Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/282

Rh 258 VIRGINIA and very low in ash, sulphur, and phosphorus) for metallurgical purposes, and in beds of remarkable thickness, and where the bitu minous coals of the Middle Coal group also have a maximum of development combined with remarkable purity of composition, adapting them to gas and domestic uses. Tertiary rocks (19a, b, c) underlie all Tidewater (the new Virginia of geology, though the old one of colonial history), the Lower or Eocene outcropping, approximately, in a line a little west of 77 W. long., the Middle or Miocene between that and a little east of 76 30 W., and the Upper or Pliocene in the remaining east part, except where covered by recent or Quaternary (20) deposits. Minerals. Minerals. The varied and abundant mineral resources of the State are as yet but imperfectly developed. Her medicinal mineral springs are numerous, and many of them well known. Tidewater abounds in fertilizing marls, and in choice brick-clays, sands, and shell-limestones for building. Lime-burning, from oyster shells, is an important industry. Midland abounds in superior granites, which are extensively quarried near Richmond and Petersburg ; in the best of slates for roofing and other purposes, especially in Albemarle and Buckingham counties ; in Jura-Trias brownstones and sand stones ; in trap for Belgian blocks ; in soapstones (steatites), lime stones, and in brick-, plastic-, and fire-clays. Thick beds of excellent bituminous coal and of natural coke are found in the Jura-Trias of Chesterfield and adjacent counties, which have long been mined ; ochre beds are worked in Chesterfield county ; thick beds of magnetic, specular, and limonite iron-ores, and of gold, silver, and copper-bearing rocks, traverse its whole length from north-east to south-west. Its gold belt, from 15 to 20 miles wide, rich in free, quartz, and pyritous-rock gold, traverses the whole western tier of Midland counties, for more than 200 miles, from the Potomac to the Dan ; in this belt, in Louisa county, at the Arminius copper mines, veins of white pyrites, 42 feet, bearing 46 per cent, of sulphur and considerable yellow copper, have been opened and reduction works erected for a 300 tons daily output ; 12,000 tons of pyrites were shipped in 1886. Manganese, mica, plumbago, titanium, cyanite, garnets, emeralds, quartz, and other Archaean and Jura- Trias minerals are found at many points. The minerals and metals now exploited are gold, iron and copper pyrites, manganese, haematites, magnetites, and limonites, mica, slates, granites, brown- stones, and trap-rock. Piedmont has extensive beds of magnetic, specular, and limonite iron ore throughout its length ; chromic iron ore is found in the north-east ; copper ores abound especially along the west border in spurs of Blue Ridge ; manganese deposits have been worked at various points ; the same Archiean and Jura-Trias building stones and minerals are found here as in Midland, the marbles of Bedford and Loudouu counties of fine quality. Iron ores, manganese, slates, and marbles are now exploited. The Blue Ridge abounds in copper and iron ores for its whole length in Virginia ; these as well as pyritous silver, copper, and iron ores, are especially abundant in the Floyd-Carroll-Grayson or south-west plateau, where also auriferous quartz is milled; tin mines have been opened in Rockbridge county ; the great Potsdam or primordial iron belt, with its vast deposits of ore, flanks the western base of the Blue Ridge in Virginia for nearly 300 miles, and from the rich deposits of manganese in the same belt two-thirds of the manganese output of the United States in 1886 was mined; glass-sand of the best quality and fire and other clays are abundant, and so are build ing sandstones in the western Blue Ridge. Mining operations are now extensively conducted in iron and manganese ores. The Great Valley is all underlain by limestones suitable for ornamental, build ing, and agricultural purposes ; its cement (hydraulic) and archi tectural, fluxing, and agricultural limes are noted for their purity ; extensive beds of iron-ore are found among its hills ; marbles, barytes, brick- and fire-clays, and travertine marls are abundant ; there are large deposits of lead and zinc ores, especially in the south west, in Pulaski and &quot;Wythe counties, where they accompany the great iron-ore deposits of the Cripple Creek region ; from the Vesper tine (No. x.) beds of the Lower Carboniferous, in Montgomery and Pulaski counties, from 15,000 to 20,000 tons of semi-anthracite coal are annually mined ; ochres are mined in Page and Augusta counties ; iron, manganese, zinc, and lead ores are now mined on quite an extensive scale, and lime-burning is an important industry. Appalachian Virginia abounds in very remarkable beds of limonite iron ores, found (often, under large areas, in a more or less stratified condition) in the Hudson river (iii.), Clinton (v.), and Oriskany (vii.) formations of Cambrian and Silurian age ; there are also deposits of magnetic haematites in Craig and Giles counties ; limestones of the Valley (ii.), Trenton (iii.), and Lower Ilelderberg (vi. ) formations, underlying the &quot; rich &quot; valleys and ridges, abound, and furnish the best of materials for building, lime-burning, and blast-furnace fluxing purposes, as well as for beautiful encrinal and other fancy marbles ; in its Vespertine (x. ) areas are numerous patches of anthracite and semi-anthracite coals, worked and workable for local use ; in the Appalachian portions of Smyth and Washington counties are large deposits of rock-salt and gypsum ; travertine marls, caves abounding in nitrous earths, and