WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



125 



larger northern tributaries, and with Steer creek, Sycamore 

 creek and Pine run as its principal southern tributaries, drains 

 the northern half. 



The Original Forest. 



It is asserted that a belt of land about 10 miles in width 

 but with no definite Doundary lines having timber of a very 

 durable character extends from the Cumberland Mountains of 

 Tennessee across West Virginia and into Pennsylvania a short 

 distance west of Uniontown. The portion of this belt in West 

 Virginia has the most durable white oak timber to be found 

 within the State. Whether the outlines of this strip of land, 

 which would cross the southern end of Calhoun, can be accu- 

 rately traced or not, it is certain that white oak and other hard- 

 woods with remarkable freedom from defects and with great 

 durability are found in that section of the county. The prin- 

 cipal timbers of the county, as a whole, were white, red and 

 chestnut oak, yellow poplar, black walnut, shellbark and pignut 

 hickory, chestnut, beech, sugar and red maple and yellow^ pine 

 There were smaller quantities of white ash, basswood, black 

 cherry, sweet birch, sycamore, black gum, sw^eet buckeye, hem- 

 lock, white and pitch pine and red cedar. The yellow pine was 

 chiefly found in the western half of the county, and the white 

 pine was confined to two small areas, one of about 2,000 acres 

 on Laurel creek and another of less extent on the right hand 

 side of Little Kanawha river, 6 miles below the town of Grants- 

 ville. Scattered trees of white pine were found in other places. 



The Early Lumber Industry. 



Most of the timber not used and destroyed in the county 

 by farmers has been taken out in rafts and barges on the Lit- 

 tle Kanawha river. Rafting and drifting of logs has been going 

 on for not less than 65 years. The first timber taken Avas yel- 

 low poplar. Later other hardwoods and yellow and white pine 

 were rafted to Parkersburg and to other points lower down on 

 the Ohio river. Some rafts went onlj^ as far as Elizabeth, in 

 Wirt county, where they were sawed on the large mills of Burns 



