WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



11 



river. Opeqiion creek, Back creek, Cacapon river, Little Cacapon 

 river, South Branch of Potomac river, Patterson creek, and New 

 creek. The streams named all flow northeast in the valleys be- 

 tween the Alleg'ham^ and Blue Ridge mountains. A small 

 area in the eastern part of Monroe connty is drained by the head- 

 waters of Dnnlap and Potts creeks, tributaries of the James 

 river. 



The drainage of that part of the state on the west of the 

 mountains reaches the Gulf of ^Mexico through the Ohio and 

 the Mississippi. The largest tributaries of the Ohio — some of 

 which are direct and others indirect — are Big Sandy river, 

 Twelvepole creek, Guyandot river, Mud river, and the Great 

 Kanawha, with its Pocatalico, Goal, Elk, Gauley, Greenbrier, 

 New, and Bluestone river tributaries draining the southern 

 part of the state. North of these there are Little Kanawha 

 river, ]\Iiddle Island creek. Fishing creek, and Fish creek, all 

 direct tributaries of the Ohio ; and the Monongahela, with its 

 Cheat, West Fork, Tygarts Valley, and other tributaries flow- 

 ing north to Pittsburg to form — with the Alleghany — the Ohio 

 river. A line drawn from the eastern point of Tyler county 

 to the southern point of Randolph and from there to the north- 

 ern end of Pocahontas, separates the headwaters of the Cheat, 

 the Tygarts Valley, the ^liddle Fork, the Buckhannon, the 

 West Fork, and other northward-flowing streams from the 

 Greenbrier, the Gauley, the Elk, the Little Kanawha, and other 

 rivers which flow west and south. 



The rivers of the state, including the Ohio, the Great Kan- 

 awha, the Big Sandy, the Little Kanawha, and the ]\Iononga- 

 hela as the principal ones, are navigable for a distance in the 

 aggregate of about 750 miles. 



There are no natural lakes or other bodies of still water of 

 any considerable size, though there is evidence that several of 

 these once existed at the places now occupied by our mountain 

 glades. 



Pelov\' are the names of the 38 principal rivers of the state 

 with the altitudes of their fountain heads or of the points where 

 they enter the state, the altitudes of the points where they 

 leave the state or empty into other streams, and the total fall 

 of each. Those which are marked with a star (*) rise outside 

 of West Virginia : 



