xt7qbz61624v https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qbz61624v/data/mets.xml Kentucky. Bureau of Agriculture, Horticulture and Statistics. 1877 books b92-148-29450436 English S.I.M. Major, public printer, : Frankfort, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky. Geology Kentucky. Resources and condition of the commonwealth of Kentucky / prepared by the state Bureau of Agriculture, Horticulture and Statistics : for general distribution. text Resources and condition of the commonwealth of Kentucky / prepared by the state Bureau of Agriculture, Horticulture and Statistics : for general distribution. 1877 2002 true xt7qbz61624v section xt7qbz61624v

GENERAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

RlCULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, MINERAL RESOURCES

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF

KENTUCKY.

PILED FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION TO EMIGRANTS AND EMIGRATION SOCIETIES,

THE

BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE, c., c.

FRANKFORT, KY.:
PARINTED A T THE KENTUCKY YEOMAN OFFICE.
S. I. M. MAJOR, PUBLIC PRITER.
1877-

I
I
0
This page in the original text is blank.

1 4 'le F

Ft -

T H E

RESOURCES AND CONDITION

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY,

PkI'EPARED BY

'THE slrATE BURFAU OF AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE,
AND STATISTICS.

FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION.

FRANKFORT, KY.:
PRINTED AT THE KENTUCKY YEOMAN OFFICE.
S. 1. M. MAJOR, PUBLIC PRINTER.

1877.

Itich Low Soils,
so to 500 feet.

Variable Soils, generally of good
quality.
800 t0 ,o500 feet.

Rather Thin Soils,
go to soo feet.

Excellent Soils,
to to Soo feet.

SmDy Soils, Rather Lgh.
zoo to soo feet.

Dense Clay Soils. J
about too feet.
About too feet.

Blo Blue Grass Soils.

About So0 feet.

! CAR I ERO S

Workable Coal Beds,
2oto 40 feet.

Excellent Fire Clays and Iron Ore.

1 Pottery Clays.

Iron Ores. Coals in Eastern Kterntucky.

II
T -1 t Leitchlfield Potash Mlarls. Iron Ore
ISU E. '" C "- Paint Earths.
-17 - - Excellen t Butilding- Stones,

z. .. ==- -= _-

I t I
L

a__t.t.___LL _

lttena V.sta Sanwdstone.

ifile and Pttery Clays.

Lubricating Oils. Salt WVells.

Goood Bui'l;ng Stones. Clinton Iron Or.
Paint Earths of excellent quality.

Kentucky Marble.

Biuilding Stones.

AR ha thir Amel mWst exirnd is KJ.

the Blue-Lick and other Salt Sulphur
waesouc fsm al el n

i IE
LL-J- - I

I I

.To His Excellency JAMES B. MCCREARY, Governor of Kentucky:
Sir: Section sixth of the act creating this Bureau, passed at the last
session of the Kentucky Legislature, and approved March 20th, 1876,
in enumerating the duties of' the Commissioner, says: "It shall be the
duty of the said Commissioner to prepare, as soon as he may be pos-
sessed of the proper information, a condensed statement of the present
condition and capacity of the State as regards its agriculture, horticul-
ture, mining, manufacturing, and domestic arts; the average price of
lands and labor in its different sections; its traveling, exporting, and
educational facilities; a brief view of its climate; its geographical posi-
tion and general topography, and other suitable subjects designed to
induce immigration to this State; which statement, in the form of a
report, when presented to the Governor, and approved by him, the said
Commissioner shall cause to be printed, in cheap pamphlet form, in the
English and German languages, and distributed free through immigra-
tion socities, or otherwise, as he may deem best to promote immigration
into this State."
In accordance with this section, I have the honor to submit for your
approval the following account of the resources, capacity, and condition
of Kentucky.
As a similar work for a similar purpose was required to be prepared
and printed by the Geological Survey, to be used at the Centennial
Exposition last year at Philadelphia, covering the same requirements in
part, and as the stereotype plates of this work are owned by the State,
I have, to save cost in printing and to reproduce the valuable informa-
tion there succinctly given, adopted the first seventy-four pages of said
work as a part of this, and have added other chapters to fill the require-
ments of the law, and also to popularize the information for the use of
every class of emigrants seeking new homes in the Mississippi Valley.
I am, very respectfully,
W. J. DAVIE,
Commissioner of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Statistics.
This page in the original text is blank.

GENERAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUJCKY.

GEOGRAPHY.

Positzion. - The Commonwealth of Kentucky - situated
between latitude 36' 30' and 390 o6' north, and longitude
50 oo' and I2' 38' west, from Washington -includes about
forty thousand square miles of area, extending for six hundred
and forty-two and a half miles along the south bank of the
Ohio River, from its junction with the Mississippi to the
mouth of the Chatterawah or Big Sandy. This river forms
the northern, north-western, and north-eastern borders of the
State. A part of its north-eastern border, one hundred and
twenty miles, is formed by the Chatterawah River; a south-
eastern face of about one hundred and thirty miles has a
natural boundary in the several ranges which receive the
common name of Cumberland Mountains. The southern face
alone is an arbitrary line of two hundred miles in length. The
western boundary of about fifty miles is formed by the Missis-
sippi River.
A glance at the accompanying map will make it plain that
the region occupied by this Commonwealth has a position of
peculiar importance with reference to the great feature-lines
of the continent. The Mississippi-River system is the key to
the continent. Those parts which lie beyond its borders are,
by their limited area or their severe conditions of climate,
relatively of minor importance. In this system the State of
Kentucky, all things being considered, occupies a most im.
portant place. Its western border is only one thousand and

,6's

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KENTUCKY.

seventy-five miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, and its
eastern boundary is within five hundred miles of the Atlantic
ports.
The special features of position to be considered in meas-
uring the importance of this Commonwealth are its central
place with reference to the Valley of the Mississippi, and the
advantages it has from its extended contact with the river
system of that valley. More than any other State in America
it abounds in rivers. Including the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers, where they bound its borders, the State has within its
limits rather more than four thousand miles of rivers, which
are more or; less completely navigable. Improvements of
small cost will give this amount of navigation with complete
permanency, except for an average of about fifteen days per
annum, when they are ice-bound.

GENERAL GEOLOGY.
Just as the State of Kentucky is geographically but a part
of the Mississippi Valley, so it is geologically composed of a
series of rocks which extend far and wide over the same
region. On the eastern line, between Cumberland Gap and
Pound Gap, it is generally in sight of the old crystalline rocks
of the Blue Ridge, or original axis of the Appalachian Chain,
and is closely bordered by rocks of the middle Cambrian or
Potsdam age; but the lowest exposed rocks of the State are
those found at a point on the Ohio River, about twenty miles
above the Licking River, where we come upon Cambrian rocks
answering to the base of the Trenton period in New York,
and probably to the Bala or Carodoc beds of England. This
series is about six hundred feet thick, and consists principally of
the remains of organic life laid down in a continually shallowing
sea, interrupted by occasional invasions of coarser sediment,
derived from the northward. At the close of this Cincinnati
section of the Cambrian, there came the invasion of a heavier
sand-flow, probably coming from the south-east, that arrested the
life and formed some thick beds of rock, known in the reports

It is 528 miles from Columbus to New Orleans by railroad, and 472 miles to
Mobile.
366

GENERAL GEOLOGY.

