CHAPTER II 



PHYSIOGRAPHY 



PHYSIOGRAPHIC CHANGES. 



The surface features of Lewis and Gilmer present nothing 

 essentially different from other counties in the central and 

 western parts of the State. The hills and ridges that form the 

 present sky line of the topography are the remains of the old 

 peneplain that existed in Cretaceous time and that almost 

 reached base level. Subsequent elevation of the general sur- 

 face has revised this old peneplain to a much greater height 

 than it formerly occupied and consequent stream erosion has 

 cut great valleys through its surface until little of the original 

 smooth plateau is left. There is a gradual southeastward in- 

 crease in the height of these tops indicating that the land ele- 

 vation in late Cretaceous time was more pronounced in this 

 region next to the Alleghany Mountains than in the north- 

 western region. 



The stream erosion that followed the Cretaceous epoch 

 has been long continued and shows that the cycle is well 

 advanced. Most of the streams have nearly reached base 

 level as is indicated by the fact that they have little fall even 

 near their headwaters and by the further fact that many of 

 them have courses that meander through broad valleys, show- 

 ing that the streams developed this phase during the present 

 cycle. 



Exceptions to this general condition may be noticed in the 

 Little Kanawha River which has' a tortuous course entirely out 

 of harmony with the comparatively narrow valley through 

 which it flows and which evidently developed these meanders 

 in the time of the Cretaceous peneplain and preserved them 

 throughout its subsequent erosion down to its present level. 



