i8o8 J Rivi:s, Siniimcr Birds of West Viririnia. I -2 7 



and it is for the most part requisite to travel for many miles from 

 the railway to find a place to which the wood cutter has not yet 

 penetrated. 



With Dr. William C. Braislin, I revisited Davis last summer, 

 staying from June 9 to June 15. The destruction of timber which 

 had already begun before the time of my first visit had progressed 

 with startling rapidity, during the six years that had elapsed, and 

 instead of the more or less unbroken sea of green tree tops for- 

 merly visible, the eye now rested upon a country disfigured by 

 prostrate logs stripped of their bark, misshapen and unsightly 

 stumps, and dead trees blackened and destroyed by fire. Rail- 

 ways for getting out the timber, or tramways as they are locally 

 designated, have been forced into the heart of the woods in sev- 

 eral places and the spruce cut down for many miles. The Beaver 

 Creek Railway starting from Davis has now, I believe, been con- 

 structed for as much as eighteen miles, and a wide belt of timber 

 on each side removed. In a few directions, however, it is still 

 possible to reach the forest from Davis without great difficulty, 

 the nearest point being about a mile and a half. These forests 

 which are being thus so rapidly removed, consist principally of 

 black spruce, hemlock and birch, the spruce being valued for its 

 timber and the hemlock mainly for its bark. They are very dense 

 and contain trees of magnificent proportions, while they are ren- 

 dered practically impassable wherever it occurs, by the laurel 

 {^Rhododendron max/mum) , which covers abundantly the extremely 

 rough and uneven surface of the ground and forms continuous 

 ' brakes ' of great extent. The earth beneath is often carpeted 

 with moss and lycopodiums, but with the exception of the Oxalis 

 acetosella and an occasional trillium, no great variety of flowering 

 plants was observed. The forests of evergreens do not, however, 

 appear to occupy the country exclusively. A half mile or so to 

 the north or northwest of Davis, the spruce seems to end and 

 deciduous trees to be found, and we were told of the existence of 

 beech woods, mention being also made of ' glades ' comparatively 

 open, in a south-easterly direction towards the Canaan valley. In 

 the streams of this region, trout are to be taken in numbers, but 

 the various mills at Davis have destroyed the fishing in the 

 Blackwater below the town, and it is necessary to go some dis- 



