WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



13 



The State as a Natural Forest Region. 



The great range in altitude of 4,600 feet, the variety of 

 soils^ including the rich alluvial soils of river bottoms, the 

 numerous clays of hills and plateaus, the cool, sandy loams of 

 coves and north hillsides, the dry sands of mountain ridges, the 

 shales of the northeastern counties, and the deep, wet, vegetable 

 soils of upland glades, are favorable to the existence of many 

 kinds of trees. These^ together with the various exposures — the 

 sunny hillsides, the sheltered coves, the shady banks of moun- 

 , tain streams, the bleak summits of mountains, the rocky canons, 

 and the low river valleys — as well as the humidity of the region 

 and other favorable natural features and conditions, constitute 

 West Virginia a remarkable forest area. The range of altitude, 

 mentioned above, is the equivalent of at least 15 degrees of 

 latitude. This means that the state has a climate suitable for 

 the existence of the great diversity of life — every plant, every 

 animal, every tree — that thrives from the southern border of 

 Virginia to beyond the Canadian border. There are three well- 

 defined life zones, designated as Carolinian, Transition, and 

 Canadian, to be found within the state. 



The Carolinian zone, or more properly the Carolinian 

 faunal area of the Upper Austral zone, has been in general thus 

 described : 



''The Carolinian faunal area occupies the larger part of 

 the Middle States^ except the mountains, covering southeastern 

 South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas, and part of Okla- 

 homa; nearly the whole of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, 

 Ohio, Maryland, and Delav/are; more than half of West Vir- 

 ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and New Jersey, and large areas 

 in Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, 

 New York, Michigan, and southern Ontario. On the Atlantic 

 coast it reaches from near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to 

 southern Connecticut, and sends narrow arms up the valleys of 

 the Connecticut and Hudson rivers. A little farther west an- 

 other slender arm is sent northward, following the east shore of 

 Lake Michigan, nearly or quite to Grand Traverse Bay. * * * * 



''Counting from the north, the Carolinian area is that in 



