5i8 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XII, No. 7, 



statement I infer that the "water plains", according to Mr. Read 

 fonn the present surface of the region and were the bed of the 

 former lake, presumably post -Wisconsin, which must have existed 

 until very recent times; and that the present and recently drained 

 swamps of this region were remnants of the lake. 



In June, 1894, W. G. Tight'"^ published an article in which several 

 pages are devoted to the topography and present drainage of Lick- 

 ing county. In this article he says: "The South Fork of the 

 Licking flows with a sluggish current over a broad alluvial plain 

 which is covered with a black lacustrine deposit of several feet in 

 thickness. This is especially true of that portion lying between 

 the Licking Reservoir and Newark. We have suggested the name 

 Lake Licking for the body of water in which these deposits were 

 made and of which the original lake in the Reservoir was a part, 

 occupying a large kettle hole in the drift when the main body of 

 water was drained away. " 



The aboA^e statement by Mr, Tight definitely refers Lake Lick- 

 ing to post Wisconsin times; as these "lacustrine deposits" and 

 Licking Reservoir, the present Buckeye Lake, are at the surface 

 and must therefore lie on the drift. 



Black alluvial deposits indicate river beds or swamps rather 

 than lakes. Moreover black soil does not prevail throughout 

 this area, but is seen only in depressions, which have evidently 

 been shallow kettles. 



The region to the south and southwest of Newark is charac- 

 terized by a mature topography, as an inspection of the country 

 or a study of the topographic sheets of the Thurston, Thornville, 

 Granville and Newark quadrangles clearly show. The hills are 

 low and rounded, with gentle slopes; the streams flow in broad 

 open valleys, which together with the hills are deeply covered with 

 a drift mantle to a maximum depth of 453 feet. The valleys are 

 so deeply filled that the present highest elevations are but 200-214 

 feet above the valley floors. This extensive leveling up has 

 converted the low lands into a region with the topography of 

 youth, characterized by low watersheds separated by broad 

 plains and drained by numerous small, shallow, irregular streams, 

 many of which are wet weather streams only ; and also by numerous 

 surface depressions varying in size from small kettles a few square 

 yards in extent to swamps covering several hundred acres. 



There is no well-defined either rock or morainal ridge of hills 

 which could serve as the rim of a large lake. The surface cover, 

 except in the kettles and beds of streams is unassorted glacial till, 

 consisting of clay containing many small sharp angled stones, 

 and with a srtiking absence of large boulders. I can nowhere find 

 lake beaches, lake clays, sand or stream delta deposits. Glacial 



Den. U 



5. Tight, \V. G. A contribution to the knowledge of the preglacial drainage of Ohio. Bull. 

 1. Univ. 8: 1. .38. 1894. 



