The _Tennessee_ rises in the Alleghany Mountains, traverses East Tennessee, and almost the whole northern limit of Alabama, re-enters Tennessee, and crosses almost the whole width of it, into Kentucky, and passes into Ohio, fifty-seven miles above its junction with the Mississippi. It is near twelve hundred miles in length, and is the largest tributary of the Ohio. It has numerous branches, and is navigable for boats one thousand miles; most of the branches rise among the mountains, and are too shallow for navigation, except during the floods, which take place occasionally, at all seasons of the year, and admit flat boats to be floated down to the main stream. The Muscle Shoals are about three hundred miles from its entrance into the Ohio. At this place the river spreads to the width of three miles, and forms a number of islands. The passage by boats is difficult and dangerous, except when the water is high. From these shoals to the place called the _Whirl_ or _Suck_, two hundred and fifty miles, the navigation all the way is excellent, to the Cumberland Mountain; where the river breaks through. This mountain is sometimes so steep, that even the Indians cannot ascend it on foot. In one place, particularly, near the summit of the mountain, there is a remarkable ledge of rocks, of about thirty miles in length, and two hundred feet high, with a perpendicular front facing the south-east, more noble and grand than any artificial fortification in the known world, and apparently equal in point of regularity. The Whirl, as it is called, is about latitude thirty-four degrees. It is considered a greater curiosity than the bursting of the river Potomac through the Blue Ridge. The river, which above is half a mile wide, is here compressed to one hundred yards, or eighteen rods. Just at the entrance of the mountain, a large rock projects from the northern shore, in an oblique direction, which renders the channel still narrower. This causes a sudden bend, by which the waters are thrown with great force against the opposite shore. From thence they rebound about the point of the rock, and produce a whirl of eighty yards, or two hundred and forty feet in circumference. By the dexterity of the rowers, canoes drawn into this whirl have sometimes escaped without damage. In less than a mile below the whirl, the river spreads to its common width, down to Muscle Shoals; and thence runs in a regular and beautiful stream to its confluence with the Ohio.