of the Kentucky survey as the Cumberland Sandstone. After
this the floor of the sea was sparingly peopled with life, dur-
ing the whole of the Clinton and Niagara epochs, when it was
probably deep water. This deep sunken condition of the ocean
floor continued in the Devonian time, when this section seems
to have been the seat of a deposition such as is now going on
beneath the Sargassa Sea of the Atlantic of to-day. The de-
caying sea-weed and other organic matter made a bed from three
hundred feet thick along Lake Erie to forty feet thick in South-
ern Kentucky, averaging about one hundred feet in Kentucky.
This bed furnishes the rich lubricating oils of the Cumberland
Valley. After this came again shallow water, and quick succes-
sive sand-invasions moving from the north, which formed sev-
eral hundred feet of beds. These beds probably represent but a
fraction of the time required to form the Black Shale which lies
below. This part of our section is called the Waverly, and is
commonly regarded as being more nearly related to the Carbon-
iferous than.to the Devonian series of rocks. After this period
came a repetition of subsidence, and a cessation of the sand-
invasions. During this time there was such a development of
sea-lilies or stemmed Echinoderms, that this time deserves to
be called the period of crinoids. This accumulation ranges in
depth from a few feet along the Ohio River to five hundred or
more feet under the Western Coal-field. It marks a period of
tolerably deep still water, filled with lime-secreting animals. It
is probably to the unbroken character of this succession of life,
and especially to the crinoids with their upright stems, that we
owe the uniformly massive character of many of the beds of this
Subcarboniferous Limestone.
Next in the ascending series we come on the coal-bearing
rocks. Their deposition was begun by the sudden shallowing
of the water over this region, bringing the old sea-floor near the
surface of the water, and subjecting it to alternating invasions
of sand borne by strong currents, and exposures in low-lying
flats covered by a dense swamp vegetation. Each of these
swamp-periods answers to a coal-bed; each recurring subsi-
dence, to the deposits of sands and shales that lie between
the coals.
367

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KENTUCKY.

After the Carboniferous period, we are warranted in believ.
ing that this region was but little below the sea, and with this
change it became essentially subjected to land conditions alone.
The wear incident to these conditions has swept away a large
part of the exposed rocks, and reduced the Carboniferous
series to less than half of its original thickness.
Near to the present time there came a sudden subsidence
of this whole region, that brought the low-lying western part
of the State beneath the level of the sea, and retained it
there while the Tertiary deposits were being formed out of the
waste of the higher parts of the Mississippi Valley that still
remained above the sea.
The disturbances that have changed the position of the
rocks in Kentucky have been few and far between, though
they have materially affected the general structure of the
State. From the mouth of the Licking south a little west-
erly, through Monroe County, extends a ridge or axis of ele-
vation, the beds dipping gently, rarely over ten feet in a
mile, in either direction away from it. This was in part
formed during the deposition of the Lower Cambrian, but
probably was completed at a much later date. This has
caused the limitation of the Carboniferous beds of this region.
To it in fact we owe the abundant diversity of the rock out-
crops within the State. In the south-east corner of Ken-
tucky there is a region between Straight Creek and Clear
Creek, tributaries of the Cumberland, and the Virginia border,
where the Appalachian disturbance has thrown the rocks into
mountain folds. Here are some fine exposures of the deeper
rocks brought up by the great faults of the region.
No glacial traces of the last period are known within the
State, nor are the indications of the more ancient ice-periods
at all distinct. This area has probably remained south of all
those profound disturbances of temperature that have so
greatly affected more northern regions.t
The appended generalized section on second page of cover will give a general
idea of the successions of the Kentucky rocks. Further facts can be found in the
Reports of the Survey, for which see list at the end of this pamphlet.
t For further information on this subject, see the Biennial Report of N. S.
Shaler for 1874-5, Kentucky Geological Survey, now in press.
368

SURFACE.

