WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



183 



trict, however, the land is rough and less than half cleared. 

 About 70 per cent of Logan district is owned by non-residents 

 and about 30 per cent of Triadelphia. The farm lands in the 2 

 districts last named are largely restricted to the narrow bottoms 

 and the hillsides along the principal streams. About 10 per cent 

 of the county is cleared and, altogether, 121,160 acres may be 

 classed as farm and woodlot land. The remaining 195,000 acres 

 are in forest. Of this 35,000 acres are in virgin forest and 

 160,000 acres are in cut-over forest. The principal virgin areas 

 lie toward the eastern end of the county on Buffalo creek and on 

 Rich creek and Guyandot river. Smaller tracts lie near the Min- 

 go line and on the river a few miles north of the town of Logan. 

 There is a stand of timber on these tracts of about 12,000 feet 

 per acre of the species mentioned above under another head. The 

 large areas of cut-over land, found through the central and east- 

 ern sections, contain, in some places, a good stand of the less 

 valuable timbers. Much of the cut-over land on the northeast 

 side of Guyandot river has a fair stand of excellent oak. This is 

 particularly true of the territory south of Big Huff creek and be- 

 tween Big Huff and Buffalo creeks. 



McDowell county. 



Location and Area. 



McDowell, formed in 1858 from a part of Tazewell, is the 

 southernmost county in West Virginia. Its area is 673 square 

 miles or 430,720 acres. 



Topography. 



The average elevation of McDowell is considerably below 

 that of some of the counties, such as Pocahontas and Tucker 

 which lie farther north along the Alleghany mountains. No one, 

 however, who visits all of its parts or even crosses it from east 

 to west over the Norfolk and Western railroad, will consider it 

 improper to speak of the county as mountainous. The only part 

 of the surface which lies below 1,000 feet is a narrow, branching 



