- tant are the Mississippi, which forms the W. border, and the Tennessee and the Cumber- land, which with their tributaries drain more than three fourths of the state. The chief tributaries of the Mississippi are the Forked Deer and its branches (Obion river and South Forked Deer), the Big Hatchie, and Wolf river. The Forked Deer is navigable for steamboats to Dyersburg, and the Big Hatchie for several miles. (See CUMBERLAND EIVER, and TENNES- SEE RIVER.) Geologically the state is divided into five districts or cross belts running from N. E. to S. W. The first, comprising the in- terval between the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers, is occupied (in an order from W. to E.) by the alluvial, tertiary, and cretaceous forma- tions of the gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic seaboard. The second, from the Tennessee river to the W. foot of the Cumberland moun- tains, is a rolling country of nearly horizontal palffiozoic rocks, with a great basin-like dis- trict of lower Silurian ground in the centre, watered by the Cumberland, Stone's, Duck, and