ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 21 



ill diameter and thirty or forty feet high. It has been 

 fonnd to serve an excellent purpose for piling, and this is 

 about the only use to which it has been put. 



Jiinipenis l^irgiuiana L. (Red Cedar) is a common but 

 rather small tree throughout the State, but most abundant 

 in the south-eastern counties. It is used mainly for boxes 

 and posts. 



Transportation Facilities. — Railroads penetrate the 

 State in every direction, there being but few counties which 

 are not touched by them. For marine shipment material 

 from all north-eastern counties goes readily by way of 

 Norfolk. For counties drained by the Tar and Neuse New- 

 bern is the natural shipping point, while for the whole 

 southern and central sections Wilmington is the central 

 point, vessels drawing over twenty feet being able to enter 

 its harbor. 



Accessibility of Existing Forests. — While there is 

 no large bod\- of timber in the State valueless on account 

 of its inaccessibility, there are many so situated that removal 

 is not feasible with the existing means of transportation. 

 But the experience of the past ten years is sufficient to 

 prove that these large bodies of virgin forests to be found 

 in the State will be penetrated by railroads in the near 

 future, as the demand for the timber increases. The hard 

 wood forests in some of the counties west of the Blue 

 Ridge are naturally tributary to Tennessee, and the timber 

 in the form of logs is being removed by floating down the 

 creeks and rivers with the aid of flood dams. Many of 

 these mountain streams are of sufficient size and rapidity to 

 afford ample means for logging. East of the Blue Ridge 

 tracts not adjacent to large streams or railroads are being 

 reached by short timber roads. A number of such roads 

 are now in operation and others are being constructed. In 

 the eastern district, on pine lands where the country is flat, 

 wooden and iron tramways are laid to be operated by horse- 

 3 ' . 



