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CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



Topography. 



The county is divided naturally in respect to its surface 

 configuration, into two distinct and radically diverse areas. Ap- 

 proximately one fourth of the total area, lying northwest of the 

 main Alleghany Front, is in the form of a high, rolling plateau. 

 The elevation of this division is comparatively uniform, ranging 

 from about 2,700 feet to 3,000 feet, except that the channels of 

 the streams sink to a depth of 300 or 400 feet below the sur- 

 rounding country as they approach the North Branch of the Po- 

 tomac. Southeast of the Alleghany mountain crest the surface 

 is broken into a number of elevated, parallel ridges similar in 

 form and trend to those found in the adjacent counties of Pen- 

 dleton, Hardy and Hampshire. The first and most important of 

 the mountain ridges southeast of the Alleghany Front is New 

 Creek mountain, extending through the length of the county into 

 Mineral on the north and into Pendleton on the south, where it 

 is known as North Fork mountain. New Creek mountain is 

 abruptly broken from crest to base by at least 4 narrow gaps. 

 The first of these on the south permits the passage of the North 

 Fork of the Potomac; through the second and third, known re- 

 spectively as Kline and Cosner Gaps, flow small tributaries of 

 Lunice creek ; and through Greenland Gap flows the North Fork 

 of Patterson creek. East of this mountain is the broad, hilly 

 basin of Lunice and Patterson creeks ; and east of this rises Pat-- 

 terson Creek mountain, the natural dividing line of Grant and 

 Hardy counties. 



Westward from the Alleghany crest the drainage is through 

 Buffalo creek. Difficult creek, Abra^m creek, and other smaller 

 streams, and through the long, slow-flowing Stony river, to the 

 North Branch of the Potomac which separates this county and 

 IVTaryland from the Fairfax Stone to the Mineral line. The prin- 

 cipal stream of the eastern part of the county is the South 

 Branch which enters on the south from Pendleton and passes out 

 between the high walls of Petersburg Gap. The chief tributaries 

 here of the Soiith Branch are the North Fork, e mptying a few 

 miles above Petersburg, the county seat; and ^hll creek and 

 Lunice creek, emptying just above the Hardy county line. Pat- 

 terson creek, atributary of North Branch, drains all the north- 

 eastern part of the county. 



