FOREST RESOURCES OF WEST VIRGINIA. 493 



from the sources of some of the rivers, and rafts upon the hirger streams. 

 The mountainous regions, however, do not admit of floating, the streams 

 being rapid, tortuous, and rocky. The kinds mostly got for market are 

 oak and tulip-poplar. The basins drained by Fishing Creek, Middle 

 Island Creek, Little Kanawha and branches. Sand Creek, Great Ka- 

 nawha, and its branches below the Great Falls, the Guyandotte and Big 

 Sandy Elvers are mentioned as valuable timber-regions. The evergreens 

 occur farther east, the largest pine region extending across Fayette and 

 Ealeigh, on both sides of New River, and some distance up the Gauley. 

 Hemlock abounds most in the Cheat River and Greenbrier Mountains, 

 and on the table-lands of Tucker, Randolph, Pendleton, Pocahontas, 

 Nicholas, and Webster Counties. No oak, poplar, or hickory occurs here, 

 but in their place the maples, ash, beech, birch, wild-cherry, and black- 

 walnut. North, south, and east from the Staunton and Parkersburg 

 turnpike, near the head of Greenbrier River, are extensive forests, which 

 are being wasted and burned in clearing land. 



In speaking of the distribution of timber in West Virginia,^ Professor 

 Fontaine recognizes three sections : the Mountain Region, the Plnteau 

 Region, and the Hilly Region (proper); the latter including t^te ..eat 

 body of the central and western portions of the State. The white, chest- 

 nut,' black, and red oaks, chestnut, hickory, poplar, ash, sugar-maple, 

 hemlock, beech, locust, and black walnut, occur generally in the Hilly 

 Region throughout the State ; some yellow pine is scattered here and 

 there quite generally, as also the hemlock, but the home of both is most 

 in the Plateau and Mountain Regions. It is said that there was once a 

 considerable belt of yellow pine growing near the Ohio River, and some 

 distance back; but this has disapeared, excei t a few scattered trees. 

 There are indications that this tree was once much more abundant, for 

 pine-knots are found in numbers where these trees do not grow. The hem- 

 lock seems to have crept down from the eastern highlands along the 

 streams heading up in them, and to have maintained its position among 

 them for a considerable distance within the deciduous timber of the 

 Hilly Region. 



Of the hard woods, the white oak is by far the most abundant, form- 

 ing a third to a half of the timber of the State, and it is one of the most 

 generally diffused. The oak, poplar, and chestnut appear to increase 

 in size south of the Great Kanawha. In many parts of the Hilly Region 

 we find the chestnut-oak on the ridges, large chestnuts on the hill-sides, 

 and beech rather closely confined to the vicinity of the streams ; we 

 also find the black and sweet gums, buck-eye, white maple, white wal- 

 nut, linden, cucumber-tree, and several species of maple, elm, and ash, 

 the latter quite abundantly. 



As we ascend the plateau the deciduous timber diminishes and becomes 

 poorer, and evergreens increase; the oaks, poplar, and hickories giving 

 place to walnut, cherry, chestnut, maple, and the conifers. Rising still 

 lurther into the broad and lofty ranges of mountains at an elevation of 

 3,000 to 3,200 feet in the south and 2,500 in the north, and spreading 

 east and west from this, we find the largest amount of evergreen timber 

 in the State. 



OHIO. 



Mr. John Hussey, in an article on Forest Distribution,* after noticing 

 that Ohio was situated between 432 and 1,300 feet of elevation above 



' iJosofwcee of Wtst Virginia, pp. 144-161 ; this article coutaius mauy details which we 

 cannot iiy elude. 



* Ohio Jgriouhural Report, 1872, p. 29. This article is accompanied by a list of trees 

 found growinfj iuaigenous in Oliio, founded upon a list prppared by Prof. J. S. New- 

 berry, in the Ohio Agricultural Report of 1859, and Jiom various other sources. 



