528 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XII, No. 7,. 



deep pre-glacial channel from the north enters the county a little 

 west of the Sandusky Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 

 extending southward to Newark and is now occupied by the 

 northern branch of the Licking River. At Newark it divides, 

 one branch turning directly to the east in the valley of Licking 

 River, and one branch extending *north westerly, through what 

 was evidently at one period a broad lake, and in which now the 

 south branch of the Licking flows with a reversed current to join 

 the main stream at Newark. " 



The presence of this old valley has been corroborated by W. G. 

 Tight^° and Frank Leverett.^^ 



Mr. Leverett^" sketches the position and extent of the old valley 

 in the following paragraphs: 



"Tight has shown that the greater part of the Muskingum 

 drainage system was fomierly connected with the Scioto system 

 by a broad valley leading from Dresden (a few miles above Zanes- 

 ville) westward past Newark to the Licking reservoir and thence 

 into the Scioto Basin near Circle ville. The present southward 

 course past Zanesville is there a much narrower valley than the 

 old line leading westward to the Scioto Basin, and the rock floor 

 is markedly higher along the present course of the Muskingum 

 than along the old course. 



"At Hanover, an open valley sets in which extends westward 

 to the vicinity of the Licking reservoir, where it is so filled with 

 drift as to render its further course difflcult to determine. A 

 series of gas borings however, indicate that it passes southward 

 about to Hadley Junction and then turns westward, passing near 

 Canal Winchester and Groveport and coming to the Scioto River 

 about midway between Columbus and Circle ville, where it seems 

 to have joined the old Kanawha system. " 



I have quoted Mr. Leverett at length, for his location of the 

 valley is in the main verified by the data I have been able to secure. 



The mantle of drift throughout this region is so thick that the 

 beds in the streams lie in it, neither railroad cuts nor water wells 

 cut through to the rock. The only data therefore which give the 

 entire depth of drift must be obtained from gas wells, which 

 fortunately are very numerous in this section. I obtained records 

 from a large number of wells from Newark southwestward to a 

 point on the Little Walnut about 2^^ miles east of Lockville. 



'Northwesterly must be an error. The South Fork of the Licking flows from the southwest to 

 the northeast across the plain, west and southwest of Newark. Northwesterly should undoubtedly 

 read southwesterly. 



10. Tight, W. G. Drainage modifications in southeastern Ohio and adjacent parts of W. Va. 

 and Ky. U. S. G. S. Prof. Paper. 13. 



n. Leverett, Frank. Glacial formations and drainage features of the Erie and Ohio 

 Basins. Mon. 41: U. S. G. S. 155, 1902. 



12. Leverett, Frank. Glacial formations and drainage features of the Erie and Ohio Basins. 

 Mon. 41: U. S. G. S. p. 1.55, 1902. 



