On the 29th of May we passed the mouths of the Cumberland and Tennessee, the two largest rivers, tributary to the Ohio. At the mouth of the Cumberland is a little village called Smithland; where, for a considerable part of the year, such goods are deposited as are designed for Nashville and other places on the Cumberland.
The Cumberland and Tennessee rivers are, for many miles, nearly parallel in direction, and at no great distance apart. Between them are some low sandstone hills; but, we believe, no lofty range of mountains, as has been sometimes represented. About these hills, also, in the low ridges north of the Ohio, we found the sandstone, which appears to be the basis rock, often overlaid with extensive beds of a pudding-stone, wherein pebbles of white, yellow, and variously coloured quartz, are united in a cement highly tinged by oxide of iron; extensive fields of compact limestone also occur in the same connexion.
About half way between the mouth of the Cumberland and Tennessee, near the old deserted settlement originally called Smithland,[049] are several large catalpa trees. They do not, however, appear to be native; nor have we here, or elsewhere, been able to discover any confirmation of the opinion, that this tree is indigenous to any part of the United States.
It is here called _petalfra_, which, as well as catalpa, { 34} the received appellation, may be a corruption from Catawba, the name of the tribe by whom, according to the suggestion of Mr. Nuttall, the tree may have been introduced. Following the directions of the Pittsburgh navigator,[050] we kept near the left shore, below the Cave Inn; by which means we again ran our boat aground, on a sand-bar, where we spent a considerable part of the night in the most laborious exertions. These were at length crowned with success; and having the boat once more afloat, we proceeded with greater caution.
On the 30th, we arrived at a point a little above the mouth of Cash river, where a town has been laid out, called America.[051] It is on the north bank of the Ohio, about eleven miles from the Mississippi, and occupies the first heights on the former, secure from the inundation of both these rivers (if we except a small area three and a half miles below, where there are three Indian mounds, situated on a tract containing about half an acre above high-water mark). The land on both sides of the Ohio, below this place, is subject to be overflowed to various depths, from six to fourteen feet in time of floods; and on the south side, the flat lands extend four or five miles above, separated from the high country by lakes and marshes. The aspect of the country, in and about the town, is rolling or moderately hilly, being the commencement of the high lands between the two rivers above mentioned; below it, however, the land is flat, having the character of the low bottoms of the Ohio. The growth is principally cotton-wood, sycamore, walnut, hickory, maple, oak, &c. The soil is first-rate, and well suited to the cultivation of all products common to a climate of 37 deg. N. lat. From the extensive flat, or bottom, in its neighbourhood, and the heavy growth of timber which here generally prevails, it is probable that the place will be unhealthy, till extensive clearings are made in its vicinity.