The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-05-20
Correspondence
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA
Topography, Resources, &C., of SOUTH
western Virginia.
No. "a.

Permit me, Messrs Editors, for the sake
of variety, as well as to relieve n rather irk-
some monotony, to change the character of
my animadyersions, and give you chap
ter based upon the topography, resources,
&c, OF this remote corner of the Old Do
minion.
Southwestern Virginia comprises that por-
ton OF the State running down, wedge
shaped, between Kentucky on the north
and North Carolina and Tennessee on the
south, and reaching from the Aleghanies
in the east to Cumberland Gap in the west
This area is some $50 miles in length, with
an average width of about 100 miles, and
embraces Is counties, beginning ON the top
of the main Allegheny, as follows: Mont
gomery, Pulaski, Giles, Carroll, Grayson,
Bland, Wythe, Tazewell, Buchanan, Smyth,
Washington, Russell, Wise, Scott and Lee
OF these counties, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth
and Washington join North Carolina :;
Smyth, Washington, Scott and Lee Join
Tennessee; and Buchanan, Wise and Lee
join Kentucky. Montgomery, Pulaski,
GraYson, Wythe and Giles are in what is
known as the valley of New River; Smyth
and Washington in the valley of
Holston; Russell and Scott in the Valley
of Clinch, and Lee in Powell's Val
ley. The balance are peculiarly mountain
counties, interspersed with irregular ranges
OF hills and narrow valleys. Indeed, | am
not sure but it would be more correct to
say that the several valleys named are in
the counties, and not the counties in the
valleys, for the reason that the counties are
much larger than the portions of the val
leys that traverse them.
The Old Dominion, taken altogether
Underwater, Piedmont and Transmontane-
is an empire within ITSELF embracing all
temperatures, from the semi-torrid of Cape
Henry to the semi-frigid of Mount Airy,
and the fruits of all climates, from the figs
and oranges of one extreme to the hard
and acrid apples of the other.
Southwestern Virginia, except in climate
and fruits, is also an empire of smaller di-
mensions-an empire in all the natural re-
sources that any people could or ought to
desire to make them in ependent, great
and prosperous. Take the counties of
Montgomery and Pulaski, for instance, and
they have water-power sufficient to propel
all the machinery in half the States, and
coal fields broad enough to supply the pop
ulation of half the Union with fuel. The
mountains ofCarroll and Grayson are preg-
nant with copper and iron, the out-croppings
ofwhich are seen all over their rugged sides.
Wythe is rich in iron and lead, Smyth and
Washington need only adequate transporta-
ton to glut half the markets of the country
with salt and gypsum; and Wise, Russell,
Scott and Lee have any quantity of superior
coal, and the blue grass of Tazewell would
fatten the cattle on thousand hills. In a
word, every county in the limits named has
coal and iron in abundance, and most of
them great variety of other valuable de-
posits
With rare exceptions, this whole country
abounds with limestone, and much of it Of
that desirable character that is constantly
decomposing and keeping the soil perpet
| ually fertile. 1t is also inferior to no sec
ton of the same extent in the Union for
grass, and hence is peculiarly adapted to
stock raising, wool growing and grazing
generally, and the whole oft magniticently
watered and wooded. No country under
the sun is blessed with more genial eli
mate, purer water or grander scenery
The foregoing, Messrs. Editors, is the
merest outline of Southwestern Virginia as
whole, and will devote the remainder
of this letter to more minute description