WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



295 



on the east of the county; the Little Kanawha a large area on 

 the south, and the tributaries of the West Fork river drain 

 small areas along the western side. 



According to the following statement made by geologists 

 of the United States Geological Survey, several small streams 

 have been captured from the Buckhannon river and their 

 waters turned into the Little Kanawha and the West Fork 

 rivers : 



''Instances of this capture of drainage may be observed in 

 the headwaters of Stone Coal creek, west of Buckhannon. Glady 

 Fork and Spruce Fork flow toward the Buckhannon river to 

 a low, wide divide at the source of Brushy Fork, where they 

 turn abruptly backward in a deep gorge and empty into the 

 West Fork of Monongahela river. The drainage of Buckhan- 

 non river on the east side of the Divide has nearly cut down to 

 its base-level of erosion, while that of the West Fork, on the 

 west, is cutting rapidly and deeply into the soft shale and 

 sandstone, and if conditions of erosion remain as at present for 

 a long period of time. Stone Coal creek will doubtless cut back 

 to Buckhannon river and divert its waters from their present 

 course and lead them into West Fork. Other striking examples 

 of diverted streams may be seen in the whole of the drainage 

 of Little Kanawha river above Arlington. The headwater 

 drainage of this river has persistently and rapidly cut north- 

 ward, moving its watershed, and has captured the Avaters of 

 Laurel, Cow, and Get Out runs, which originally belonged to 

 French creek and flowed northward into Buckhannon river." 



Original Forest Conditions. 



Yellow poplar, black walnut, white oak, red oak and 

 chestnut may be named as some of the most valuable hard- 

 woods of the county. Other common hardwoods were sugar 

 and red maple, black birch, shellbark and pignut hickory, black 

 gum, beech, chestnut oak, scarlet oak, black oak, white ash, 

 locust, sycamore, and white walnut. Cucumber, basswood, and 

 some others were distributed locally. Shingle oak grew along 

 the Buckhannon river as far up as Hampton, and a very few 

 trees of swamp white oak were to be found on the low lands in 

 the vicinity of Lorentz, 4 miles west of Buckhannon. 