chalybeate, sulphur, alum, hot, warm, and other mineral springs are common ; sandstones and slates for building purposes are plentiful. The iron-ores of Alleghany county and those of the Appalachian portions of Rockbridge and Botetourt counties are extensively mined for local blast-furnaces ; marbles and gypsum are quarried ; considerable salt is manufactured, and semi- anthracite coal in Pulaski for use in local zinc furnaces. Trans- Appalachia is Virginia s 1000 square miles of the Great Coal Basin of the Ohio, or the Trans-Appalachian Coal Basin (the one usually, but improperly, called the Great Appalachian Coal Basin) ; this is all underlain by thick and easily accessible beds of the best of semi- bituminous and bituminous coals, those of the Lower (xii.) and of the Middle (xiii.) Coal groups of the Carboniferous. Only the semi- bituminous coking, steam, and domestic coal of this region is now mined for exportation at Pocahontas, Tazewell county, from &quot;which 639,751 tons (93,550 of them converted into coke) were shipped in 1886, the traffic having begun with the shipment of 105,805 tons in 1883. From the Flat-top coalfield, including the Pocahontas and some adjacent mines in West Virginia, 1,314,700 tons of coal were mined in 1887, part of which was made into about 145,000 tons of coke, equal in quality to any made in the United States. This fuel is remarkably high in fixed carbon and low in ash and sulphur, and therefore admirably adapted for metallurgical purposes. Twenty mineral springs of Virginia, used medicinally, were reported to the United States Geological Survey in 1886 (Tidewater 1, Mid land 4, Blue Ridge 2, Valley 5, Appalachia 8) ; they were reported as chalybeate, alum, white sulphur, red sulphur, blue sulphur, warm sulphur, cold sulphur, hot sulphur, lithia, healing, ague, and sweet chalybeate. These and many others not reported are visited as health resorts, and many of them ship to market large quantities of their waters. Virginia produced of coal 300,000 tons in 1884, 1,000,000 in 1886, and about 1,250,000 in 1887 ; of coke 25,340 tons in 1884, about 122,352 tons in 1886; of pig iron, 29,934 tons in 1880, 152,907 in 1883, 156,250 in 1886, and 156,698 in 1887 ; of rolled iron 40,581 tons, and of cut nails 212,552 kegs of 100 It) in 1886 ; of manganese 3661 tons in 1880 and 20,567 tons in 1886 ; of pyrites 12,000 tons in 1886 ; of ochre 1750 tons in 1886 ; of salt, gypsum, lead, zinc, granite, slates, lime, limestone for blast-furnace flux, cement, brownstone, mineral waters, and iron-ore for export large quantities were produced in 1886, and still larger in 1887, when the mining industries of this State were in a healthy condition of development. Vegetation. The variety of vegetation in Virginia is very great, Vegeta- the range being from a profitable growth of semi-tropical cotton to tion. semi-arctic pines and balsams. From one-half to two-thirds of the State is now covered by forests of native evergreen and deciduous trees. Hard and soft woods, in nearly equal proportions, form the original forests of Tidewater and Midland, the plain regions; hard woods predominate in the high country divisions ; the park-like hardwood forests of the Great Valley have grown up since its occupation by white men. The census report of 1880, in its natural divisions of North American forests, assigns the east maritime plain of Tidewater to the coast-pine division ; the north-east portions of Blue Ridge, Valley, and Appalachia to the northern-pine division ; and the rest of the State to that of deciduous trees. The principal timber trees, found in varying abundance in all parts, are white, Spanish, black, chestnut, red, post, and swamp oaks ; tulip-poplar and cucumber ; white (or shell), bark, and pignut hickories ; yellow or pitch pine ; red or Virginia cedar ; beech, elm, black and white walnuts, sycamore, mulberry, locust, sassafras, and gum ; sugar, red, and white maples ; black, red, and yellow birches ; wild cherry, per simmon, dogwood, ironwood ; white, red, black, and water ashes ; chestnut, and willows. Cypress, juniper, long-leaved pine, holly, sweet gum, and some live oaks are confined mainly to Tidewater and east Midland ; white pine, hemlock, black spruce, rock chestnut oak, and balsams to the mountain regions ; the oaks of the Valley are of rare excellence, and the tulip-poplars and oaks of Trans-Appalachia and its borders arc of remarkable size ; sumachs, millions of pounds of the leaves of which are gathered for their tannin, are everywhere plentiful. From the sugar-maple consider able quantities of sugar are made in the Valley and the Appalachias ; the forests of Tidewater, easily reached by vessels, furnish large quantities of fuel and lumber to seaboard markets ; railways reach the other timber regions of the State ; lumbering, charcoal-making, the cutting of railway sleepers, and the collection of tan-bark are important industries. Wild fruits and nuts, gooseberries, black berries, whortleberries, cranberries, strawberries, haws, service- berries, persimmons, plums, crab and thorn apples, cherries, various wild grapes, chestnuts, chinquapins, black and white walnuts, hickory nuts, hazel and beech nuts, acorns, &c. , are nearly all found in all parts. Medicinal roots (ginseng, sarsaparilla, snake-root, mandrake, &c. ) are gathered in largo quantities in the Appalachias ; oil from sassafras roots is made in quantities in Midland and Piedmont. All the cultivated fruits of temperate climates flourish ; apples, pears, peaches, grapes, plums, cherries, currants, and other small fruits are everywhere plentifully grown ; the peach, pear, and apple orchards of Midland, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and the Valley