Physical Features.— Speaking broadly, Virginia may be divided into a lowland and a highland country. Its south eastern part—over 23,000 square miles, or more than half of the whole—has the aspect of a broadly undulating plain, that, with but few marked variations of relief, rises from the sea-level to from 400 to 800 feet above it. The north-western portion is a region composed of approximately parallel mountain ranges, running entirely across the State from north-east to south-west, separated by nearly parallel valleys,—the whole presenting all the varieties of relief peculiar to the Appalachian country between the levels of 800 and 5700 feet. To speak more accurately, the State is naturally divided into seven grand divisions or belts, each with marked characteristics of relief and geological structure, and each succeeding the other, somewhat as a more or less ascending stairway, from the sea to the north-west.

1. Tidewater Virginia is the marine plain, of Quaternary and Tertiary structure, 10,850 square miles in area, that extends westward, for nearly 100 miles, from the Atlantic border to “The Ridge,” the granitic escarpment which by its rise determines the tidal limit in the great rivers of the State. This Tidewater plain, rectangular in form, is divided by Chesapeake Bay and the great estuaries of the Potomac, the Rappahannock, the York, and the James rivers, into five large peninsulas, which are subdivided by arms of the bay and tidal branches of the rivers into hundreds of smaller peninsulas, thus giving to the region great wealth of tidal shore outline—fully 2000 miles—so that nearly every square mile of its surface can be reached by tide-borne vessels. The nearly level surface of its north to south trending peninsulas, those of the eastern marine plain, the Quaternary ones, averages about 12 feet above sea-level; their low-lying semi-insular position and their warm finely comminuted soils make these the highly favoured great market-garden or “trucking” portions of Tidewater. The north-west to south-east trending peninsulas, those of the western marine plain, the Tertiary ones, have more broken surfaces that vary in altitude from sealevel to about 100 feet, and are disposed in flat watershed ridges and slopes, terraces, and swamps, all deeply trenched by the secondary drainage.

2. Midland Virginia is the triangular area (12,470 square miles) which, 25 miles wide along the Potomac and 100 wide along the North Carolina line, extends from the Tidewater escarpment westward to the eastern base of the Atlantic coast range, the broken eastern range of the Appalachian Mountains. The elevation here varies from 100 to 200 feet above sea-level in the east to from 700 to 800 in the west; once a gently eastwardly sloping plain, mostly underlaid by steeply dipping granitic and other Archaean rocks—with included areas of Jura-Trias— striking north-east to south-west, the rivers have deeply trenched into this, and so given it a greatly broken and varied relief through a moderate range of altitude; it abounds in stream-valleys. This, with Piedmont and the Blue Ridge, was the first dry land, the oldest portion of Virginia.

3. Piedmont Virginia is the area (6680 square miles) of greatly diversified country, some 250 miles in length and 20 to 30 miles in width, that stretches between the Blue Ridge and the Coast Range mountains, including all of the latter and the eastward spurs and slopes of the former; its valleys, coves, and plains vary in altitude from 300 to 700 feet in the north-east to from 500 to 1000 in the south-west, while its included and bordering mountains range through all gradations from above 4000 feet down to the levels of its valleys. It is charmingly varied and picturesque, and adapted to a great variety of productions.

4. Blue Ridge Virginia is the Virginian portion (300 miles in length) of the great mountain chain of that name, with its numerous tablelands—especially the Floyd-Carroll-Grayson plateau (1230 square miles) in the south-west, having an altitude of from 916 to 5700 feet. It is, for most of its length, a chain of two ranges: the eastern, the chief, in which numerous rivers have their origin, is a grand mountain mass, carved from the Archaean and eruptive rocks, forming the most striking feature of thousands of square miles of Virginia landscape; the western is mainly composed of short ridges, formed from the easterly outcrops of the Palaeozoic rocks, flanking the western slopes of the main range.

