32 ON THE TIMBER LANDS. TRAVERSED BY A 
After passing Irvine, and turning up the Kentucky river 
toward Beattyville, the formation is successively Devonian 
(on lower spots) and Waverly (chiefly cortigalli). The for- 
ests for some miles are not very valuable. A low, dark 
green, exceedingly fertile mountain oak (Quercus tlictfolia?) 
appears in great abundance on the hill-sides, and about five 
miles from Irvine hemlock is first seen. Fine pig hickory,. 
white oak, Spanish oak, red oak, blue ash, green ash (only 
one), sugar maple, buckeye, liriodendron, white hickory, and 
red elm are scattered all along the river and mountain sides. 
The timbers remain pretty much the same for three or four 
miles, when the first magnolias (cucumber trees) are met with. 
Associated with them are Ohio buckeye, black ash, redbud, 
winged elm, liriodendron, white maple, water beech, green 
dogwood, amelanchier, rhododendron, and kalmia (the first of 
these laurels found), red elm, spotted birch, red oak, mulberry, 
white oak, walnut, cedar, red sumach, and pawpaw. The for- 
mation is Keokuk. 
All of the hill-sides near Irvine are covered with splendid 
forests of black and blue ash, pig, shag, and white hickory, 
liriodendron, sugar maple, white oak, bartram oak, sycamore 
(on streams), box-elder, red elm, some American linden, mag- 
nolias (cucumber and Frazer’), red birch, mulberry, sweet gum, 
big buckeye, and catalpa. 
About fourteen miles from Irvine, toward Beattyville, the 
river valley contracts and becomes very narrow, the hills close 
in on all sides, and we pass through a deep ravine, the escape 
from which is over what is widely known, locally, as the 
“Winding Stairs.’ In ascending the Winding Stairs, the fol- 
lowing timbers are found: linden, black and blue ash, rich red 
oak, chestnut, white oak, liriodendron, white maple, white 
and black walnut, white hickory, pig hickory, magnolias 
(umbrella and cucumber), black birch, black gum, water 
beech, dogwood, mountain chestnut oak, spicewood, willows. 
(near a spring), rhododendron, kalmia, azalea (xudiflora and 
viscosa ?), Amelanchier (two varieties), pines (sztzs and 77g72- 
da), black oak, scarlet oak, black sumach, sassafras, and dog- 
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