VALLEY OP THE OHIO, 129 



It is a common opinion of the people on the banks of tlie 

 Ohio, that its waters were always the same in quantity, and 

 formerly occupied, in succession, various parts of the valley, 

 at much higher levels than at present. By this supposition 

 they attempt to account for the alluvial deposits, which, in 

 many places, arise, as already stated, to the height of se- 

 veral yards above the most elevated high water mark of 

 these times. But the excavation underneath the ancient 

 beds of alluvion is as deep as that beneath the recent ones, 

 and will) the exception of the narrow channel in which the 

 river now flows, every part of the valley is equally pro- 

 found ; when therefore the former were accumulated, the 

 waters extended from hill to hill, and constituted a vast ri- 

 ver, which must have swollen at times more than a hundred 

 feet above tlie greatest altitude of the present comparatively 

 diminutive stream. No other supposition, it appears to me, 

 can account for the great elevation of the older alluvial 

 banks. An illustration of this, upon a small scale, is afforded 

 by the little torrents which descend during a shower, from 

 an eminence, along a pve-cxhting giiUy ,•* where the declivity 

 is great, and while the mass and motion of the waters are 

 considerable, nothing is deposited ; but as they decrease, the 

 pebbles, mud, and light bodies, which are borne along, sub- 

 side into beds, over which the reduced and narrow rivulet 

 continues feebly to meander. The cumparisun cannot be 

 extended any further ; for a succeeding vain will deluge these 

 little grounds, and perhaps raise them to a still greater 

 height : but the causes which furinerly spread the Ohio over 

 the whole valley, Jiave long since ceased to operate ; and 

 if its waters be not at this time diminishing, they are cer- 

 tainly not increasing. 



I shall coiiclude this part of my letter with the following 

 observations : — 



i. The expansions in some parts of the valley of the 

 Ohio, which I have conjectured were partly produced by 



* Used provincially. 

 VOL. II. R 



