And so these mines, and fields, and forests, remain to the present day,
unsurveyed, unexplored and unknown, save to a few wanderers of science.
In Northern Alabama, where the terminating slopes of this upheaval of
rocks disappear beneath the level of the vast cotton fields, which number
their acres by the million, there appear enormous deposits of iron ore, of
extraordinary richness and depth, lying in juxtaposition with
corresponding beds of limestones and coal.
Here is alone sufficient material for the iron fingers and forges and the
steam power to fabricate the vegetable growths, the harvests of the vast
and fertile plains of the entire South, and to build up with enduring form
those great and thriving cities which are seen in the dim vista of the
future of the Mississippi Valley, with its hundred millions of people.
These elevations, when denuded of their immense primeval forests of pine
and oak, will be covered with constant verdure, affording sure sustenance
to numberless flocks and herds of kine, which will require less care than
the cattle of the plains of Texas or the pampas of Peru, since Nature,
with her caverns and narrow valleys, will afford shelter from the
destructive storms of winter and the chilling blasts of spring.
Between the two great spurs of the divided mountain range which encompass
the head-waters and tributaries of the Tennessee, appears the garden spot
of the Republic: the soils, enriched by the decomposition of the blue
limestones, are here of great strength and endurance; the innumerable
streams are of sufficient force and volume to satisfy the wants of
industry and mechanics, whilst the lofty mountains, which rise to the
height of seven thousand feet above the ocean, with their broad and
impressive shadows, temper the atmospheres, so that the body can labor and
the mind expand.
To the natural beauties of the landscape art has yet added nothing: from
the teeming harvests of the valleys, from the massive ledges of minerals,
man has yet detracted nothing.
Nature here is almost inexhaustible.
No wonder that the dying Indian returns to the region of the Hiwassee to
end his days on earth, impelled by an irresistible desire to behold once
more the wonders and beauties of natural scenery, which are preserved
among the fading traditions of the tribes that have been banished to the
far off western frontiers.