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Show 134 EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. running parallel with the. ~idge. ~he soil is mostly of a free,. soH, gray quality; sometimes ttis. found nc~, strong and red, clothed With an agreeable mixture of oak, hickory, pme, poplar, ash, chGstnut, and dogwooJ, &c. . " The Sepulgas, Burnt-corn, ~nd Murder cr~ek, lymg more .to. the west, it is said, afford larger Lod1es of good land than C?necuh. there are none, however, so far as we can learn, very extensive on any of these waters. . "Of the extent of t~e navigation of Conecuh, we have no sat1s· factory account. 'fhe surveyors, howe\:e r, who ran the parallel townships, from the Spanish line pr~gr~sst~ely to the m>rth .or _up t~Je river founJ it no where passahle with their pack-horses wtthm fifty miles' of the Spanish line, without swimming their horses and const ructing rafts for their packs. They report. it to be a fine deep chan~el, lVIlh a slow eddy current. At the dtstance of about fifty or s1xty miles above the line of demarkation, it divides into hvo large creeks, and here is probably the head of bo.at navigati.on. r~his whole tract of country is abunJanlly supplied wtth perenn1al spnngs of excell~nt water. Your approach to the water is always announced by the wide spreading reed brakes, which uniformly cover the wet bottoms of all the branches, and afford an almost inexhaustible range for cattle. · " No country affords a better prospect of health. F{om the nature of the soil, howel'el', the population must be thin. " Of the mineral productions of this country, the most remat:kab]e is the large quantity of stone, havin.g the appearance. of volcanic Ia ~ va\ lying in broken fragments, covenng the tops and stdes of ~any of the hil!s composing the ridge, exhibiting evident marks of havmg onc·e been in a state of fusion. There are also several places on the head branches of the Conecuh, where there are indications of iron ore in considerable quantities, and judging of it frorl\ his weight and ferns· ginous aspect, it is probably rich. " Among the small prairies in tbe western extremity of their range, there are in€xhaustible quarries of limestone or solid blocks of white hard calcarious rock. By burning a piece of this stone in a blacksmith's forge , and slaking it, we f()unJ it to effervesce rapidly, and making strong and beautiful lime. Amongst this limestone there are also found many testaceous petrifact ions,:¥- particularly the oyster, clam, and cockle shells, some of which are remarkably large, retainiug ' their oriain al form, and exhibiting, on their outside, all the lines and nitches of the shell in its natural state, and on the inside almost as perfect a polish as when the shell was first opened. '' The&e beos of limestone (carbonate of lime ,) are great natural curiosities, whether they are considered in regard to their origin, or the process by which these substances have been changed from theit~ original texture to their present state of petrifaction; and whil.e they afford a rich subject for speculation for the naturalist anu phl· * This is the same kind of recent limestone found in all the valley of the "Mississippi. It forms the- superstr·atum at the fnlls of Ohin. These beds of lime· stone frequently alternate with the Ilretz sandstone: in fact, the two rocks arr. tf a similar formation, but differ in .their component parts. EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 130 lo~opher, they also ~upply the me£hanic with an excellent ·material -n masonry and archJtecture. " Of the Janus lying to the north and west of the Alabama a~d •oosa rivers, but little has been Sl!rveyeu, auJ ~onsequently but ht~ tie of them is known : an actual suney of thts country, l10wever, will soon be made, when its topographical character WJII be ascer-tained. · · h r. II · h' " \Vith respect to that part of the ceJ~d .lands l~tllc ta s ·wtt I.n ~he limits of Georgia, we have no authentic mformatwn, but what IS ·Jerived from the survey of its boundaries ; and even here we arc. deficient in part, not having the trav~rse of the .. Chata~ooche nver, which is the western boundary of th1s tract, from the mouth of Summochecola to the mouth of Fl iHt river. The estimated;- distance, however between these two points is 60 miles ; and the course near~ Jy south.' Taking this at present, for the fact, we l1ave the Jand .i_n the form of a trapezium, who»e average length from east to west IS about one hundred and eighty miles, and its average breadth from north to south about sixty miles. These dimensions will give a product of 11 ~900 square miles, or 7,616,000 acre~. , J u~gin~ of the iAterior of ~e country from what has been seen on 1ts bound-anes, aud the roads passing through it, except what lies between Flint river and Chatahooche, all the rest could not be sold for what it would cost the state to survey it. What lies between the Flint and CI.Jatahooche rivers, however, deserves more attention. In order to form some estim:1te of the quantity of land comprehended in this district, we must ascflrtain as nearly as practicable its dimensions. The distance from the mouth of Summochicola to the mouth of Flint river, we have suppo5ed to be sixty miles, course nearly south. J'rom the mouth of Summochicola, on the boundary line to Flint river, the dis~ tance is ascertained to be sixty miles and six perches east. Thus we have two sides of the. tract, sixty miles each, intersected nearly at right angles. "Flint river makes a large curve eastwardly or outwardly. This is inferred from its relative position with the Chatahooche at three several points above. On the Oakfuske trail, the distance across from Flint river to the Chatahooche, is about thirty miles. On the Federal road running nearly west, and thirty or forty maes lower down, the distance across is fifty -seven miles. On the boun Jary line, sixty or seventy miles below the roau, it is sixty acro~s . ,..rhere must then be a consideraLie bend in the river ornewhere below the line. This bend is probably at the limestone bluff, twenty or thirty below the line , as it is represented in Mr. Melish's Jate improved map of the United States. ·" From Chatahooche on the line to Flint ri\·er, there i~ about a third of the distance good land. In one place, particularly, bet ween Herod's creek anJ Kitchaphone, (a large ere k,) a distance of seventeen miles, there is a body of oak aud hickory land of a good second quality, finely timbered, anJ lying sufficiently level, extending without a break, from Herod's creek, to within a mile of the large creek Kitchaphone, a distance of si:xteen miles. In this land we found no water crossing the line between the two creeks. "\Vater was found, however, on the south side of the line.. Thence to Flint river- |