Surface. - The whole of Kentucky lies within the Missis-
sippi Basin, and within the special division of the Ohio Valley.
Its principal feature-lines have been given it by the river ex-
cavations. A small area on the south-east, containing not more
than four thousand square miles, lies within the disturbed
region of the Alleghanies, and has a true mountain-folded
structure. The remainder is essentially a plain or table-land,
sloping from the south-east towards the north-west, and little
broken, except by the deep-cutting river excavations. In
the eastern half this table-land has an average height of about
one thousand feet above the sea; the ridges often reaching
to fifteen hundred, and the valleys down to seven hundred feet.
The greatest difference between the bottom of any one excava-
tion valley and the borders of the divide does not exceed about
seven hundred feet, and is usually about half this amount.
Eight degrees west of Washington the country begins to sink
down rapidly to the west. The cause of this change will be
explained in the geological description of the State. Its effect
is to carry the upper surface of this table-land gradually down-
wards, until along the Mississippi its average height is not
more than three hundred feet above the sea, and the average
difference between the bottoms of the valleys and the tops
of the ridges is not over fifty feet. This considerable height
of the State above the sea is of great advantage in securing it
against fevers, from which it may be said to be practically
exempt, except in a narrow belt in the extreme western dis-
trict, near the borders of the swamp regions.
Although the general surface of the State is that of a table-land
sloping towards the Ohio River, and consequently towards the
north-west, it has many subordinate features which should be
separately described. All that part of its surface indicated as
Tertiary on the accompanying map is rather imperfectlydrained,
the rivers having low banks, and during the winter and early
spring being subject to overflow from the floods. The re-
mainder of the State, saving a strip a few hundred feet wide
along some of the larger streams, is absolutely free from this
danger. The remainder of the State, to the east of this line,
has only the variety which comes from the difference in the
VOL. I 1.-24 369

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KENTUCKY.

wear of the streams in the rock. The nature of this difference
will be discussed under the head of geology. It is only
necessary to say here that the whole of the area described on
the map as Cambrian is characterized by broad flat-topped
ridges, with steep-banked rivers between; the general character
being that of a much cut up table-land. The part marked as
Devonian has broad valleys and steep-sided, tower-like hills.
That marked Subcarboniferous, especially in the region west
of the Cincinnati Southern Railway, is characterized by having
all its smaller streams underground, usually only the rivers over
fifty feet wide at low water having their paths open to the
sky. All this region wants the small valleys which we are
accustomed to see in any country, but in their place the sur-
face is covered by broad, shallow, cup-like depressions or sink-
holes, in the centre of which is a tube leading down to the
caverns below. All this region is completely honey-combed
by caverns one level below the other from the surface to the
plane of the streams below. In one sense, this set of under-
ground passages may be regarded as a continuous cavern as
extensive as the ordinary branches of a stream when it flows
upon the surface. The sink-holes answer to the smallest ex-
tremities of the branches. Some idea of the magnitude of
these underground ways may be formed from the fact that the
Mammoth Cave affords over two hundred miles of chambers
large enough for the passage of man, while the county in which
it occurs has over five hundred openings leading far into the
earth, none being counted where it is not possible to penetrate
beyond the light of day.
The Carboniferous formation is characterized by being cut
into very numerous valleys, mostly rather narrow and with
steep-sloped, narrow-topped ridges on either side. The relatively
narrow valleys, and the general absence of any large areas of
flat land on the top of the ridges, cause this region to have
less land well fitted for cultivation than any other part of the
State. Every part of the surface of the State not permanently
under water may be regarded as fitted by its surface for the
uses of men, not one thousandth of it being so precipitous as
to be unfit for cultivation in some fashion. The writer knows
370

RIVER SYSTEMS.

of no equal area in Europe that has as little waste on account
of its contour.
RIVER SYSTEMS.

