88 Topography of the Kenawha Valley. 



full of rapids to admit of good navigation ; yet affording an almost 

 unlimited number of fine scites for mills. From the mouth of the 

 Kenawha to the mouth of Elk, the face of the country is broken into 

 hills and ridges, of an elevation of one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred and fifty feet. From that point to the upper extremity of 

 "the salines" a distance of fifteen miles, they rise to five hundred 

 feet above the bed of the river, and a few miles back in the divi- 

 ding ridges, they are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 

 feet higher. From the latter position to "the falls" a distance of 

 twenty five miles, the hills have attained an altitude of from six 

 hundred to seven hundred and fifty feet, and above the junction of 

 Gauly, one hundred miles from the mouth they rise into mountainous 

 ranges, pursuing a N. E. and S. W. direction, at an elevation of 

 twelve hundred feet. The bottom lands on Kenawha, are from 

 a quarter to half a mile in width on each side of the river ; varying 

 in this respect, in accordance with the bends in the stream. The 

 valley cut by the current of the Kenawha in the rock strata through 

 which it passes, will average a mile in breadth, and from two to seven 

 hundred feet in depth ; the corresponding rocks and beds of coal 

 in the hills, on each side of the valley, affording incontestible proof 

 that they were once united, and at some remote period anterior to the 

 existence of the present river, formed continuous beds ; at seventy 

 miles abov.e the mouth, this valley becomes much narrower, with 

 a proportionate diminution in the width of the alluvial deposits. 

 The bottom lands are very fertile, producing abundant crops of grain 

 and grass ; where the native growth has been undisturbed, the al- 

 luvions are covered with the heaviest forest trees, common to the 

 wood lands of the v/est. Below the mouth of the Elk, the hills are 

 composed of sandstone, with extensive deppsits of red marly clay, 

 which has given an argillaceous character to the soil of this region 

 not seen in the hills above ; embracing a tract from the mouth of the 

 Guyandott, to the mouth of the Cole river, and thence to the waters 

 of the Little Kenawha, and over to the northern and western side 

 of the valley of the Monongahela. Through all this region, the 

 soil is, in many places, deeply tinged with brown or red, probably from 

 the oxide of iron contained in the clay-marl, or red shale. The hill 

 tops and ridges are clothed with yellow pine, which seems to de- 

 light in a soil of this composition ; and the sides of the hills with 

 the various species of oak, poplar, hickory, walnut, gum and sassafras ; 

 while the richer hill sides and narrow bottoms afford a soil con- 



