WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



71 



architecture of which has proven them to be of great age; anrl 

 bridge piles, driven into the channels of European and Asiatic 

 rivers thousands of years ago, are yet to be found. 



It is not necessary, however, to go outside of West Virginia 

 to find examples of remarkable wood preservation. A well 

 driller in the Kanawha valley of Mason county is said to have 

 found a solid sycamore log at a depth of 50 feet; and a sound 

 hardwood log was drilled into at a somewhat greater depth m 

 the Buckhannon river valley near Sago in Upshur county. 

 Well-preserved bottom logs of mill dams built by the early set- 

 tlers of the state are still to be found along many of our 

 streams; and the sandy shores and channels of most of our 

 rivers contain sunken logs and limbs that have been kept from 

 decay for hundreds of years, perhaps, by the action of soil and 

 water. An interesting example of seasoned wood preservation 

 is seen in an idol-like wooden statue found in a cave in West 

 Virginia and now on exhibition in the Capitol Annex at Char- 

 leston. When it was made is not known but we are justified 

 by its appearance and all the known circumstances in believing 

 it to be of great age. 



Woods can be preserved, for a limited time at least, by the 

 use of such preservatives as creosote, zinc chlorid, corrosive 

 sublimate, and copper sulphate. Their action is to prevent the 

 entrance of bacteria and fungi that produce decay. Another 

 method employed is the painting or the applying of other 

 waterproof substances to the outside of posts^ poles and other 

 exposed wood. ^ 



Conditions and Organisms That Induce Diseases of Trees and 

 Decay of Wood. 



Having noticed, generally, that the injury and death of 

 trees and the decay of wood result, directly or indirectly, from 

 unfavorable environmental conditions or from lining organisms, 

 that the destructive work of these natural agencies is either re- 

 stricted by certain structural barriers in living wood ^nd by 

 the absence in dead wood of one or more of the requirements 

 of organisms of decay, or that it is augmented in proportion to 



