Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/492

KENTON. border warfare until the end of the war. After the battle of Blue Licks he settled at Maysville, Ky., served again in Wayne's campaign in 1793-94, and after living in retirement for some years he emerged for a short interval in 1813 to take part with the Kentucky volunteers in the Canadian campaign, and was present at the British defeat on the Thames. His last years were spent in poverty in Kentucky.  KENT'S HOLE. A famous archæological station near Torquay, Devonshire coast, England, yielding rude chipped and bone implements of Paleolithic type. As early as 1825 the cave was explored by MacEnery, again in 1840 by Godwin Austin, and in 1864 by Pengelly and Vivian, acting under a committee of the British Association. The deposits, in descending order, were: (1) Large blocks of limestone cemented here and there with stalagmite; (2) a layer of black mold 3 to 12 inches thick; (3) stalagmite 1 to 3 feet thick, almost continuous; (4) red cave earth varying in thickness and containing about 50 per cent. of broken limestone, with bones of extinct animals—horse, mammoth, rhinoceros, wolf, and lion—and rude stone implements; (5) above the red clay and below the stalagmite in one part of the cave a thin sheet of black earth containing charcoal, flint scrapers, barbed harpoon-heads, and other implements in bone and antler, besides the bones and teeth of animals. From the upper layer were taken relics of polished stone, copper, bronze, pottery of Roman times, and human bones supposed to prove cannibalism. Consult Evans, Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain (New York, 1872).  KENTUCKY. One of the South Central States of the American Union, lying between the Appalachian Mountain system and the Mississippi River. It is bounded on the north by Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the entire boundary being defined by the Ohio River; on the northeast by West Virginia; on the southeast by Virginia; on the south by Tennessee; and on the west and northwest by Missouri and Illinois, the Mississippi River flowing along the western boundary. It extends from latitude 36° 30′ to 39° 6′ N. and from longitude 82° to 89° 38′ W. Its greatest length from east to west is nearly 400 miles, its extreme breadth about 180 miles, and its area 40,400 square miles, of which 400 miles are water.

. The surface is mostly comprised within the Alleghany Plateau, and has a gentle slope westward and northwestward to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Its average altitude is about 800 feet. In the southeastern part the Cumberland and Pine Mountain ridges of the Alleghanies include the highest elevations in the State, ranging from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea, while the intervening valley occupied by the Cumberland River ranges from 1000 to 1500 feet. The remaining portion of eastern Kentucky is an upland, and has a surface diversified by rounded hills and deeply eroded valleys which follow the general northwesterly slope. Between the Cumberland and Green rivers there is an extensive level tract known as the ‘Barrens’; but the western part, except the portion included in the broad valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, is gently undulating with low hills.

Kentucky has an extensive drainage system which includes innumerable small streams and many navigable waterways. The Mississippi,

flowing a distance of 80 miles along the western border, receives the entire drainage, but only a small portion of it directly, as most of the streams are tributary to the Ohio. The latter, in its winding course of nearly 600 miles along the northern border, is of great commercial importance; with its affluents, the Tennessee, Cumberland, Green, Salt, Kentucky, and Licking, all of which are navigable, it affords easy means of communication between remote parts of the State. Only the lower course of the Tennessee lies in Kentucky. The Cumberland flows in its upper and lower courses through the State, but the central portion lies in Tennessee. The Big Sandy on the West Virginia border is navigable only for a short distance, owing to falls. There are no large lakes in the State.  . The climate is generally more equable than that of the other States in the same latitude. The mean annual temperature is about 55° F., the average for January being about 35° and for July 78°. In summer the thermometer sometimes rises as high as 100°. There is little snow in winter, and while the thermometer may fall to 0° F., such weather is of short duration. The coldest weather is accompanied by northwesterly winds. The rainfall averages about 40 inches for the entire State.

The eastern part of Kentucky, which includes the celebrated ‘blue grass region,’ possesses a soil of wonderful richness, producing a fine quality of grass, cereals, and fruits. It is underlain by limestone strata whose gradual disintegration supplies the necessary elements to maintain a high degree of fertility even with exhaustive cultivation. The ‘Barrens’ have a red calcareous soil well fitted for grazing, and the western hilly region resembles the southern parts of Indiana and Illinois, being adapted for growing cereals. The bottom lands along the principal streams rival the blue-grass country in fertility. There are extensive forests in the eastern part, especially on the ridges and foothills of the Alleghanies.

. See these topics under .

. The whole State is floored by sedimentary strata. A broad belt of Silurian rocks (mostly limestones) crosses the eastern portion from north to south, and is slightly parched into an anticlinal fold, so that the strata dip outward on either side. Near Louisville the Silurian formation passes below the Devonian, which farther west in turn gives way to the Carboniferous strata with the coal measures. The latter extend from Rome on the Ohio River to near the Mississippi, and form a part of the central coal-field of Indiana and Illinois. The same succession of strata is observed in the eastern side of the anticline, the highest portion of the series being the coal measures, which here are included in the Appalachian field. An interesting feature of the geology are the numerous caverns which have been dissolved out of limestone by underground water. (q.v.), in Edmonson County, is the largest known cave in the world. . Coal is the most valuable mineral product, and is obtained from both the Appalachian and central fields. While the former is the larger, comprising an area of 9000 square miles, as compared with 4000 square miles for the central field, the latter yields more