Reference has been made to the fact that the whole of this
Commonwealth lies within the basin of the Mississippi, and
over ninety per cent. of its area within the Ohio Valley, the
remainder pouring its waters directly into the Mississippi.
There are, however, a number of large streams which are
the property of the State; and two, the greatest tributaries
of the Ohio, gather a part of their waters in the State.
Big, Sandy. - Beginning at the eastern end of the State,
we have the Big Sandy or Chatterawah River, which sepa-
rates for forty miles, by its main stem and then by its eastern
fork, the State of Kentucky from West Virginia. This
stream is the only river of its size in America all the basin
of which is in the coal-bearing rocks. It drains a valley of
about four thousand square miles. Its name of Sandy is de-
rived from the very large amount of moving sand in the bed,
coming from the rapid wear of the sand rocks which compose
the beds of all its tributaries. The valley consists of a narrow
belt of level, arable land bordering the streams, and a great
extent of hill land of a good quality of soil, but only fit for
permanent cultivation on the more gradual slopes. The
greatest valu'e of soil-products in this valley is to be found in
its timber resources, which will be found specially mentioned
under the head of timber. It may be said here that the valley
contains, next to the Upper-Kentucky and the Cumberland
Valleys, the largest amount of original forest found in any part
of the State, and more than any other valley is especially fitted
for the continued production of timber of varied quality. The
forests throughout this region readily and rapidly reproduce
themselves in the same species, after being cut away. The soil
of this valley is very well fitted for the growth of fruits of all
kinds. The season is rather later than that of the" other river
basins of the State, and the liability to frosts possibly rather less
than in the central region. Owing to difficulties of transpor-
tation, fruits have been as yet but little grown for exportation.
371

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF, KENTUCKY.

The whole of the cereals are produced in the valley. The soil
is usually of a light sandy nature, with generally enough clay
to give it a fairly lasting quality. The principal disadvantage
arises from the steepness of the slope of the hills.
Mixeral.Resources. - The coal resources of this valley are, in
proportion to its total area, greater than any other in the State,
scarcely an acre of its area but probably has some workable
coal beneath it. These coals are mostly of the ordinary bitu-
minous qualities; some cannel coal occurs therein of workable
thickness. A full account of these coals, with illustrative sec-
tions, will be found in the general description of the eastern
coal-field. Little effort has been made to find iron ores in
this valley. The dense forests and the softness of the rocks pre-
vent the occurrence of trustworthy surface indications. In the
lower part of the valley very important ores have recently been
discovered, of which the precise areas and character are yet to
be determined. (See the reports of A. R. Crandall and N. S.
Shaler for further details.)
The Li/tMe Sandy Valley. - The general character of this
small valley is much the same as that of the Big Sandy. The
river is altogether within the Carboniferous formation. The
early utilization of the iron ores of this valley has led to a
knowledge of its mineral resources superior to that yet ob-
tained for any other equal area in the State. About thirty-five
feet of workable coals are known in the several beds of the
valley. (See p. 42.)
Tygert's Creek. - Here the coal resources are more deeply
cut down by the stream, which in good part flows upon the
Subcarboniferous Limestone. Though wanting some of the
best coals, it has many of the best iron ores of the State.
Some beautiful caverns are found along its banks in Carter
County. The general surface is much as in the valleys before
described. In its upper part, the Limestone rocks give occa-
sional areas of more enduring soils than are furnished by the
Sandstones of the country to the eastward. The timber and
other soil products are much the same.
The stream is not navigable, but can easily be made so by
locks and dams, giving continuous navigation for about forty
miles along the meanders of the stream
372

RIVER SYSTEMS.

The streams from the mouth of Tygert's Creek to the mouth
of the Licking or Nepemini are all quite small, and drain a
region of limited mineral resources. Kinniconick Creek gives
access to a region abounding in admirable Sandstone for build-
ing purposes, and to some iron ores of undetermined richness,
but of considerable promise. It can be made navigable at small
expense. The whole of this valley abounds in excellent oak
timber.
The Licking. - This stream, the fourth in size of the rivers
of the State, ranking next to the Big Sandy, passes over all
the formations found in the State except the Tertiary. From
its source to near the mouth of Blackwater Creek it runs on
the Carboniferous rocks. As far as Duck Creek, it is still bor-
dered by these beds containing excellent coals, both cannel
and bituminous. On the Subcarboniferous Limestone, which
crosses the river near Blackwater Creek, is an excellent iron
ore. On Slate Creek, near Owingsville, is an admirable mass
of ore, the richest of the State, having at places a depth of
fifteen feet or more.
Triplett and Salt-Lick Creeks afford excellent building-
stones, and the same series of rocks (the Waverly) furnish
some stones which give great promise for lithographic pur-
poses.
From the mouth of Fox Creek to the end of the river the
stream is entirely in the lower Blue Limestone or Upper Cam-
brian rocks, which afford excellent building-stones, but no other
marketable underground products.
The soil of the valley varies greatly, -light sandy loam in
the Carboniferous and Waverly series; rather wet clays on the
Black Shale and Silurian; rich, loamy clays giving soils of the
first quality over the lower or Cambrian half of the stream.
The Blue Limestone lands of the counties drained by the
North Fork are noted for their large yield of a tobacco highly
prized by the manufacturers of "fine cut," and well known
in the markets under the name of "' Mason County tobacco."
The Kentucky.-Sixty miles below the Licking. the Ken-
tucky discharges into the Ohio. This stream is the second
of the Kentucky streams in volume, and the first in length.
2 373

