Daily National Intelligencer

GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
FROM THE GEORGIA JOURNAL.

At the present period, when the spirit of emigration to the lately ceded territory prevails to a very great extent, a correct topographical description of any part of it cannot fail to be acceptable. Having been engaged for a considerable time past in surveying public land in several parts of the late Creek cession, the account here offered is chiefly the result of actual observation, aided by information derived from other surveyors.

The Alabama is known to be the principal river running through this country. Its general course from its head, or junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa, to its junction with the Tombigby river, is nearly south west; but in its course thither, it makes one remarkable bend and two others of less note. From the junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers to the mouth of Cahaba, a distance by land of about 60 miles, the river runs but a little south of west—thence to the Alabama heights, or Fort Claiborne, a distance by land of 60 or 70 miles, its course is but a little west of south—thence to its junction with Tombigby, about 60 miles further, its course is nearly south west. From this point to Mobile, distant about 40 miles, the river runs nearly south again.

Fort Claiborne is at the head of schooner navigation. Large boats ascend from thence up to Fort Jackson, by the Coosa river. The distance to Fort Jackson, by the Tallapoosa river, is five miles less than by the Coosa, and the navigation throughout the winter and spring is good. In dry seasons, however, there is not sufficient depth of water for the Alabama boats. The Coosa river has a fine deep channel from its mouth, three miles by land below Fort Jackson up to Wetumpka, or the Great Shoals, five miles above the Fort. Here, in the present state of things, we may reckon the head of navigation on this river. From the falls, this river is the Indian boundary up to the mouth of Will's creek, 220 miles, or thereabout.

The Tallapoosa is navigable, except in dry seasons, up to the Great Falls, a few miles above Tookabatche, and about 35 miles above Fort Jackson. From the falls down to Fort Jackson, the general course of the Tallapoosa is nearly west.

The waters in these rivers, particularly the Tallapoosa and Alabama, are subject to remarkable periodical elevations and depressions, owing entirely to this circumstance: Many of their tributary streams, originating in, and passing through a country founded on a bed of limestone, are large and respectable water courses in the winter and spring, but in the fall months become perfectly dry. In the Alabama and Coosa rivers, however, there is always a sufficient depth of water for boating.

Proceeding south eastwardly along the boundary line, from the mouth of Line creek, and up the same towards Chattahooche, at the distance of about 40 miles from Tallapoosa, we come to the ridge separating the waters of Tallapoosa and Alabama from those of Conecuh and Escambia. This ridge proceeds westwardly in a direction nearly parallel with the rivers Tallapoosa and Alabama, but bending less to the south, it approximates very fast towards the river below its bend, near the mouth of Cahaba, and becoming less elevated and distinct, it is finally cut off by the grand sweep of the river along the Alabama heights.

This tract of country, bounded on the north and west by the river, on the east by the boundary line, and on the south by the ridge, is probably the largest body of good land to be found any where within the limits of the treaty, south of Tennessee river. It comprehends an area of near sixty townships, or about 2000 square miles, a considerable portion of which is of the first quality, and there is but little of it that will fall below the rank of good second quality. About one half of the townships now offered for sale lie in this district.

