WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



151 



of the mountains is northeast and southwest; but in many 

 places streams of water have so disfigured them that they 

 are no longer in the form of continuous ridges but are broken 

 into a succession of oblong and irregular elevations. The topo- 

 graphy of Hampshire has been described thus: 



"While the county is hilly or mountainous, it yet has no 

 mountains equalling in height and ruggedness those of some of 

 the counties west, particularly Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, 

 Greenbrier, Webster and Randolph. The most elevated point in 

 Hampshire county is 3,100 feet above the sea. The lowest point 

 is the bed of Capon river where it flows across the line from 

 Hampshire into Morgan 510 feet. The county, therefore, has a 

 vertical range of 2,590 feet. Every point in Hampshire lies 

 somewhere between these two extremes. The average elevation 

 is probably not far from 1,200 feet. It is a prominent feature of 

 the mountains of this county that they have few peaks which rise 

 sharply above the surrounding ranges. This is because the 

 mountains of Hampshire county are very old, geologically con- 

 sidered, and peaks which may once have existed have been worn 

 down till they now rise little above the ridges, and appear as 

 broad, rounded domes."* 



About 2 miles east of Greenspring Station the North and 

 South Branches flow together and form the Potomac river, 

 which flows for several miles along the northern border of the 

 county. The principal streams flowing northeast through the 

 county, and named from west to east, are the South Branch, the 

 Little Cacapon, the North river and the Cacapon river. 



The Original Timber Conditions. 



Despite the fact that the county was settled at an early 

 date, most of the timber cut before the building of the branch 

 railroad from the main line to Romney in 1884, was destroyed 

 by fire or used for domestic purposes. For this reason much 

 practically virgin timber was standing 30 years ago, and several 

 of the less valuable virgin tracts have been preserved to the 

 present day. The men who remember the undisturbed forests 

 of the valleys and fertile hills speak of them as ''excellent tim- 



*"History of Hampshire County" — Maxwell and Swisher. 



