WEST Vir^GINIA. 49 



Summit elevations. 



Summit in latitude 37 J° 2, 650 feet. 



Summit at crossing of Baltimore and Oliio railroad 2, 620 feet. 



Western plateau at White Sulphur springs 2, 000 feet. 



Source of Cheat and Greenbrier rivers 2, 400 feet. 



Blue Ridge, near Harper's Ferry 1, 800 feet. 



Elevation of the valley of Virginia. 



Near the Potomac 800 feet 



At Covington 902 feet 



At Staunton 1, 222 feet 



Elevations west of the mountains. 



Cheat river, valleys of western declivity 1,375 feet 



Mouth of the Greenbrier 1, 333 feet. 



Tygart's valley, loAvest within the mountains 1, 000 feet. 



Ohio river at Pennsylvania line 675 feet. 



Ohio river at Kentucky line 550 feet 



Kanawha river at Charleston 600 feet 



The first of these divisions, the summit and table-lands of the Alleghanies 

 comprises a narrow strip little more than the average width of a county, an(J 

 extends from the Alleghanian backbone to the chain of mountains Avhich arfi 

 really a continuation of the Cumberland range, and known as Cotton Hill, 

 Gauley, Laurel Hill, &;c. The valley betAveen these two ranges lies at a level 

 of 1,350 to 2,000 feet above the sea; the Greenbrier valley, for instance, for a 

 length of 150 miles, having an average elevation of 1,500 feet. Much of the 

 cultivated land of Greenbrier county, which is one of the summit counties, lies 

 at a height of 1,800 to 2,000 feet, and yet ripens corn and sorghum without 

 difficulty, and enjoys a winter climate of great mildness. 



The second division includes the valley of Virginia or the Shenandoah 

 valley, averaging, perhaps, fifty miles in width, and extending through 

 the old State of Virginia in a southwestern and northeastern direction. Only 

 the mouth of the valley is embraced in West Virginia. Its average elevation 

 in this section is, perhaps, 1,000 feet. 



The third section, which may be said practically to represent the elevation 

 of the State, containing at least 16,000 square miles, or two-thirds of its entire 

 area, including and almost bounding on the east the great coal basin, lies between 

 the altitudes of 600 and 1,500 feet. The uplands, a few miles fi-om the Ohio, 

 with an elevation diftering considerably at different points, may be averaged at 

 800 feet. In the Kanawha valley, below the falls, the river is little more ele- 

 vated than the Ohio from Parkersburgto Point Pleasant, but the river bluffs rise 

 precipitously, giving the surrounding country an average of at least 1,000 feet 

 for sixty miles, with a considerable increase towards the falls. The average 

 for the entire section is, perhaps, 1,100 feet. By a comparison with other 

 points in the Mississippi valley, this elevation will not be found to indicate a 

 region particularly mountainous in its altitude : 



Bellcfontaine summit (highest land in Ohio) .' 1, 400 feet. 



Hillsboro', Ohio 1, 131 feet. 



Portsmouth, Ohio, (Ohio river) 540 feet. 



Columbus, Ohio 762 feet 



Northern Indiana, sources of Maumee 850 feet 



Prairies of Illinois and Wisconsin 950 feet. 



Blue mounds, southern Wisconsin 1, 640 feet 



