The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-04-13
ORRE sPON DENCE
CRaBeREnAkD. Ky. March % 1859.


The General Rtport Of a Geological Sur
vey of Kentucky, by D Dale Oven, contains
vast amount of matter of high scientific inter
est and especially important to The asrieui'
turist. &.ss9zEgE
His arrangement of the strata of the Geol
ogical formations of Kentucky, and the nom
enciature of his system, are exhibited in thelrt
chronological order, in their relative super
70 sition, as iolloes,-beginning with the latest
formations:
l Superficial Deposits, or Qaaternary- loan.
marl ciays, and gravel, belonging to the age
CT the Mammoth, Mas, odon and Megalonyx or
Pleistocene formation. This will include all
those fine deposits of comparatively recent
date which appear to have settled in wide
expansions of our great rivers, just previous
TO the time when they contracted into their
present channels together with the associated
gravel beds An equivalent to this may be
seen in the sandy and gravely soil along and
near the Cuyaboga river, on the Weston Re |
serve, o. +s-f sse Fz
2 The Coal Measures. embracing the sand
stones, shales ironstones, millstone grit, and
conglomerate together with the limestonesl
associated with the workable beds of coai.
| 8. Sub Carboniferous Limestone, chest and
fine grained sandstones, being the strata on
which the coal measures repose, and extend
ing down to the f;,
i Black Linguia Shales; that is, all the
dark argllaceous beds on which the sub-car-|
houiferous sandstones and limestones rest.
These belong to what geologists term the
Drvonian Era. 5,s..s5..l{
4 s. Gray Coralline Falls Limestones, includ-
ing the limestones under the black shales,
} which form the falls of the Ohio, down to the
chain coral, or Catenepora limestone, which
are also referahIe to the Denonian Epoch
| 6. The Chain Coral and Upper Magnesia
Cliff Limestones of Jefferson Co.
| 7. The Blue, Shell and Birdseye Lime
stones of Fayette and Franklin counties, and
throughout most of the so-calIed Bluegrass
counties of middle and northern KY.
The sloping rock whose bed forms the Falls
of the Ohio at Louisville, exhibits q remarka-
: bic structure. 1t consists mainly of the re-
mains of the fossil corals, belonging principal
ly 10 those cylindrical. conical and hornshap-
ed forms. known under the family appeation
of Cyathophyilide (Leafcups:) and to those
+ hemispherical and cylindrical, honeycomb
structured Farorites. So abundant are these
: at many localities, that the formation may be
denomnated in fact, petrjfed coral reef
All those who have witnessed the multitude oil
u these orgaric relics, imbeded in, or standing
out in bold relief from the surface of the ex-
:. posed lodges of limestone on the Falls of the
Ohio river, at extreme low water, will bear
me out in the correctness of the smilitude
may even say, in the reality of the analogy
= for here we find laid bare by the long
continued action of the swift current OF the
II Ohio, and the moldering hand of time, the
+ exhumed remains of a by-gone world OF poly
piferous life more ancient than the carbonif-
II erous rocks Here we may contemplate ever
y the delicate structure of extinct forms of RG
q data, submerged beneath the waters Of al
J. ancient ocean, cemented to the very rock thai
formed its base of support when alive, and it
tomb after death-we may consider the time
occupied by those coralline animalcula il
forming these vast strata of rocks, as Hin
u doc Youg, an immense series of ages. Blu
e even these Coralines of the Falls, are not 81
u ancient as the Blue Shell Limestone of ths
e Blue Grass region of KY. This section il
not less remarkable in the annals of the Pal
eontologist for the rich store which it snpplie
: of extinct forms of shells, enerinites triobite
II and corals, forming an endless study and re-
: search, and unique cabinets of wonderful per
. fiction. So prolific. indeed, is the blue lime
: : stone in fossil remains, that continuous bed
. may be traced in which the imbeded shells an,
corals are so closely cemented, that it woult
=, be difficult to place the FL ger on a spot with
: ont touching some one of these organic relics
The contemplation of these must fill the be-
:, holder, with the most profound reflections
Here is spread before his eyes more than fs,
:. hundred feet of solid rock, deposited at th'
bottom cf primeval ocean. far more ancien
: than The coal formation, that furnishes ou
fossil fuel; the age of which can be traced bacl
through nine vast geological formations eaci
:, many hundred feet in thickness, each the sep
: ulcher of myriads of extinct races, that peo-
rled this earth in succession, from the mos
highly organized human being down 10 th'
). simplest marine life, forming the most elabor-
ate history of the complicated phases of tn,
earth's transmutations and its physical progress