WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I9 



THE SYLVA. 



The State is very happily located for the growth of forests, 

 being in the favored belt of temperature between about 37° and 

 41° north latitude. Within its boundaries trending northeast and 

 southwest, thus opening the country to the damp, warm winds 

 from the Gulf, are numerous ranges of the great Appalachian, or 

 Atlantic highlands, but by far the larger portion of the State lies 

 on the westward slope of these mountains in the trans-Appala- 

 chian belt, the waters of which chiefly run northwestward and 

 southwestward to the Ohio River. The altitude of the country 

 descends from the Backbone or Alleghany range of the Appala- 

 chians, from an altitude of from 2,500 and 4,800 feet to 500 at 

 the southwestern corner of the State on the Ohio, at Kenova. 

 and about 600 on the same river at WheeHng. The altitude of 

 the eastern corner of the State at Harper's Ferry is 2']2 feet; 

 thus the range of altitudes in the State is from 272 feet to about 

 4,800, giving a climatic range of 3,728 feet, or the equivalent of 

 about 16° of latitude; consequently West Virginia has extensive 

 areas of adaptability for every variety of forest growth that 

 is found within the limits of the northern States east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



The most elevated portion of the State is the great eastern 

 border of the ridgy plateau from which the trans-Appalachian 

 country descends, a territory some 200 miles in length from the 

 headwaters of the Big Sandy to those of the North Branch 

 Potomac, this region is in the main from 2,500 to 4,800 feet in 

 altitude, and furnishes a congenial home to the black spruce, the 

 white pine, and other. evergreen trees peculiar to northern lati- 

 tudes. 



West Virginia has a greater amount of hardwood timber in 

 its forests than any other State in the Union. A thorough exam- 

 ination convinces us that nearly or quite two-thirds of the State 

 remains uncleared, and of this about a million and a half 

 acres is still in virgin forests where the ax of man has never 

 found its way, and where magnificent specimens of forest growth 

 stand thickly side by side and reach a towering height, no finer 

 view of standing timber may be had within the confines of the 

 Union. These splendid forests covering over twenty-three thou- 

 sand square miles yield nearly every species found in the north. 



