WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



29 



and the Mississippi, receive much of their tonnage from the 

 Monongahela, and the other two, the Delaware and the Hudson, 

 receive from the sea much of theirs. 



**The navigability of West Virginia streams ought to be 

 maintained and further improved. The care of navigable rivers 

 is a function of the United States Government, and it usually 

 does not ask or receive aid from the states. But West Virginia 

 is so peculiarly and so fortunately situated that the advisability 

 of joining hands with the Federal Government to promote cer- 

 tain works would be worthy of careful consideration in case the 

 Government should invite such co-operation and express a will- 

 ingness to follow certain lines. One such measure would be the 

 protection of the high mountain forests, and another, the build- 

 ing of storage reservoirs, previously referred to in this report. 

 If the Government should take up this work, it would do it for 

 the purpose of improving the navigation of streams which carry 

 interstate commerce, and not to promote forestry, or develop 

 water powers, or to assist one state alone^ although these things 

 would result as incidentals to the general purpose. 



''The Federal Government cannot now take up the work 

 because Congress has not enacted laws authorizing it. neither 

 has the Legislature of West Virginia passed the necessary act 

 giving its consent to the purchase of land in the state by the 

 Government for that purpose. The proposed act for the pur- 

 chase of land in the Appalachian region for National Forests, 

 failed to pass Congress. So far as West Virginia is concerned, 

 the state ought to give its consent to the purchase of land by 

 the United States in the high mountains for forestry purposes. 

 If the care of these wide forested areas falls entirely upon the 

 people of West Virginia, it will be a heavy burden — but it can- 

 not be evaded. If the Government will do part, the state ought, 

 at least, to give its consent. 



' ' The construction of storage reservoirs in the mountains of 

 West Virginia can scarcely be said to be under serious consider- 

 ation by the Federal Government at present ; but the feasibility 

 of the project, and its bearing on the navigation of rivers, have 

 been discussed in different Government departments, and action 

 at some time is probable. If such reservoirs are built they will 



