tion of the river, for purposes of constant and certain navigation, is as sealed as though the river had no outlet to the Mississippi valley."

Indeed, steamers of that draft can go for six months during the year as high up as Kingsport, or the boat-yard on the Holston, and this river is so gentle in its descents, so free of dangerous rapids, that the people of East Tennessee were formerly supplied with salt, brought down in flat-boats from the salt works of Abingdon, Virginia.

The removal of these Shoals would also enable through boats of two feet draft, for six months of the year, to ascend above Knoxville 100 miles up the Little Tennessee, 153 up the Clinch, 75 up the Hiawassee, 125 miles up the French Broad, and 50 miles up Powel's River.

In short, the engineer adds: "There are 925 miles of natural navigation above the Muscle Shoals, with only three weeks precarious outlet at Muscle Shoals to the Lower Tennessee and Mississippi valley, from a region of whose drainage into the Tennessee embraces 15,000 square miles."

The navigation of these six tributaries can, he says, be easily improved still higher up from the above-named points, viz: that of the Holston, to the Virginia Salt Works; that of the Clinch, 50 miles; that of the Hiawassee, 100 miles; that of the French Broad, 100 miles, or as far as Ashville, North Carolina, and that of Powel's River, 50 miles; making a total length of inland navigation above the Muscle Shoals of 1,300 miles.

In the regions thus watered and drained, and shut up from the great commercial highways of the country, this Report and the Survey of the Tennessee river goes on to say that there "wheat matures six weeks earlier than in the Northwestern States, and brings the highest price in the New York market. While the Northwestern farmer has a rigorous winter to contend with, which compels him to house and feed his stock for six months in the year, stock can graze all winter in North Alabama, thus saving the farmer the labor of providing for it. The Northwestern farmer, moreover, has only six months in the year in 'which the weather will permit him to provide for his wants in the winter; while there is hardly a day in the year when the North Alabama farmer can not till his grounds.

"These advantages of this section of the country over the Northwest must have their weight; and when it is more generally known that the climate invites the farmer here, which permits the Malaga grape, the fig and pomegranate, to flourish in the open air in the vicinity of Chattanooga and Huntsville-a climate which has neither the rigorous winters of the North, nor the feverish summers of the extreme South

immigration must be turned to the Tennessee valley. Its mild, uniform climate, fertile soil, pure air, and abundant water, its educational and social advantages, and a liberal policy to be pursued by large landholders, are points not to be disregarded by those seeking homes.·

"The mineral wealth of the tributaries of the Tennessee River". continues engineer Gaw, in his official report-"is no less than the agricultural resources of its valley. This region is fast becoming known to the people of the country as one of the richest sections in mineral deposits in the United States; while its merits as a stockgrowing country are illustrated by the fact that from it both armies subsisted for nearly two years during the late war.

"With the opening of the Tennessee at Muscle Shoals, Emery River coal could be delivered at Decatur, Alabama, for 24 cents per bushel, and at Paducah, Kentucky, for 27 cents, without any interruption from the ice to the trade.

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According to the census of 1860, the amount of coal mined in Tennessee was 3,474,100 tons, fully three-fourths of which were from the Upper Tennessee, at Florence, Alabama. This trade would, in the course of time, receive another feeder from the mountains of Alabama, 30 miles from the river, where the coal is of a superior quality."

The Engineer here refers to the propriety of cutting a canal from the Tennessee to the Coosa River, which flows southward through the mountains to the Gulf, and very appropriately styles the Coosa, with such a canal connection, one of the feeders of the Tennessee.

He goes on to say that, with the opening up of the river, wheat could be transported to New Orleans for 20 cents per bushel, and thence to New York, making 32 cents from the Tennessee valley to New York, while freight from Dubuque, Iowa, to New York by rail is 68 cents, which the western farmers are now compelled to pay.

The report from which these interesting extracts are given, was made by Col. W. B. Gaw, Civil Engineer, under the direction of Maj.-Gen. Weitzel, U. S. A. Gen. Weitzel, in transmitting the report to Washington, indorses the recommendation for the construction of a canal around Muscle Shoals, in the following language:

"In addition to the many good reasons given in the appended report for making the improvement at this time, and to those which have been given by the many able men who have reported on this subject in forty years, there occurs to me that not only would a work be done which should have been done years ago, but which would have repaid the Government a large interest.

"I am perfectly confident if the distinguished soldiers who com

manded our armies operating along the line of this river during the late war, should be called upon to testify in this matter, that it would be found that enough money would have been saved to the quartermaster's department by an improved river, in one campaign, to have trebly paid the expense of doing the work."

General Humphreys, in transmitting the report to Congress, urges the improvement strenuously, saying: "The Elk River Shoals, the two Muscle Shoals, and Gilbert's Shoals, all between Brown's Ferry, thirtyfive miles above Florence and Waterloo, thirty miles below it, constitute the only formidable obstructions on the river below Chattanooga, and, if overcome, would open a navigation for nine months in the year throughout the whole length of the Tennessee River, and upon its tributaries. All other impediments are not insurmountable at most stages of the water."

