The Potomac region consists of the five counties lying east of the Allegheny Moun tains and gradually sloping to the lowest point in the State. 286 feet, at Harper's Ferry. The area of this section is 1,780 square miles, or 1.139200 acres, and the population closely ap proximates 100,000 people. Broad bottom lands horsier the rivers and creeks of this section. The lower Shenandoah Valley extends through Berkeley and Jefferson counties, rich alluvial soil and highly cultivated. The agricultural life of the State reaches its highest develop ment in this section.
River System.— The drainage of West Virginia is accomplished by two river systems each entirely distinct from the other. From the culminating apex of the Alleghenies at the junction of Pendleton, Pocahontas and Ran dolph counties, the eastern drainage is through the Potomac into Chesapeake Bay and the At lantic Ocean. The western drainage,. by far the greater, crosses the State in six river basins, tributary to and forming part of the Ohio system and finally, through the Missis sippi and the Gulf of Mexico, likewise mingles with the waters of the Atlantic. The drainage areas are as follows: on the east, the Potomac and its tributaries 3,500 square miles; on the west, the Monongahela and its tributaries 4,300 square miles; the Little Kanawha and its tribu taries 2,200 square miles; the Great Kanawha and its tributaries 8,800 square miles; the Guy andotte and its tributaries 1,800 miles; the Twelve Pole and its tributaries 500 square miles; the Big Sandy and Tug and their tribu taries 2,300 square miles. The Ohio is navi gable for its entire length up to Pittsburgh. From thence the Monongahela is dammed for slack water navigation as high up as Fair mont. The Great Kanawha is navigable for 90 miles, as far up as Montgomery. West Vir ginia enjoys thorough irrigation and complete drainage. Not a single square mile is without proper irrigation yet not a single square mile of stagnant water is to be found.
Climate and West Virginia has a continental climate with the usual variations arising from an extent covering 31/,• of lati tude and 4,500 feet of altitude. The mean annual temperature at Wheeling in the northern part is 51.64"; at Charleston in the southern part, 5427'; of the State, 52.30'. Between the last damaging frost in spring, 10-20 April, and the first killing frost of autumn, 10-20 October, there is, every season, ample time to mature fully crops of every variety. The average an nual precipitation, including melted snow, is 45 inches. Southwest winds prevail in West Vir ginia. though somewhat broken up and de flected by the rugged contour.
Geology, Mineral Resources and Mining.— That portion of the earth's crust which is in evidence in the northern and eastern part is made up chiefly of limestone and sandstone. Three well-known and easily-recognized lime stones are found here,--the Shenandoah or Trenton; the Lewiston or Helderberg and the Mountain or Greenbrier limestone. Three sandstones exist in like profusion,— the inde structible Medina, the more friable or Oriskany and the Hamilton shale. Preced ing the carboniferous measure is the Great Conglomerate or Millstone Grit, extending across the centre while the remaining west ern two-thirds of the State is formed prin cipally of coal measures made up of alternating layers of shales, sandstones, fire clays and coal seams. Some peat is found in the cold and
densely-shaded uplands of the Allegheny West Virginia has no of the more valuable metallic ores, though rich in the com mon minerals. Her most important mineral is coal in the production of which she ranks second only to Pennsylvania. The Appalachian coal field, like an Indian canoe in shape, with one prow in northern Pennsylvania and the other in western Alabama, extends from the north to the southwest throughout West Virginia. Here it reaches its greatest width, about 100 miles and shows its richest deposits of bitumi nous coal of varying kinds and qualities. In length 150 miles with an average breadth of 65 miles, the approximate area of the State's coal bed is 9500 square miles or 6,080,000 acres. Within this area are to be found 85 different seams of coaL Of the 55 counties of the State, 49 are underlaid with coal. More numerous scams of greater thickness, aided by favor able topographical conditions, render it possible, at the same rates of labor, to mine coal in West Virginia at less expense and with greater econ omy than in any other State, without exception. In 1917, 1,000 mines in operation furnished nearly 16.5 per cent of all the coal produced in the United States. The production fields, for merly five in number, have of late years been reclassified into 11 distinct fields. For the fis cal year ending 30 June 1914— the Department of Mines reports the following production in short tons: Pocahontas, 18,934,335; Fairmont, 13.115,416; New River 11,384,111; Kanawha, 10,736285; Logan,W.748; Preston-Barbour, 4,797,676; Mingo, 2 V 3,503; Elk Garden, 2,316, 275; Panhandle, 2,213,799; Putnam, 621,514; Mason, 138,466; all other mines 336,000, ,677 t the total production for 1914, 73 short tons. Subsequent reports show p uc tion for 1915, 74,184,169; 1916, 79,612,298; 1917, 89,353,450 short tons. The total amount of coal stored in the hills of West Virginia is estimated to exceed 160,000,000,000 short tons, which, at the present rate of production, would not be exhausted in 1,800 years; in fact, the entire production of coal credited to this State to 30 June 1917 exceeds but 1,000,000,000 short tons. So far the coal deposits of West Virginia have only been scratched. Owing to the moderate development of manufactures and the large consumption of natural gas — only 8 per cent of the coal produced is used within the State. Prior to 1910, West Virginia showed annually a steadily-increasing produc tion of coke. High tide was reached that year with 4,217,380 tons valued at $7,525,922. The Solvay process of securing the by-products and ether methods of conservation have taken the place of the coke oven. There has been a steady diminution in coke production since 1910, the production in 1916 being 1,957,632 tons. Iron ore exists in West Virginia to the extent of 300.000.000 tons or more. The only production to date is at Orebank on the Poto mac above Harper's Ferry and that is less than 20,000 tons annually. The chief deposits are in the wild mountain regions, remote from transportation facilities and are at present inac ce.stl•le for commercial mining.