The river cane bottom land I suppose to be equal in fertility to any on the continent, and may average in width an half or three-quarters of a mile, the river winding through it in a serpentine course, and leaving the cane land sometimes on this side and sometimes on that. The outside of the swamp joining the high land, as on most rivers, is low, wet and cut up with ponds and lagoons. Next to the river swamp, and elevated above it by a bluff of from ten to fifteen feet in height, we enter upon an extensive body of level rich land, of fine black or chocolate colored soil. The principal growth is hickory. Black oak, post oak, dogwood, poplar, &c. are also common, but pine timber is rather scarce. This portion of land is interspersed, more or less, with reed marshes, out of which issues constant running water, and also in many places with flat wet weather ponds, holding water in winter, and becoming dry in summer. After this come in the prairies. These are wide-spreading plains of level or gently waving land, without timber, clothed in grass, herbage and flowers, insulated by narrow skirts of rich intervale wood land, and exhibiting in the month of May, the most enchanting scenery imaginable. The soil is generally of a fine black rich cast, & has the appearance of great fertility. Should they prove to be as productive as the soil promises, they will be of great value, as the expense and labor of clearing land will here be saved, and the soil being of such a quality as will not wash away, the land must be very durable. These prairies extend nearly or quite to the ridge; & as the country is open, dry and airy, it promises to be healthy. The only objection to this part of the country seems to be the want of water. This inconvenience, however, may probably be removed to a considerable extent by digging of wells. This objection applies to most of the tract within the limits mentioned, except the land immediately on the river, and distant from it from one to three miles; in this range there is an abundance of cool and pleasant spring water, issuing from the bluffs and reedy heads already mentioned. Several large creeks water this district, which will afford good winter navigation for small boats, of sufficient size to transport the produce of the incumbent farms to the river. The principal of these are the Catoma, Pinchona, Pohlahla and Big Swamp creek; all of which afford extensive bottoms of rich cane brake and beech swamp.

Families living on and near the river, except in select places, will be subject to intermittent and bilious fevers, but they have hitherto appeared to be of a mild type.

After passing the ridge we enter into a country of very different character and features from that just noticed. It is generally pine land, intersected with innumerable creeks, rivulets and branches, running southwardly into the bay of Escambia. The head waters of Conecuh, which is the principal river emptying into the bay, spread out over a large extent of country. The creeks and branches have wide swamps and are in general too low and wet for cultivation. They abound in the finest of timber, particularly white oak of a superior growth, swamp red oak of uncommon size & beauty, beech, maple, poplar, gum, cypress, &c. The under growth is weed & cane, palmettos, iattan, grape vines, china brier, &c. These swamps afford the finest stock range imaginable, particularly for hogs, as besides the immense quantity of oak and beech mast, there is a great variety and plenty of ground nuts and roots easily attainable in the soft soil or mud of those swamps.

On the margins of the creeks there are generally found strips of good land from a quarter to a half a mile wide; in places it is very rich, bearing oak, hickory, ash, and sometimes walnut trees. Next to this is very often found a skirt of rich pine land, dark mulatto soil with hickory, buckeye and other shrubbery characteristic of rich land. From this kind of land there is a gradual declension to the poor pine woods.

On the heads of the numerous branches of Conecuh approaching the ridge, there is a skirt of oak and hickory land five or six miles running parallel with the ridge. The soil is mostly of a free, soft, grey quality; sometimes it is found rich, strong and red, with an agreeable mixture of oak, hickory, pine, poplar, ash, chestnut, dogwood, &c.

The Sepulgas, Burnt-corn, and Murder creek, lying more to the west, it is said, afford larger bodies of good land than Conecuh: there are none, however, so far as I can learn, very extensive on any of these waters.

Of the extent of the navigation of Conecuh, I have no satisfactory account. The surveyors, however, who run the parallel townships, from the Spanish line progressively to the north or up the river, found it no where passable with their pack horses within fifty miles of the Spanish line, without swimming their horses and constructing rafts for their packs. They report it to be a fine deep channel, with a slow eddy current. At the distance of about fifty or sixty miles above the line of demarcation, it divides into two large creeks, and here is probably the head of boat navigation. This whole tract of country is abundantly supplied with perennial springs of excellent water. Your approach to water is always announced by the wide spreading reed breaks, which uniformly cover the wet bottoms of all the branches, and afford an almost inexhaustible range of stock cattle.

No country affords a better prospect of health. From the nature of the soil, however, the population must be thin.

Of the mineral productions of this country, the most remarkable is the large quantity of stone having the appearance of volcanic lava lying in broken fragments, covering the tops and sides of many of the hills composing the ridge, exhibiting evident marks of having once been in a state of fusion. There are also several places on the head branches of Conecuh, in and near the ridge, indications of iron ore in considerable quantities, and judging of it from its weight and ferruginous aspect it is probably rich.

