64 SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT [W. VA. 



The United States forest service officials are doing a great work in educating 

 the people to see the great good to be accomplished by protecting the forests. 

 This is now regarded as one of the most helpful branches of the Department of 

 Agriculture. This department undertakes the study and solution of forestry 

 problems, that cannot be handled by the states and individuals, and by sending 

 out literature is creating an influence among all classes that will aid in pro- 

 tecting and conserving these great gifts of nature. 



Many states have spent large sums of money to build up their forests that 

 have been recklessly and needlessly destroyed. We have in West Virginia 

 several millions of acres of forest lands, and if properly cared for, either by 

 state or government aid, it will be of untold benefit to future generations. 



GAME AND FUR BEARING ANIMALS OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



The rapid development of the State of- West Virginia in the past few 

 decades has, to a great extent, lessened the number of both game and fur 

 bearing animals, but most of the species that inhabited our forests when same 

 were the haunts and happy hunting grounds of the Indians are still found 

 here, although many of them in limited numbers. 



An article read by Thaddeus Surber, before the annual meeting of the West 

 Virginia Fish and Game Protective Association at Charleston in the year 1909, 

 gives a brief annotated list of 57 species of mammals native to West Virginia. 



Prof. Fred E. Brooks, of the West Virginia Experiment Station, also 

 contributes an article on the distribution and habits of our known native 

 species of mammals to the West Virginia Board of Agriculture for the year 

 1910. These two articles cover the subject completely and are of so much 

 interest that both of them are used in this report. 



THE MAMMALS OF WEST VIRGINIA. 

 Notes on the Distribution and Habits -of All Our Known Native Species. 



BY FRED E. BROOKS. W. VA. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, MORGAN- 

 TOWN, W. VA. 



Within the memory of many persons still living several interesting mammals 

 have become extinct within the territory of West Virginia. At present others, 

 that were once abunlant, are becoming so scarce that it is an event of more 

 than local interest to See or capture a specimen. Judging the future by the 

 experinece of the past we may conclude that within the next few years several 

 of these that are cow so rarely met with, will, like those first mentioned, cease 

 to exist here. * 



The progress of civilization with its attendant influence has wrought this 

 change in the wild animal life of this State. The clearing away of the 

 forests, lumbering operations, forest fires, and the trapper and hunter have 

 followed up and harrassed the wild animals that once abounded in our forests 

 until the last representatives of several species, hemmed in on every side, 

 have made their last stand and fallen, or have stolen away to join their more 



