WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 45 



The industries mentioned have frequently reduced regions 

 which abounded in beautiful forest scenery into unattractive 

 and ugly wastes of land. This has had an effect, and will con- 

 tinue to have an effect, upon the character of the inhabitants. 

 A certain amount of development of natural resources of any 

 country or any state must be expected and should be desired; 

 but unrestricted industries should not be permitted to disfigure 

 and ruin the appearance of the regions of their operations be- 

 yond all hope of repair. J. H. McFarland, President of the 

 American Ci^dc Association^ declares that "The true glory of 

 the United States must rest and has rested upon a deeper found- 

 ation than that of her purely material resources. It is the love of 

 country that lights and keeps giov\'ing the holy fire of patriot- 

 ism. And this love is excited, primarily, by the beauty of the 

 country." The devastated, fire-blighted regions of our state 

 which have been abandoned in past years to the greed of care- 

 less exploiters, could not possibly awaken in any one the slight- 

 est flicker of patriotism or admiration or any of the finer feel- 

 ings. There are no ''books in rimning brooks" which are foul 

 with the pollution of mines and mills, and there are no 

 "sermons in stones" that have been laid bare by forest fires. 

 "The tree has ever been the symbol of life, strength, beauty, 

 and of rest, and the eye of man cannot continue to look day 

 after day, upon these stately God-given queens of nature with- 

 out their beauty being reflected in his life, making him a 

 healthier, happier and a better man, and their destruction 

 means not only the removal of one of our most desirable natural 

 resources, from a practical and utilitarian standpoint, but from 

 the viewpoint of health, morality, spirituality, and beauty, 

 their loss would be without remedy." 



As long as the beauty and grandeur of primitive forest 

 scenery is preserved it will have a powerful influence in shap- 

 ing the character of people. All men are imitators to a certain 

 degree, whether or not they are conscious of it or desire it, and 

 become more or less like the persons or even the inanimate 

 things with which they associate or are surrounded. The great 

 forest which surrounded the homes of the pioneers left an in- 

 delible mark on their characters. It affected every act of their 



