WEST VIRGmiA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



53 



time enough to show it all where the humus of the soil has been 

 burned out. 



"The manner in which fire destroys the foundation on 

 which a forest grows is apparent from an examination of 

 changes in the soil on the Alleghany summit and neighboring 

 ranges where the woods have ceased to exist, and that one case 

 is typical of many, and in a lesser degree of all. Over much of 

 that territory the foundation on which the forest stood was a 

 mass of broken and split rocks^ and beneath that the solid 

 rock. Trees had found an anchorage for their roots, and for 

 centuries the decaying needles and leaves had been falling into 

 and filling the cavities among the stones. Mosses and lichens 

 had grown and decayed. Each season added a little to the soil, 

 and the accumulation of organic substances, with the mat of 

 living moss, covered the underlying rocks to a depth of from 

 one to three feet. This mass of vegetable matter, with the 

 fragments of broken rocks beneath, was a soil in process of 

 formation — a new soil just coming into existence. Had the 

 process gone on a sufficient length of time, a deep, agricultural 

 soil would probably have been the result, though ages might 

 be required to do the work. The opinion has been expressed 

 by Chamberlain that ten thousand years may be required to 

 form one foot of mineral soil. A thing so valuable^ and so 

 slow in making, ought not be carelessly destroyed. 



"In the case of the mountain tracts alluded to, the process 

 of soil building was cut short by fire. The work of centuries 

 was undone in a few days, and the moss and vegetable matter 

 covering the rocks were consumed. The trees quickly died and 

 were thrown by the wind, becoming food for future fires which 

 completed the destruction. What little mineral soil there was, 

 was washed into deep cavities by rain, and large tracts became 

 treeless, and almiost without soil. That is their condition now. 

 Reforestation will be slow and difficult, for the whole process 

 of soil building must be gone over again in some places. 



"Fortunately, the area of excessive denudation is small in 

 comparison with the whole state. It lies chiefly on the high, 

 stony mountains. But fires have done immense damage over 

 wide regions lower down. The hardwoods (broad-leaf trees) 



