WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICxVL SURVEY. 233 



elevation of about 575 feet, the average low water mark of this 

 section of the Ohio river. The tops of the hills lie on a more 

 or less level and uniform plane and the descent, mentioned 

 above, is chiefly made along the river. In many places through- 

 out the county the hillsides are steep and broken with narrow 

 ravines. At several places the Ohio river valley is very nar- 

 row, the hills descending almost to the water's edge. This is 

 particularly true for a distance of 2 or 3 miles just south of 

 St. Marys and for an equal distance at Ravenrock 5 miles 

 above. For the remaining distance the valley is from one- 

 fourth to three-fourths of a mile in width. 



The county has a frontage on the Ohio river of about 17 

 miles. The largest tributaries of this section of the river are 

 Bull creek which forms the county's southern boundary line, 

 Cow creek which empties 3 miles above, French creek which 

 empties at Belmont, and Middle Island creek which empties 

 at St. Marys. The largest tributaries of Middle Island creek 

 in the county are McKim creek and Sugar creek. The general 

 course of all the streams is westward and southwestward 

 toward the Ohio. 



The Original Forest Conditions. 



Many years ago the rich valley of the Ohio river was occu- 

 pied by farmers and by them was divested of its timber. For 

 this reason an intelligent discussion of the early forest con- 

 ditions of that section is hardly possible. It is true, however, 

 that the whole valley was heavily forested with hardwoods such 

 as yellow poplar^ black walnut, oaks, hickories, maples, white 

 ash, beech, black cherry, sycamore, white elm and many others. 

 The softwoods, which grew in considerable quantities among 

 the hills, were yellow pine, white pine and hemlock. As a 

 whole the county has afforded an abundant supply of timber. 



The Early Lumber Industry. 



There was no market for the timber removed by the earli- 

 est settlers, and that which was not needed for buildings, fenc- 

 ing etc., was rolled together and burned. While some of the 



