The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-08-19
Correspondence
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.
The Streams ana Springs of Washington
County.
No. go.


No. SO.
This is subject, Messrs. Editors, which,
to the casual reader, may seem to involve
but little to interest, yet to myself, | must
confess, that nothing in this Hill country
has excited more of my wonder and adj
miration than its streams and springs, but
the purpose of my present writing is to
show the magnificent water power the Lord
has given to a people whose lands are preg
nant with minerals and whose mountains
are covered with timber, unexcelled in
quality and variety in any part of our Re-
public if can call our country by that
name. | have, in previous letters, given
you general outline of the streams, or ra-
ther of the remarkable fact that the three
larger, which drain the county, all run
from east to west, while all the rest, and
they are almost countless, run north and
south, but have given you no particular
description of them, which | now propose
to do, for the benefit of those of your rea,
ders who may see and appreciate their
wonderful advantages. The three princi-
pal streams, as / have before told you, are.
the North, Middle and South Forks of Hol-
ston, not varying very much in size, and
each of them, perhaps, containing twice as
much water as your Deer Creek, and the
currents of which ordinarily run five miles
per hour. The distance in a straight line
of the North and South Forks, from their
sources in Wythe county to their confu-
ence at Kingsport, Tenn, is about 80 miles,
but their windings make them many miles
longer. The Middle Fork is shorter, flow
ing into the South Fork opposite to and
about six miles from Abingdon. They all
head in high table land, crossing the coun-
try north and south between two ranges
of mountains, and not more than mile
from the sources OF streams on the opposite
side, that run in an exactly opposite direc-
ton.
After these streams come together at
Kingsport, they still retain the name, and
form a beautiful river, from three to four
hundred yards wide, clear, rapid, deep and
serpentine. Some 25 miles below Knoxville,
a comparatively small stream called Little
Tennessee" comes into the Holston at right
| angles, when the latter loses its name and
takes that of the former, and from this
point to where it empties into the Ohio, it
is known by the name of Tennessee
The three forks of Holston are wildly ro-
mantle, from 100 to 200 yards wide, at one
moment dashing madly between beetling
precipices, and the next winding gently
through green meadows-again chatting
| and fretting against the bases of the noun
tains, and then dashing away and hiding
themselves among the lesser hills, or
smoothly gliding among tall hemlocks and
| sugar-maples.
Many OF the smaller streams, which run
| at right angles with and feed the three
| larger, are remarkable for their rude beau
| ty and the rapid flow of their waters. AS
| have before said their name is legion,
but must give you hasty description of
| few of them. Wolf Creek, which passes
| through Abingdon, and has its source only
one mile from the village, attains the size
| of Bynum's Run in the first half mile of its
course, and altho' not more than 10 miles
| long, it more than doubles its dimensions,
and plunges down a rocky declivity of 100
feet in as many yards, into secluded lit
tie valley, where its waters mingle with
those of the Holston. Opposite the source
of this, and not more than 300 PAGES from
it, but running in exactly the opposite di-
rection, is a stream about the same size,
known by the name of Tools Greek, only
about miles long, which reaches the North
Fork by succession of leaps, having a fall
of at least 100 to the mile its entire length
In this creek, for two miles or more, hem
med in by tall hills, densely covered with
a growth of giant timber, there is success
sion of beautiful cascades, which dance
and sparkle in the sunlight often embel-
lished with the colors of the prism. Two
miles from this, having its source in the
same range of hills, is another, near the
same size and length, which, for the splen-
dor of the thing, seems to have united its
cascades all into one; and as if to show
what waterfall may look like, it leaps
more than 100 feet in two bounds, and then
flows off as modestly as if nothing unusual
had happened.
Two miles farther on, heading in the
same range, running in the same direction
and about the same distance, is q third,
varying but little in size from the others,
also with numerous cascades, and among
them one, as if to Guido its neighbour makes
a single plunge of 70 feet. Winding along
the margin of the latter, sometimes on one
side and then on the other, is well-gr
ded turnpike, and each of the Others has a
tolerable wagon-road from one end to the
other. These streams, being fed by nu-
merous springs, grow very rapidly in their
short career, furnish sufficient amount of
power for any sort or any amount of ma
chinery, and are rarely perceptibly dimin-
! ished by drouth.
A few miles farther on, running in the
same direction but several miles longer,
is another stream, somewhat larger than
the others, called Abrams Creek, which
flows its whole length through a rich but
wild and uncultivated country. 1t is quite
as large, perhaps larger, than your Little
Falls, and flows, from its source to its
mouth in the North Fork of Holston, with
a noisy and maddened rush. On its way
it passes through deep, dark and gloomy
rayine,' bounded by high perpendicular
walls of solid limestone, and fretting and
foaming like an impatient steed, it pitches
over perpendicular precipice go feet to a
narrow ledge, and thence another plunge
of 40 feet, into large round basin worn