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KENTUCKY.

Its head-waters, from Sturgeon Creek east, lie altogether with
the coal-bearing rocks. At least four- hundred miles of water-
front,. open to vessels able to carry three hundred tons of coal,
can be made on the three forks of this river. The coal holds
along the hill-sides as far as Station-Camp Creek. The upper
half of the Red-River branch contains also an abundance
of coal. The entire drainage of the Kentucky River, above
its forks in Lee County, is in the Carboniferous rocks. No
portion of the State exceeds the Upper Kentucky region in
number, thickness, or quality of coals. A preliminary section,
made by Mr. P. N. Moore, of the Kentucky Geological Survey,
from Red River in Wolfe County to the mouth of Trouble-
some Creek in flreathitt County, establishes the fact that up
to the latter point there are at least five workable coal-seams
above the Conglomerate Sandstone. The following analyses,
from carefully averaged samples, will show the excellent qual-
ity of these coals.:

No. T. NO. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5.

Specific Gravity... . . I 300 1.294 1.297 1.290 1.289

Moisture.. . . 2.50 3.5 O 3.56 2.76 2.10
Volatile Combustible Matter . 41.10 35.20 33-56 36.60 36.20
Fixed Carbon.. . . . . 49.22 56.70 58.38 56.50 58.20
Ash. . . . . . . . . . 17x8 4.60 4.50 4.o6 3-50

Coke . . . . . . . . . 56.40 61.30 62.88 60.56 6x.70
Sulphur. . . . . . . . o.8i8 x.189 1.381 o.865 o.836

No. I is a coal from Frozen Creek, Breathitt Ccunty.
No. 2 is a coal 5' 7" thick, from Devil Creek, Wolfe County.
No. 3 is a coal from Spencer's Bank, Breathitt County.
No. 4 is a coal 6' thick, from Wolfe Creek, Breathitt County.
No. 5, from near Hazard, Perry County.
Analyses by Dr. Robert Peter and. Mr. Jno. H. Talbutt, chemists for the
Kentucky Geological Survey.

The cannel coal of the Upper Kentucky is to be found over
an extensive area, and is of a remarkably good quality, as will
be seen from the following analyses by the chemists of the sur-
vey, made from average samples:
374

RIVER SYSTEMS.

No. i. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5.

Specific Gravity... . . I 1.80 X.265 1.280 i. i8o0

Moisture.. . . . . . . 0.94 1-30 3-40 1.20 1.20
Volatile Combustible Matter . 52.38 47.00 34-40 58.80 40.86
Fixed Carbon. . . . . . 35-54 44-40 46.96 35-30 46-44
Ash . . . . . . . . . II1.4 7.30 6.24 4.70 9.50

Coke. . . . . . . . . 46.68 51-70 53.20 40.00 5;794
Sulphur. . . . . . . . 1.423 1-574 o.630not est. o.634

No. i. Georges' Branch Cannel Coal, Breathitt County.
No. 2. Haddock's Cannel Coal, mouth of Troublesome Creek, Breathitt
County.
No. 3. Robert's Coal, Perry County.
No: 4. Frozen Creek, Breathitt County.
No. 5. Salt Creek, Perry County.

