Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/525

WEST POINT. all is a marble shaft surmounted by a figure of “Victory” in memory of the officers and men of the Regular Army who fell in defense of the Union (1861-65). Under an act of Congress approved June 28, 1902, an appropriation of $5,500,000 was made to cover the cost of new buildings, viz. an additional cadet barracks, a new academic building, a new chapel, bachelor officers' quarters, a riding hall (600 &times; 150 feet), artillery and cavalry barracks, stables, and a heating and lighting plant. These improvements when completed will greatly increase the capacity of the academy and the attraction of this famous military educational institution and picturesque military post. Consult: Boynton, History of West Point and the Military Academy (1863); Farrow, West Point and the Military Academy (New York, 1879). See .  WEST SPRING′FIELD. A town, including several villages, in Hampden County, Mass., on the Connecticut River, opposite Springfield, and on the Boston and Albany Railroad (Map:, B 3). It is the residence of many business people of Springfield. There is a public library with more than 7000 volumes. The community is chiefly interested in farming, market gardening, and the manufacture of paper and cigars. The Boston and Albany Railroad maintains extensive repair shops here. The waterworks are owned by the town. West Springfield, originally a part of Springfield, was settled about 1655, and was incorporated in 1774. Population, in 1890, 5077; in 1900, 7105.  WEST VIRGIN′IA. A South Atlantic State of the United States, popularly called the ‘Panhandle State.’ It lies between latitudes 37° 13′ and 40° 38′ N., longitudes 77° 40′ and 82° 40′ W., and is bounded on the northeast by Pennsylvania and Maryland, on the southeast and south by Virginia, on the southwest by Kentucky, and on the northwest by Ohio, being separated from the latter State by the Ohio River. Most of the boundaries are natural, that is, formed by rivers or mountain ridges, whence the outlines of the State are irregular. The general shape is that of an oval, 210 miles long from southwest to northeast and 125 miles wide, but two narrow tongues extend northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio and northeastward between Virginia and Maryland, each of them being known as ‘panhandles.’ The area of the State is 24,780 square miles, making it thirty-seventh in size among the States.

. The surface of West Virginia is, as a whole, uneven, and in the east mountainous. The main range of the Alleghanies crosses the northeastern section, and farther south forms the State boundary toward Virginia. The greater part of the mountain region, occupying more than one-third of the State, belongs to the Alleghany Plateau, though the mountains in the extreme southern section may be considered as a northern extension of the Cumberland Plateau. The mountains of the northeast are chiefly in the form of parallel ridges with a southwest and northeast trend, but the southern part of the plateau is irregularly dissected by river valleys, presenting broad domes with spurs running in all directions, and but few definite ridges. The elevation of the valleys is about 2000 feet, and the

elevation of the ridges is from 3000 to over 4000 feet. The highest point is Spruce Knob, with an altitude of 4860 feet. West of the mountains there is a belt of broad, flat hills from 1000 to 2000 feet in elevation, followed by a more gently rolling country which slopes toward the banks of the Ohio River, where the altitude ranges between 500 and 650 feet.

With the exception of the northeastern section, the whole State belongs to the Ohio basin, and is drained by a number of streams flowing from the mountain belt northwestward to the main river on the boundary. The largest of these tributaries are the Big Sandy, which forms the southwestern boundary of the State, the Guyandotte, Great Kanawha, Little Kanawha, and Monongahela; the last flows northward into Pennsylvania, but its two main headstreams are within West Virginia. The Potomac forms most of the boundary on the side of Maryland, and its largest headstream, the South Branch, drains most of the northeastern section of the State. All of these streams furnish abundant water power, and several of them are navigable.  . West Virginia enjoys an agreeable and healthful climate, with pure mountain air and freedom from violent extremes of heat or cold. The mean temperature for January ranges from 30° in the northeastern mountains to 32° and 35° in the west and southwest. For July the mean is between 75° and 76° in nearly all sections of the State. The average maximum is between 94° and 98°, though a temperature of 104° has been recorded; the average minimum is between 5° and 10° above zero, the extreme being 10° below. The average rainfall ranges from 33 inches in the northeast to 45 inches in the south, and is fairly evenly distributed through the year.

. The soils are all formed from local disintegration of the rocks. In the northeast they are sandy and of little fertility, but many of the mountains are covered to their summits with a fertile clayey soil, and the Ohio Valley in the west has a soil formed chiefly from limestone, which gives it great fertility. West Virginia is one of the most typical sections of the Appalachian floral region. (See Flora under .) Large areas, especially in the east and south, are still covered with dense forests, largely of deciduous trees, such as black, red, white, and chestnut oak, hickory, chestnut, locust, maple, liquidambar, tulip-trees, and on the higher mountains, birch. On the mountains there are also extensive forests of black spruce, white pine, and hemlock.

For, see that title under .

. By far the greater part of the State is covered by rocks of the Carboniferous system, only the northeastern section and a narrow band along the southeastern boundary belonging to the Lower Paleozoic series. The rocks are here mainly Devonian, with several broad bands of Silurian in the northeast extending as far as the Cambrian sandstone on the slope of the Blue Ridge at the extreme northeastern limit of the State. West Virginia includes 16,000 square miles of the Alleghany coal measures. The upper and lower coal measures, separated by 250 feet of barren shales and sandstone, each contain 