14 Forest Trees. 



posits, and discloses fine beds of coal at the great falls in Portage 

 county. It is the only instance yet known, although, from the fact of 

 petroleum being abundant, it is probable coal may be found at a 

 considerable depth below the surface, near the lake in several places 

 north of this line. 



Forest Trees. 



As these interesting and valuable productions of the soil depend 

 so much on the exposure and geological composition of the earth 

 in which they grow, a short description of them may be very ap- 

 propriately introduced in company with the topographical history of 

 the region in which they are found. The whole valley was, a few 

 years since, clothed with immense forests of the most beautiful trees, 

 which are fast disappearilig before the hand of cultivation. On the 

 higher ridges, the soil of which is composed of disintegrated sand- 

 stone, the favorite abode of the chesnut and chesnut oak is found. 



The elevated fiats and tops of broad ridges whose soil contains 

 considerable sand mixed with yellow loam, slightly tinged by iron, 

 are the spots in which the yellow oak, hickory, black walnut and 

 butternut are found most abundantly. A soil of this composition 

 parts with heat slowly, and those regions that are furnished with it are 

 noted for the protection they afford against late spring frosts, so often 

 ruinous to the fruits in the valley of the Ohio. The steep declivi- 

 ties of the northeasterly and northern side hills, where the earth is 

 composed of sandstone and decayed leaves, is the favorite spot for 

 the yellow poplar, or Liriodendron tulipifera, and Magnolia acu- 

 minata, or cucumber tree. The yellow poplar may be called the 

 monarch of the hills, as the sycamore is of the bottoms. It is often 

 seen of the height of one hundred and twenty feet, and from three 

 to eight feet in diameter at the base, with a perfectly straight shaft 

 of eighty feet without a limb. This tree is extensively used for 

 boat gunnels, and the Ananufacture of boards, and is to the west 

 what the white pine is to the north. Where the soil on the side 

 hills is formed from decomposed limestone and leaves instead of 

 sandstone, the timber is principally sugar tree, interspersed to the 

 top of the hills, with spice wood and beech. The less elevated hills 

 and flats, whose soil is formed from decomposed argillaceous sand- 

 stone and clay of the ancient diluvium, are clothed with white oaks, 

 dogwood, (Cornus florida,) sassafras, various species of hickory, 

 Cereis Ohioensis, or Judas tree, yellow pine, and shrubs of many 