Three of the best gas-coals in Scotland and England are:
(No. I), Lesmahago Cannel; (No. 2), Ramsay's Newcastle
Coal; (No. 3), Weym's Cannel Coal. Compare with the
above the following analyses, taken from Dr. Peter's Report,
Vol. II. First Series Kentucky Geological Survey:

No. x. No. 2. No. 3.

Specific Gravity.. . . . 1.228 1.29 1.1831

Volatile Matter..... . 49.6 36.8 58.52
Fixed Carbon.. . . . . 41.3 56.6 25.28
Ash . . .. . . . . . 9.1 6.6 14.25
100.0 100.0 98.45

Sulphur not determined.

The indications are that the coal-measures thicken, and the
number of workable coals increase south-easterly from the
mouth of Troublesome Creek. This, however, can only be
determined by detailed survey.
In addition to the numerous workable coals above the Con.s
375.

I I

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF KENTUCKY.

glomerate Sandstone in this region, there are two workable
coals below the Conglomerate. The excellent quality of these
coals can be seen from the analysis, No. i6oi, p. 8i.
Just below the coal the Carboniferous Limestone bears upon
its top the ore known as the Red-River iron ore, which has
long furnished a very celebrated cold-blast charcoal iron, well
known as Red River car-wheel iron. There is probably about
one hundred miles of outcrop of this ore within a short dis-
tance of the tributaries of the river, and within twenty miles
of the main stream. Salt, fire-clay, and hydraulic cement
abound in the Black Shale and Upper Silurian rocks. From
Burning Creek to the mouth the Kentucky Valley runs
entirely within the Upper Cambrian or Blue Limestone.
The soils in this valley have the same character as in the
Licking, ranging from the light loamy soils of the Carbonifer-
ous, through the clays of the Silurian and Devonian to the
exceedingly rich blue-grass soils of the Cambrian and Cincin-
nati Limestone rocks. The navigation of the Kentucky River
has been improved by locks and dams as far up as a point
about twenty-five miles above Frankfort. The stream is
admirably adapted for the extension of this method of naviga-
tion, until over six hundred miles of navigable water is secured.
As in the case of the Licking and the Green, it has the pecu-
liar advantage of having a very great variety of soil and
natural products within a narrow compass.
The timber resources of the part of this valley that lies
within the coal-bearing area are very great; all the- important
timber trees of Kentucky, except the cypress, are found within
the valley. The black walnut is found in abundance on the
hill-sides throughout this section, the finer qualities of oak,
much yellow pine, some white pine, c.
Salt River. - This stream is the only considerable river in
the State that has little in the way of mineral resources. It
will be seen that it follows the line of the outcrop of the Sub-
carboniferous Limestone throughout its whole extension, being
the only river in the State that does not run across the general
trend of the stratification. The valley abounds in good Lime-
stone for building purposes, the whole of the Subcarboniferous
376

RIVER SYSTEMS.

Limestone being exposed along its banks. The underlying
Sandstones of the Waverly also furnish excellent building
materials. Iron ores occur in the Waverly Shales, and perhaps
also in the Subcarboniferous. The salt-bearing rocks of the
lower Waverly and the Black Shale are doubtless accessible
from the line of the surface of the valley. The flow of water
is rather more steady than in the other rivers to the east-
wvard, on account of the cavernous nature of the rocks along
its banks. It will, therefore, furnish excellent water-powers
along its whole course.
The soil of this valley is of pretty even excellence through-
out. The head-waters drain a region of Blue or Cambrian
Limestone, and the main stream takes the soils of the
Waverly which are rather sandy, and the Carboniferous Lime-
stone which affords very good soil.
The river has a more than usually rapid fall, descending
about six hundred feet in its course of about one hundred
miles from the head-waters, -probably the most rapid fall of
any