Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1871-02-02

: tiful building stone. Some of the
finest residences on Euclid avenue,
: Cleveland, are built of the Akron
stone. Its color is a deep, purplish
: red. r-...- ....-.--
...- THE OHIO DRIFTS. O.
/ Let US next examine the soil of
Ohio. The materials known as the
drift deposits are beds of sand,
gravel, and powders, and form the
surface of large part of Ohio.
This surface is called drift as it
is foreign where found having
.drifted in many instances hundreds
of miles from the place of origin.
Ir Ohio there are no geological
formations between the coal meas
ures, and the drift formation.
Prof. -Newberry gives a reason for
this. as follows: About the close of
the carboniferous period, the AL
/ feghany mountains were raised, car
frying up all the area lying between
4 the Mississippi and the Atlantic.
/ Since that time, no considerable
portion of this region has been sub
merged, and, therefore, no deposits
made upon it during the intervening
ages. Over the northern half of
North America, and down as low as
Dayton, Ohio, we find, not every
where, but in most localities where
the nature of the underlying rocks
is such as to retain inscriptions
made upon them, the upper surface
of these rocks planed, furrowed, or
excavated in peculiar and striking
manner, evidently by the action of
one great denuding agent These
are pronounced to be the tracks of
glaciers. Again: .... r..
Beneath the "drift" deposits the
rock surfaces are in many instances
excavated to form a system Of basins
and channels, often cut several
hundred feet below the lakes and
rivers that now occupy them. These
channels exhibit trao es of ice action,
and date from the ice period, or an
earlier epoch The point attempted
to be made is, that these channels
form connected system of drain
age, at a lower level than the pres
ent river system, and hence, lower
than could be produced without a
continental elevation of several
hundred feet. A few striking ex-
amples are given by Prof. Newberry,
to show the evidence upon which
these statements are based. Iquote:
Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie,
and Ontario are basins excavated in
undisturbed sedimentary rocks. OF
these, Lake Michigan is. 700 feet
deep, with a surface level OF 57S feet
above tides; Lake Huron is 500 feet
deep, with surface level of 574
feet; Lake Erie is 204 feet deep,
with a surface, level of 800 feet;
Lake Ontario is AGO feet deep, with
a surface level of 234 feet above the
sea An old excavated, now filed,
,channel connects Lake Erie and
Lake Huron. At Detroit the rock
surface is 40 feet below the Lake.
=. The rock bottoms
of the troughs of the Mississippi
and Missouri, near their junction or
below, have never been reached, but
they are many feet, perhaps some
hundreds, below t.. present stream
beds. = : = Oil Creek Penn.
flows from 70 to 100 feet above its
old channel had, sometime, vertical
and even overhanging cliffs. The
Beaver, at the junction of the Ma
honing and Shenango, runs $50 feet
above the bottom of its old trough.
The Ohio throughout its entire
course runs in valley which has
been out nowhere less than $50 feet
below the present river. The Cuya-
hoga enters Lake Erie at Cleveland,
least 100 feet above the rock bottom
of its excayated trough, proving
that the surface level of the lake
must once have been at 100 feet
lower than now" Prof. Newberry
mentions numerous other instances
to prove. his theory. The learned
gentleman claims that the falls of
the Ohio, near Louisville, forming a
rocky barrier, do not disprove this
theory, as the Ohio at this point is
diverted, the old channel passing
further south under the present city
of Louisville. .r.f a.. i..as r
lg bin AN INTERESTING THEORY.
ha Above the drift deposits, and
more recent, are the lake ridges,-
embankments of sand gravel, sticks,
and leaves. Of these, on the south
shore of Lake Erie, the lowest is q
little less than 100 feet above the
present level of the lake, the highest
being 250 feet. In New York, Can
ada, Michigan, and Lake Superior, a
similar series Of ridges exist, evi
dence that the waters of the lakes
once reached the points they mark
Theory eliminated in the facts pre-
sented is this: 'iAt q period stimuli
taneous with the glacial epoch of
Europe, the northern half of this
continent had a climate so cold that |
whenever there was a copious pre-
Hcipitation of moisture from oceanic
evaporation, that moisture was con-
gealed, and formed glaciers, which
flowed by various routes toward the
sea. The causes of these ancient
glaciers correspond, in general way,
with the present channels of drain
age. The direction of the glacial
burrows proves that one of these ice
rivers flowed from Lake Huron
along channel now filed with drift,
and known to be at least 150 feet
deep, into Lake Erie, which was
then not a lake but an .excavated
valley, into which the streams of
Northern Ohio flowed 100 feet or
more below the present lake level.
Following thelline of the major axis
of Lake Erie to near its eastern eX-
tremity, here turning northeast, this
glacier passed through some chan
mel on the Canadian side, now filled
up, into Lake Ontario, and thence
found its way to the sea either by
the st. Lawrence or the Mohawk
and Hudson. Another channel oc-
cupied the bed of Lake Michigan,
having an outlet southwark. now
concealed by heavy beds of drift,
passing through Bloomington. ILL.,,
and by some route unknown reach
inu thof;rOuOh of tho Mis- siSsinni F"