May, 1904.] Changes in the Drainage Near Lancaster. 155 



two miles the valley widens normally, when it has a width of half 

 a mile or more ; then the stream turns to the south, the valley 

 growing narrower, and just below Christmas rocks turns sharply 

 to the west. The valley now becomes a gorge and a mile below 

 the last turn there is no flood-plain and the walls rise abruptly to 

 a height of 300 feet, the north wall, known in the region as 

 Jacob's Ladder, presenting a vertical rock cliff in the upper 100 

 feet, from the top of which a splendid wiew can be obtained of 

 the surrounding country and the gorge below^ Figs. 3 and 4, 

 taken at the turn near Christmas rocks and from positions only 

 200 3'ards apart, contrast the character of the valley at the gorge 

 and above it. Below this constriction the valle}' widens and con- 

 tinues to Clear Creek, three miles distant. 



-Fig'. 4. Valley of Arney Creek above the col, looking towards Lancaster. 



Returning to the point where the stream turns toward the 

 south and its valley first begins to narrow, a broad valley contin- 

 ues in a northeast direction and joins the Hocking valley at Lan- 

 caster, where it is fully a mile wide, but Arney Creek is barred 

 from this outlet by a drift dam 20 to 75 feet high extending 

 across the valley in a northeast-southwest direction with a well 

 defined, rather abrupt front. This is of till as is shown in a 

 nearby railroad cutting, and is one of the ridges of the terminal 

 moraine of the Late Wisconsin ice epoch. Half a mile to the 

 south of this deposit is a second, not very well defined, broad, 

 low ridge of similar material which probably represents the outer- 

 most limit of that ice sheet at this point. Between the dam and 



