128 



Topography of the Guyandot and Sandy Rivers 



into great demand. 



Two hunters have been known to bring in one 



hundred skins, collected in a six weeks hunt. One man, a celebra- 

 ted hunter, having assistants with him to take off their skins and se- 



4 



cure the hams when they were fat, killed twenty five in one day. At 

 this day they are rare and found only in the most inaccessible parts 

 of these regions. 



Its Geology, — Sandstone embracing all varieties from very fine, 

 to coarse millstone grit, is the prevailing rock, through all this 

 tract of country. Limestone is not seen^ except it be near the heads 

 of the rivers. Pebbles of transition rock, are found in the bed of 

 the Guyandot, probably furnished from some disintegrated conglom- 

 erate on its heads. The mountain range approaches nearer to the 

 Ohio river on the Sandy, than at any other point; the river here 

 making an extensive bend to the south, and disclosing its treasures 

 of coal in extensive and exhaustless beds. Its sandstone rocks, al- 

 though forbidding and hostile to cultivation, afford a safe and lasting 

 foothold to interminable forests, whose various famihes here find a 

 safe and lasting asylum from the depredations of man. Were it not 

 for such inaccessible spots, many of our most beautiful species of 

 forest trees, w^ould, in a kw years, be totally destroyed. Coal is 

 abundant on both these streams. In most places, three surface de- 

 posits are seen in the face of the hills : one near the base, from five 

 to seven feet in thickness ; a second about midway, and a third near . 

 their tops. The lower one affords much the best coal. The other 

 two beds are thinner and of an Inferior quality, being slaty and sul- 

 phureous. Fossil plants are found in the shale over the coal, and 

 fossil trees in the sandstone rocks. Figure No. 63, (page 25 of the 

 wood cuts,) is from the sandstone rocks on Sandy ; from its imbricat- 

 ed surface, it appears to be a portion of a palm tree, similar to the 

 one figured and described on the Kenawha. 



Iron ores. — Iron ore is found in great quantities on the west fork 

 of Sandy nver, In the spurs of the Cumberland mountains, but is not 

 seen in abundance on the main stream. A vast deposit is found be- 

 tw^een Little Sandy and Sandy rivers, extending along the foot of the 

 Cumberland range Into the state of Tennessee. 



Salt water. — About twenty five miles from the mouth of the 

 Sandy, and below its forks, 'salt water Is procured in several places 

 along the margin of the river, and several furnaces are in ope- 

 ration for the manufacture of salt. About the same distance up the 

 Guyandot, salt water is found, but of an Inferior quality. 



