Stevenson.] Ot\J [Feb. 5, 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



No. II. * 



By Jno. J. Stevenson. 



Professor op Geology in the University op New York. 



(Bead before the American PJiilosophical Society, February 5th, 1875.) 



During July and part of August, 1874, I made a reconnaissance of a 

 portion of West Virginia lying between Rich Mountain and the Ohio 

 River. In this area are included parts of Randolph, Upshur, Harrison, 

 Lewis, Doddridge, Ritchie and Wood counties. To connect this work 

 with that reported in my previous paper, I made some examinations in 

 Taylor and Marion counties. 



This whole region has suffered much from erosion, and its surface is a 

 confused mass of hills and ravines apparently without system. In the 

 eastern portion, that drained by the forks of the Monongahela River, the 

 valleys are usually quite broad and the hills are rounded except in the 

 vicinity of Rich Mountain, where, owing to the increasing dip, the slopes 

 become quite sharp. In this drainage area the main streams flow across 

 the dip, whence result the broad valleys and gentle slopes observed on 

 Tygarts, Buckhannon, and the West Pork River. On the west side of 

 the divide, separating the Monongahela from Hughes' River on the Little 

 Kanawha, the conditions are different. There the streams flow, for the 

 most part, with or opposed to the dip, so that one finds the country 

 abrupt and the valleys narrow until he approaches the Ohio. 



Between Rich Mountain and the Ohio the soil is not very rich, owing 

 to the comparatively small quantity of limestone present. In portions of 

 Randolph and Upshur counties, however, there ^s much rich land along 

 the "bottoms," the alluvium being in a measure derived from the lower 

 carboniferous rocks. The western portion of the area is very lean, as 

 the soil has resulted simply from disintegration of the Upper Barren 

 shales or sandstones, or in other localities from similar disintegration of 

 the red argillaceous shales of the Lower Barron Group. It is said that in 

 Doddridge, Ritchie and Wood counties, there is comparatively little land 

 rich enough to yield forty bushels of corn per acre. 



Over the greater portion of the area, the hills are covered by a dense 

 growth of valuable timber, consisting chiefly of poplar (tulip-tree), red 

 and other oaks, chestnut, beech and maple. The oak and poplar are 

 quite valuable. At the west, much of this timber is floated to the Ohio 

 by way of the Little Kanawha, not a little of it being sent down as single 

 logs from the smaller tributaries. The magnificent timber on Rich 

 Mountain will soon be available, as the obstructions in Buckhannon and 

 Tygarts' Rivers are to be removed, so as to open the way to Grafton, 

 where immense sawmills have been erected. 



The availabilities of the country have not been fully tested, and for the 



* No. I was published in Trans. A. P. S., Vol. XV, p. 15. 