5. The Valley of Virginia is the Virginian portion (300 miles) of the length of the great limestone or Appalachian valley of the Atlantic highlands, one that, made up of numerous subordinate valleys, extends with unbroken continuity from Canada to Alabama, and has for its whole length, with varying local names, the Blue Ridge on its eastern and the Kittatinny or Great North Mountain on its western border. In Virginia this is a plateau-valley,— embracing 7550 square miles,—its greatly varied tillable surface ranging in altitude from about 500 to over 2500 feet and averaging fully 1000. Carved from the limestones and limy shales and slates of the Cambrian group into an almost endless variety of valley and upland forms, the higher ones in gracefully rounded outline, all blending into one or more broad valleys, and bounded by grand mountain chains, this is indisputably one of the most desirable regions in the United States.

6. Appalachia (4500 square miles), a region of alternating “rich” and “poor” valleys (according as they are carved from the lime-abounding or from the slaty sandstone rocks of the Silurian or the Devonian groups), is Virginia’s portion of the Appalachian Mountains region proper, the one that lies between the Great Valley on the east and the great Carboniferous escarpment of the Trans-Appalachia plateau. Its general features are repetitions of long, parallel, straight, and level-crested mountain ranges— many of them over 4000 feet—succeeding one another in echelon, with narrow, trough-like valleys,—ranging from 800 to 2700 feet,—but these are diversified by the occasional dying out of some mountain ranges and the consequent widening of valleys, and by the widening of ranges into plateaus or their opening into double crests or lovely mountain “coves” and “gardens.” It is a noted grazing and timber region.

7. Trans-Appalachia (mainly the 1200 square miles in Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise counties) is the Virginian portion of the tableland that extends westward from the great Carboniferous escarpment or Alleghany “backbone.” It is eroded from the Carboniferous rocks, and so is the great coal-bearing portion of the State.

Climate. — The State lies in the middle latitudes. It is open to the sea on the east; its great mountain chains guard it on the north and west; and it has accordingly as nearly a climate of means as any of the Atlantic-bordering States can have. Its position and physical structure also give great variety to its climate: that of its bordering sea islands and large peninsulas is insular; that of its great Tidewater and Midland plains is warm temperate; that of Piedmont and the Great Valley is typically mild temperate; and that of the Blue Ridge plateau and of the high valleys and tablelands of Appalachia is more uniformly cool temperate than in higher latitudes. Its climatic range, in the average latitude of 38° N., is from the sea-coast to 500 miles inland, and from the sea-level to 5700 feet, a range that is equivalent to 19° of latitude, and that gives to Virginia all the adaptations for production embraced between 36° 30' and 59° N. lat. This wide range finds expression in the market-gardens and temperate fruits and trees and the extensive sweet potato, cotton, and peanut fields of Tidewater; in the large plantations of tobacco, hard-grained winter wheat, and the dented-seed (the large variety) Indian corn, and in great forests of pitch-pines, oaks, &c., in Midland and Piedmont, and in the lower portions of the Valley and Appalachia; in the productive vineyards and orchards of Piedmont and the adjacent slopes of the Blue Ridge; in the perennial pasture-lands—the native homes of the rich blue grass—of the higher levels of Piedmont, of the crests and plateaus of the eastern Blue Ridge, of the Great Valley, and of the extensive limestone valleys and ridges of Appalachia; in the large cereal crops and dairy products of the Valley; in the big cattle farms and ranges of Appalachia, the Blue Ridge, and the more elevated parts of the Valley; in the flax, buckwheat, Irish potato, cabbage, and other north-country crops that flourish in the Blue Ridge, the higher parts of the Valley, and Appalachia; and in the north-land balsams and other cold climate trees and vegetation that clothe the higher levels of the Blue Ridge and of Appalachia.

The mean annual temperature zones of Virginia are—60° to 65° in eastern Tidewater; 55° to 60° in western Tidewater, and most of Midland; 50° to 55° in the higher parts of Midland, in most of Piedmont, and in the lower parts of the Valley and Appalachia; 45° to 50° in north-east Piedmont, in most of the Valley, and in the lower valleys of Appalachia; and 40° to 45° on the Blue Ridge, on and near the high levels of the Valley, and in most of Appalachia. The average for the State is near 56°, ranging from 48° in the highlands to 64° in the lowlands—from the mean adapted to grass to that suitable for cotton. The changes of temperature are great, but not so sudden or so extreme as they are in the regions to the north-east and north-west.