The strength of the popular demand for the improvement of the Tennessee River-manifested during the past forty years, by resolutions of the Legislatures of Tennessee and Alabama, urging the action of Congress, by repeated surveys of the river under the acts of Congress in response to the demands of the people, and by insufficient appropriations by the General Government for the removal of the obstructions at the Muscle Shoals-has been increasing to the exact ratio to the development of the resources of the country, until within the past two years the enterprise has secured its indorsement as a national one by the great River Convention held at St. Louis, in 1866, as well as by the Merchants' National Convention of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1868; of the National Board of Trade at Cincinnati, in 1868, and of the great International Direct Trade Convention, held in Norfolk, Virginia, 14th of October, 1868, and through a popular convention, in Chattanooga, March 18, 1868-February 24, 1869. Through repeated resolutions of the Legislatures of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, through the press of all parties, the people have urged upon Congress the necessity for this great work of internal improvement, until appropriations were granted in 1868 for the survey of the river, and for the removal of a few comparatively trivial obstructions in the upper and lower river. The recent Convention of the States peculiarly interested in this work, held at Chattanooga, in February 1869, urged upon Congress to complete the work so auspiciously begun. At that Convention a few remarks were made by General Wilder, late of the Federal army, and commander of the famous Wilder's Cavalry, who is now engaged in manufacturing iron, just beyond the Alabama line, on the upper Tennessee. It is interesting to note the opinions of such a man as General Wil

der, as evidence not only of the importance of the work, but also as evidence of the advantages of North Alabama, and of the condition of the people. The report of his remarks, as published in a letter to the Cincinnati Commercial, is as follows:

"General Wilder began by saying that he could not make a speech, that he never had been a public speaker and never expected to, but that he could build furnaces and make iron. He said that about two years ago he came to this section in search of health, and his attention had been arrested by the immense amount of marble, iron ore and coal which he found every-where among the mountains. He took a course, and with a trusty companion journeyed down the Tennessee for a distance of over two hundred miles, stopping every few miles to examine the country. He became satisfied that it was the greatest mineral country in the world, and returning home he associated a few gentlemen of means with him, and they had gone to work and met with success far beyond their expectations. They were now digging hundreds of thousands of bushels of coal from their mines, and turning out immense quantities of the very best iron. He compared the expense of the Pittsburg iron manufactories with his own, showing what great advantages this country possesses over the manufacturing districts of Pennsylvania, in the cheapness of labor and provisions, and the salubrity of the climate. Tennessee River, said he, will never be closed by ice, and if we can only get the obstructions removed, he continued, it will float more wealth than the Ohio.

"The General then referred to his experience in the South, saying that if a man would only half way behave himself here, he would find no difficulty whatever on account of politics or place of birth. 'I came from Indiana,' said the General, and I have never been treated better anywhere, nor by any people, than here in Tennessee, and by the people of Tennessee.' His speech was delivered in a conversational way, and I never yet have seen a speaker who held his audience as spell-bound as did General Wilder. At the conclusion, he was greeted with the most tremendous applause. Colonel Cox, of Huntsville, arose, and said that General Wilder had started out by saying that he could not make a speech; 'yet,' said Colonel Cox, 'I have heard thousands of speeches in the United States, and in foreign countries, but I never heard so good a speech as the one just delivered by General Wilder.' He appealed to the Convention to sustain him in this, and they did so with a will. To-night General Wilder's praise is in everybody's mouth, and as I hurriedly write, I hear two ex-rebels wishing that there were a thousand more Wilders up North who would come down here.

"General O'Neil, of Alabama, was next called for, and delivered an eloquent address. He spoke of General Wilder as his friend-though,' said he, I have never spoken to him in my life, nor ever saw him before, yet all such men as he are my friends, and the friends of every man in the South.""

THE ALABAMA WATER LINE.

A canal from the Coosa to the Tennessee-Its practicability-Opinion of Matthew F. Maury-Testimony of M. H. Cruikshanks— Views of Engineer Gaw-Vast importance of the line-Connection of Mobile with the West-Connection with Virginia-Superiority over other lines, etc.

GERMANE to the question of completing the navigation of the Tennessee, it is proper to allude to the declaration made by Colonel Gaw, in his report to General Weitzel, that a canal of thirty or forty miles, from the Tennessee to the Coosa, would make the latter stream a feeder to the former.

It has already been shown that the opening of the Tennessee and of the Coosa, at an insignificant expense in comparison with the results. which would follow, would bring the navigation of those streams within a few miles of each other. By breaking through the obstruction with a short canal, there would be uninterrupted navigation by a cheap water line, from the most distant regions of the Northwest to the safe and commodious harbor of lower Mobile Bay. And again, there would be water navigation from Mobile Bay to the salt-works of Virginia.

The question of opening up this grand "Alabama Water Line” as a highway from the cis-Mississippi Valley to the Gulf, and from the cotton fields of Alabama to Norfolk, by way of the James River and Kanawha Canal, has been urged upon public attention for the past few years. Until lately, however, it has not been known whether there was a practicable route for a canal between the two streams. But now the report of Colonel Gaw, and a subsequent report of Commodore Maury, to the Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, respecting the commercial advantages of Virginia, leave no doubt of the practicability of such a water-line.

The opinion of so distinguished a geographer as Maury, would be alone sufficient to stamp the suggestion as of supreme importance. But