ighteen miles, through a rugged and flinty soil, covered
with a kind of grass. The trees that occupied this space, grew within
twenty or thirty yards of each other.

_Knoxville_, the seat of government for the state of Tenessee, is
situated on the _river Holstein_, here a hundred and fifty fathoms
broad. The houses were, at this time, about two hundred in number, and
were built chiefly of wood. Although it had been founded eighteen or
twenty years, Knoxville did not yet possess any kind of commercial
establishment, or manufactory, except two or three tan-yards. Baltimore
and Richmond are the towns with which this part of the country transacts
most business. The distance from Knoxville to Baltimore is seven hundred
miles, and to Richmond four hundred and twenty. The inhabitants of
Knoxville send flour, cotton, and lime, to New Orleans, by the river
Tenessee; but the navigation of this river is much interrupted, in two
places, by shallows interspersed with rocks.

In the tavern at Knoxville travellers and their horses are accommodated
at the rate of about five shillings per day; but this is considered dear
for a country where the situation is by no means favourable to the sale
of provisions. A newspaper is published at Knoxville twice a week.

On the 17th of September, M. Michaux took leave of Mr. Fisk, and
proceeded alone towards Jonesborough, a town about a hundred miles
distant; and situated at the foot of the lofty mountains which separate
North Carolina from Tenessee. On leaving Knoxville the soil was uneven,
stony, and bad; and the forests contained a great number of pine-trees.
Before he reached _Macby_, M. Michaux observed, for the space of two
miles, a copse extremely full of young trees, the loftiest of which was
not more than twenty feet high. The inhabitants of the country informed
him that this place had formerly been part of a barren, or meadow, which
had clothed itself again with trees, after its timber, about fifteen
years before, had been totally destroyed by fire. This appears to
prove, that the spacious meadows in Kentucky and Tenessee owe their
origin to some great conflagration which has consumed the forests and
that they continue as meadows, by the practice, still continued, of
annually setting them on fire, for the purpose of clearing the land.

M. Michaux stopped, the first day, at a place where most of the
inhabitants were Quakers. One of these, with whom he lodged, had an
excellent plantation,