I 



84 Topography of the Little Kenaicha 



ing many fine seats for mills. The whole course of the stream is 

 rapid and pretty direct ; in time of flood rushing with great violence 

 into the Ohio river^ across which stream it often throws its waters 

 with such force as to cast drift wood on the opposite shore ; and 

 when laden with ice it has been fatal to boats, as was the fact a few 

 winters since, when it crvished and destroyed a steam boat, which 

 lay moored on the shore of the river. There is a marked difference 

 in the rapidity of the current, in the streams putting in on the north 

 and south sides of the Ohio : on the south the streams are more sud- 

 den in their rise, and rapid in their course, keeping their mouths free 

 from sand bars, and affording deep water for a considerable distance 

 up ; on the north side, the streams rise less rapidly, and rush with 

 less violence to their outlet. Their mouths are often obstructed by 

 sand bars ; the current, not being sufficiently powerful to overcome 

 the resistance of the Ohio, and to force the sand and debris which 

 collect at their outlets into that majestic and noble stream. Direct- 

 ly at the foot of the mountains, below the principal falls in the Little 

 Kenawha, salt springs are found, denoting that the saliferous deposit 

 is approaching the surface from under the mountain ranges. This 

 is an interesting' fact; and the course of the salt rocks can be traced 

 along the base of the Alleghany range, from the Salines on the Big 

 Kenawha to those of the Connemaugh, east of Pittsburgh, a dis- 

 tance of not less than three hundred miles, and probably still further 

 on to its eastern limit, at the Onondaga works in New York. The 

 vale of the Little Kenawha is hilly and broken, containing however 

 much rich land in the valleys, and along the water courses. The 

 hills are clothed with a most luxnriant growth of large trees; 

 among which are seen large forests of yellow pine, and chesnut. 

 White pine is found on the north sides of moist rich hills and wet 

 valleys, a considerable distance from the mouth, but not of that tow- 

 ering height which is found on the Alleghany river, beine rather 

 small, as if recently colonized amongst the hills. On the waters of 

 Hews's river, a large eastern branch of the Little Kenawha, the 

 magnolia acuminata seems to have found a congenial soil and cli- 

 mate. It here vies in magnitude with the most lofty tenants of the 

 hills, rising to more than a hundred feet in heiirht. A sin*^le tree 

 has been known to afford six cuts, three feet in diameter, and six- 

 teen feet in length, without encroaching on the branches. It is so 

 abundant and so large, as to be often cut down, with other forest 

 trees, especially the towering poplar, and taken to the saw-mills for 



