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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



this part of the county is mixed sand 

 and clay loam, very well fitted for farm- 

 ing". In places it is rather thin, but 

 averages a very desirable depth, with 

 good drainage. In the Mahoning and 

 Big Sandy river valleys, and to some 

 extent in the valley of the Little Beaver, 

 large tracts' of land now lie waste, owing 

 to the difficulty of properly draining 

 them and insuring them against flood 

 in spring. As land values rise these 

 tracts will doubtless be brought under 

 cultivation and should yield very good 

 crops. 



In some places the drift sheet is very 

 shallow and easily permits one to re- 

 move it and see the numerous striae. 

 The country rock here is, I believe, of 

 Carboniferous origin, probably belong- 

 ing to the Pennsylvania series, as it 

 contains several veins of coal at depths 

 varying from thirty to eighty feet. The 

 Berean sandstone, which outcrops near 

 Cleveland, is here about eight hundred 

 feet below the surface and rapidly 

 slopes to the southeast, becoming near- 

 ly three thousand feet deep in parts of 

 West Virginia, I am told. Owing to 

 the inaccuracy of drillers' reports in 

 many cases, I find it hard to tell much 

 about the state of the drift sheet below 

 the surface where it is deep. 



There is room for much interesting 

 study and investigation along this line 

 of geology in Columbiana County and 

 I only regret that the necessities of 

 earning a living seem to require quite 

 so nearly all of my time. I have not 

 made any strange or unusual discover- 

 ies, but have received a large amount 

 of pleasure from my observations. I 

 have greatly enjoyed the recent issues 

 of The Guide To Nature. 



Very sincerely, 

 Wm. J. Blackburn, Jr. 



^c ^c :js H 5 H 8 



You have given a very good report of 

 your investigations. You tell the facts 

 and in a clear and interesting manner. 

 Other topics might be "A Comparison 

 of the Glaciated and Non-Glaciated 

 Parts of Ohio," "A History of Lake 

 Erie," with special reference to the sand 

 ridges formed along its south shore, and 

 a study of any one of the economic 

 products of the state such as coal, oil, 

 gas, salt, lime, building stone and so on. 



Hunting in the Heavens. 



One of the enthusiastic, active Mem- 

 bers of The Agassiz Association has 

 made the statement that hunting in the 

 heavens may reveal as many new 

 things as hunting in the marshes. Our 

 readers will lecall that not many 

 months ago Mr. John E. Mellish of 

 Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, published 

 an interesting chart of observations 

 made in the marshes, and now comes 

 a letter but a little too late for our 

 March number, regarding his discovery 

 of a comet. Lie writes February 18th 

 as follows : 



"On the morning of February ioth 

 I found a new comet in Ophiuchus 

 Right Ascension seventeen hours and 

 three degrees north. The comet is 

 small and bright and is moving east 

 one-half the moon's diameter a day." 

 On February 28th he writes : 

 "The comet is two hundred million 

 miles from us on March 1st, and the 

 same distance from the sun. It reaches 

 its nearest point to the sun on August 

 2nd, and will then be one hundred and 

 fifty million miles from the sun and 

 one hundred million miles from the 

 earth. It will be nearest the earth 

 about June 1st, the distance then being 

 sixty million miles. The line of nodes 

 is where the comet's orbit crosses the 

 earth's orbit. The comet is now above 

 the earth's orbit and will cross it about 

 May 15th. It will then be below the 

 earth's orbit and will pass from our sight 

 in June, going to the south pole 

 of the heavens. This comet may be 

 visible to the naked eye in May, and 

 in June will be thirty times as bright 

 as it was at the time of discovery on 

 February ioth." 



Report comes from Wiemar, Ger- 

 many, of the discovery of still another 

 early human fossil. The new find is 

 a well preserved lower jaw with all 

 the teeth in place except two incisors. 

 An especially notable feature is that 

 while the canine teeth are large, as in 

 the apes, and there is no chin as in 

 proper human jaws, nevertheless the 

 wisdom teeth are smaller than the 

 other molars as in modern civilized 

 man. The relic belongs to one of the 

 warm interglacial periods, and is prob- 

 ably among the oldest of all known 

 human remains. 