The prevailing winds are from the south quadrants, generally shifting between south and west; next in frequency are those between north and west; high winds are rare, except along the coast. The rainfall is abundant and well distributed throughout the seasons in every part, there being two sources of supply, one from the Gulf by the south-west and one from the Atlantic by the south-east winds; the average annual precipitation is from 32 to 44 inches, except in a belt extending north-west from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay towards Staunton, in which it is from 44 to 56 inches; there is a gradual decrease in the rainfall from the coast westward. The snowfall is generally light, some winters insignificant; and the snow soon melts, save in the elevated regions.

Virginia is noted for the clearness of its skies, the purity of its air, and its freedom from great storms. Its climate is moist without being damp, and so mild as to invite to living much in the open air; its winters are short, its periods of seedtime and harvest long; and its healthfulness is attested by the vigour and longevity of its people.

Geology.— The subjoined table of the geological formations found in Virginia, correlated with those of Pennsylvania and New York, and with the general groups and systems of the American geological scale, follows, in the main, the late Prof. William B. Rogers :— [table]

Note. —The first or Arabic numbers and the letters of the above are the numberings of the formations and their subdivisions now generally recognized and used in North America; the Roman numbers in brackets are the equivalent formations as numbered and used by the Rogers Brothers in the Pennsylvania and Virginia reports.

As the accompanying geological map shows, Midland, Piedmont, and the Blue Ridge grand divisions, over 20,000 square miles, or about half the land area of the State, are underlain by the Archaean or old Primary and metamorphic rocks; within this Archaean area are a dozen or more patches, large and small, of the Jura-Trias (formations 16, 17, and 18) or Mesozoic rocks, some of them with valuable coal-beds, that in later times were deposited in depressions, lake-like basins, in the Archaean rocks. The Cambrian (Lower Silurian) areas, the Virginia formations i., ii., and iii., include all the Great Valley (limestone) and numerous limestone valleys of Appalachia, some of them, like that of Clinch river, quite large—in all some 10,000 square miles of surface—having within them detached mountain ranges of more recent formations. The Silurian (Upper Silurian) areas, those where the Virginia formations iv., v., vi., and vii. outcrop, are mountain ranges, detached once in the Great Valley, and ranges and chains of them in Appalachia, for these formations, made up largely of massive sand-rocks, are mountain-builders. The Devonian areas, Virginia formations viii. and ix., are principally those of the slaty or “poor” valleys of Appalachia, No. viii. being a formation from which stream-valleys are liberally carved, though ix., chiefly sand-rocks, often holds it up to included or bordering ridges. The Lower and the Middle Carboniferous rocks, Virginia formations x. and xi., outcrop in long and narrow belts or strips of Greenbrier shales and limestones (xi.), and adjacent narrow and long mountain ranges of Montgomery grits and coal-measures (x.), in soutli-west portions of the Valley and of Appalachia, and in small mountain areas elsewhere in Appalachia. The Upper Carboniferous, Virginia formations xii. and xiii., the Lower (xii.) and the Middle (xiii.) Coal groups, underlie all the thousand square miles of Trans-Appalachia, where the semi-bituminous coking coals of the Lower Coal group are exposed, above water-level, in their best conditions of purity (high in carbon, low in volatile matter, and very low in ash, sulphur, and phosphorus) for metallurgical purposes, and in beds of remarkable thickness, and where the bituminous 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 (19α, 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.— 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 sandstones; in trap for Belgian blocks; in soapstones (steatites), limestones, 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, brownstones, 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 Archaean and Jura-Trias building stones and minerals are found here as in Midland, the marbles of Bedford and Loudoun 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 building 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, building, and agricultural purposes; its cement (hydraulic) and architectural, 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 southwest, in Pulaski and Wythe counties, where they accompany the great iron-ore deposits of the Cripple Creek region; from the Vespertine (Nb. 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 Helderberg (vi.) formations, underlying the “rich” 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 semianthracite coal in Pulaski for use in local zinc furnaces. TransAppalachia 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 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...