324 GEOLOGY OF THE BLACK HILLS. 



square miles, equal to 500,000 acres, is covered by timber of merchantable 

 quality, suitable for cutting' and sawing into lumber. 



Col. R. I. Dodge, commanding the escort, by an entirely independent 

 series of observations, estimates the merchantable timber at only about four 

 hundred square miles, and comparing it with the pine forests of North Caro- 

 lina, he says: 



I estimate that there are in the two sections something over four thousand square 

 miles of country more or less covered with pine. Of this, including the Ked Valley, 

 the parks, the bare bottoms, and valleys of creeks, I estimate that four-tenths are 

 entirely without timber. Another four-tenths is composed of young forests, excellent 

 for railroad ties, small buildings, fencing, &c, but not yet fit for the saw -mill. One- 

 tenth is wind-shaken or injured by lightning or fire, and one-tenth is good lumber. In 

 other words, I think that this four thousand square miles will furnish not more than 

 one-tenth of the merchantable lumber that would be obtained from an equal area of the 

 virgin pine forests of Michigan or North Carolina. There is an abundance of lumber 

 for all purposes of the country itself, but, except ties, it will not furnish any very large 

 quantity for exportation.* 



* The Black Hills, by Bichard Irving Dodge, lieutenant-colonel, United States Army. James 

 Miller & Co., New York, 1876, p. 102. 