Among the small prairies in the western extremity of their range, there are inexhaustible 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, I found it to effervesce rapidly and making strong and beautiful lime. Amongst this limestone there are also found many testaceous petrifactions, particularly the oyster, clam and cockle shells, some of which are remarkably large, retaining their original form, and exhibiting on their outside all the lines and notches of the shell in its natural state, and on the inside almost as perfect a polish as when the shell was first opened.

These beds 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 their original texture to their present state of petrifaction, and while they afford a rich subject of speculation for the naturalist and philosopher, they also supply the mechanic with an excellent material in masonry and architecture.

Of the lands lying to the north and west of the Alabama & Coosa rivers, but little has been surveyed, & consequently but little of them is known—an actual survey of this country will soon be made, however, when its topographical character will be ascertained.

With respect to that part of the ceded lands which falls within the limits of Georgia, we have no authentic information but what is derived from the survey of its boundaries; and even here we are deficient in part, not having the traverse of the Chattahooche river, which is the western boundary of this tract, from the mouth of Sumwochicola to the mouth of Flint river. The estimated distance, however, between these two points is 60 miles; and the course nearly south. Taking this, at present, for the fact, we have the land in the form of a trapezium, whose average length from east to west is about one hundred and seventy miles, and its average breadth from north to south about seventy miles. These dimensions will give a product of 11,900 square miles or 7,616,000 acres. Judging of the interior of the country from what has been seen on its boundaries and the roads passing through it, except what lies between Flint river and Chattahooche, all the rest could not be sold for what it would cost the state to survey it. What lies between the Flint and Chattahooche rivers, however, deserves more attention. In order to form some estimate of the quantity of land comprehended in this district we must ascertain as nearly as practicable its dimensions. The distance from the mouth of Sumwochicola to the mouth of Flint river, I have supposed to be sixty miles—course nearly south. From the mouth of Sumwochicola on the boundary line, to Flint river, the distance is ascertained to be sixty miles, and six perches east. Thus we have two sides of the tract, sixty miles each, intersecting nearly at right angles. Flint river then, supposing it to run straight, will complete the triangle. These dimensions would give a product of 1800 square miles, or 1,152,000 acres. But judging from what is known to be the general course of Flint river, it must embrace an area of much greater extent. For instead of running directly south west, or straight from the intersection of the boundary line to its mouth, Flint river makes a large curve eastwardly or outwardly. This is inferred from its relative position with the Chattahooche at three several points above.—On the Oakfuskee trail, the distance across from Flint river to Chattahooche, is about thirty miles. On the Federal road running nearly west, and thirty or forty miles lower down, the distance across is fifty seven miles. On the boundary line, sixty or seventy miles below the road, it is sixty across. There must then be a considerable bend in the river somewhere below the line. This bend is probably at the limestone bluff, twenty or thirty miles below the line, as is represented in Mr. Melish's late improved map of the United States.

From Chattahooche on the line to Flint river, there is about a third of the distance good land. In one place particularly, between Herod's creek and Kitchaphone (a large creek) a distance of seventeen miles, there is a body of oak and hickory land of a good second quality, finely timbered and lying sufficiently level, extending, without a break, from Herod's creek to within a mile of the large creek Kitchaphone, a distance of sixteen miles. In this land we found no water crossing the line between the two creeks. Water was found, however, on the south side of the line. Thence to Flint river the land is generally poor, except about half a mile on the river, which is fine soft grey land, well timbered and near the river of a rich soil.

Between the two rivers we cross five large creeks, each of which afford more or less good land, and on one or two of them (Kitchaphone and Amakulla) there is a prospect of good Mill seats.

Proceeding from the line down towards the point, I am told the proportion of good land increases: But be the proportion of good land more or less, as it is the only part of the whole tract received from the general government that will afford any revenue, it would be well for the state to make some disposition of it, and bring the funds thence arising into operation.

W. ROBERTS.