WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 24:9 



Masked Shrew, Sorex personatus. Common in open glades 

 and about their borders. 



Smoky Shrew, Sorex fumeus. Less common. 



Red-backed Mouse, Evotomys gapperi. Most abundant in 

 wooded border of glades. 



Birds. 



Alder Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii alnorum. Collected 

 on margin of Big Glade by Earle A. Brooks. 



Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana. Seen in alder 

 thickets. 



Magnolia Warbler, Dendroica maculosa. Common. 

 Barred Owl, Strix varia. Abundant. 



PRESTON COUNTY. 



Location and Area. 



Preston county was formed in 1818 from a part of Monon- 

 galia. It is separated from Pennsylvania on the north by a 

 portion of the Mason and Dixon line, and from J\laryland on 

 the east by a line running north from the Fairfax Stone to the 

 Pennsylvania line. Tucker, Barbour, Taylor and Monongalia 

 join it on the south and west. Its area is 671 square miles or 

 429,440 acres. 



Topography. 



Most of the county is high and not a little of it may be 

 classed as mountainous. The principal mountain ridge enters 

 on the extreme southwest from Barbour county and passes about 

 3 miles west of Terra Alta. South of Cheat river this mountain 

 is known as Laurel ridge and north of it as Briery mountain. 

 Over most of the county the ridges have no regularity of form 

 or trend. In many localities, particularly in the region north 

 of Terra Alta, the surface spreads out into high, rolling uplands ; 

 and in nearly all sections the tops of hills and mountains are 

 smooth and the slopes gentle. In some places, however, as in 



