The top of the ridge is one level stretch of plain, broken only by the "gulfs" before mentioned and an occasional prominent sandstone wall or bowlder. The width on top is, I should judge, 6 or 7 miles. The soil is of uniform character, light, sandy, and less productive for the ordinary crops of the Tennessee farmer than the soil of the lowlands. The grape, apple, and potato grow to perfection, better than in the valleys, and are all never failing crops; so with rye and buckwheat. Corn grows well, very well in selected spots, and where the land is made rich by cultivation. The grasses are rich and luxuriant, even in the wild forests, and when cultivated, the appearance is that of the rich farms of the Ohio or Connecticut Rivers, only here they are green and growing the greater part of the year; so much so that sheep, and in the mild winters the young cattle, live by the wild grasses of the forests the whole year. The great stock raisers of the Sequatchee and Tennessee Valleys make this the summer pasture for their cattle, and drive them to their own farms and barns or to market in winter. The whole Cumberland table, with the exception of that small part which is under cultivation, is one great free, open pasture for all the cattle of the valleys. Thousands of cattle graze there whose owners never pay a dollar for pasturage or own an acre of the range, though, as a rule, most of the well-to-do stock farmers in the valleys own more or less mountain lands. These lands have, until quite recently, been begging purchasers at from 12½ to 25 cents per acre in large tracts of 10,000 acres and upward, and perhaps the same could be said of the present time, leaving out choice tracts and easily accessible places, which are held at from 50 cents to $2 per acre, wooded virgin lands.
The forest growth of Walden's Ridge is almost entirely oak and chestnut. Hickory, perhaps, comes next in frequency, and pine after. There is but little undergrowth, and where the forests have never been molested there are but few small trees. This is due to the annual fires which occur every autumn, or some time in winter, almost without exception, and overrun the whole ridge. It does not rage like a prairie fire. Its progress is usually slow, the material consumed being only the dry forest leaves and grasses. The one thing essential to its progress is these dry leaves, hence it cannot march into the clearings. Nearly all the small shrubs are killed by these fires, otherwise they are harmless, and are greatly valued by the stock men for the help they render in the growth of the wild grasses. The free circulation of air through these great unbroken forests is certainly much facilitated by these fires, since they destroy every year what would soon become impediments. The destruction of this undergrowth leaves the woods open, and the lands are mainly so level that a carriage may be driven for miles, regardless of roads, through the forests in every direction.
The shrubs about the fields and places where the forests have been interrupted by civilization and other causes are blackberry, huckleberry, raspberry, sumac, and their usual neighbors, with the azalia, laurel, and rhododendron on the slopes and in the shade of the cliffs.
The kinds of wild grasses, I regret to say, I have not noted, and the same of the rich and varied display of wild flowers.
The whole ridge is well supplied with clean, soft running water, even in the driest of the season. There are no marshes, swamps, or bogs, no still water--not even a "puddle" for long--for the soil is of such a character, that surface water quickly filters away into the sands and mingles with the streams in the gulfs. Springs of mineral water are abundant everywhere. Probably there is not a square mile of Walden's Ridge which does not furnish chalybeate water abundantly. Sulphur springs with Epsom salts in combination are nearly as common.
The entire extent of Walden's Ridge is underlaid with veins of coal, and iron ore is plentiful, especially in the foot hills. The coal and iron are successfully mined in many places on the eastern slope; on the western they are nearly untouched for the want of transportation. I find that the impression prevails that the minerals of the Cumberlands are largely controlled by land agents and speculators. This is only true as applied to a very small part of the whole, not more than 1 per cent. The mineral ownership remains with the lands almost entirely.
The prevailing winds on Walden's Ridge are from the southwest; northers and northeasters are of rare occurrence. One old lady who had resided there for forty years, in answer to my query upon this subject, said: "Nine days out of ten, the year round, I can smell Alabama in the air." This was the usual testimony of the residents. Winds of great velocity never occur there. In summer there is always an evening breeze, commencing at 4 to 6 o'clock, and continuing until after sunrise the next morning. In times of rain, clouds hang low over the ridge occasionally, but they never have fogs there.
The range of the thermometer is less on the Tablelands than in the adjacent valleys. I have had access to the carefully taken observations of the Lookout Mountain Educational Institute, such published accounts as have been made by Professor Safford, State Geologist, Mr. Killebrew, the thorough and painstaking private record of Captain John P. Long, of Chattanooga, and many more of less length of time. From all these I deduce the fact that the summer days are seven or eight degrees cooler on the mountains than in the Tennessee Valley at Chattanooga, and five or six degrees cooler than in the Sequatchee Valley, as far up as Dunlay and Pikeville. The nights on the table are cooler than in the lower lands by several more degrees than the days; how much I have thus far not been able to state. The late fall months, the winter, and early spring are not so much colder than the valleys as the summer months, the difference between the average temperature of the mountains and valleys being at that time four or five degrees less than in the summer. There is no record of so hot a day ever having occurred on the Cumberladd Mountains as to cause mercury to run so high as 95° F., or so cold a day as to cause it to run so low as 10° below zero.
In the average winter the ground rarely freezes to a greater depth than 2 or 3 inches, and it remains frozen but a few days at a time. Ice has been known to form 8 inches thick, but in ordinary winters, 3 or 4 is the maximum. Snow falls every winter, more or less, and sometimes remains for a week. Old people have a remembrance of a foot of snow which lasted for a week.
Walden's Ridge has a total population of a little more than 4,000, scattered over 600 square miles of surface. The number of dwellings is about 800. Ninety per cent. of these are log houses; 70 per cent. of them are without glass windows; light being furnished through the doorways, always open in the daytime, the shuttered window openings, and the open spaces between the logs of the walls. Less than 2 per cent. of these houses have plastered walls or ceilings, and less than 5 per cent. have ceiled walls or ceilings. About 20 per cent. of them are fairly well chinked with clay between the logs, the remainder being but indifferently built in that particular. Fully 90 per cent. of these abodes admit of free access of air at all times of day and night, through the floors beneath as well as the walls and roof above. It is the custom of the people to guard against the coldest of days and nights by hanging bed clothes against the walls, and many good housewives have a supply of tidy drapery which they keep alone for this purpose.