150 PROCEEDINGS OF WASHINGTON MEETING. 



The last paper was as follows : 



A DEEP BORING IN THE PLEISTOCENE NEAR AKRON, OHIO. 



BY E. W. CLAYPOLE. 



The preglacial geography of the northern part of Ohio has been so largely ob- 

 scured by the mantle of glacial material deposited upon it that its restoration is 

 attended with much difficulty. That some communication existed whereby the 

 waters flowed into Lake Erie from a greater distance to the southward than is now 

 the case has long been believed. A communication between the Cuyahoga and 

 Tuscarawas rivers seemed to be rendered necessary by the physical geography of 

 the region. At present the watershed passes about three miles south of Akron; 

 but it is soon evident to the glaeialist, and indeed to the observer if intelligent, 

 though having no special knowledge of geology, that the great preglacial valleys 

 which cross the country cannot have come to a sudden end at the present water- 

 shed, but must have continued to some distance southward. It has been generally 

 assumed that this channel lay through the city of Akron, where is now a deep 

 valley apparently forming a connection between the valleys of the Tuscarawas and 

 the Cuyahoga. The depth of tins valley to rock has never been proved, but wells 

 have been sunk in the gravel which tills it to 150 feet or more without reaching 

 bottom* This gravel is the deposit of the retreating ice-sheet, and lies in great 

 quantity south of Akron between the two lobes of the glacier which covered this 

 part of the state. It is therefore postglacial in date. 



Several circumstances, however, which cannot here be detailed combined to in- 

 duce the belief that this channel did not at anytime form a link of communication 

 between the valleys of the present < !uyahoga and Tuscarawas. The narrowness of 

 the channel in which the latter river now flows along part of its course is sufficient 

 proof that it is not very deep, though undoubtedly preglacial. Accordingly, it was 

 desirable to find some other way in which the water from the south could have 

 found its way to bake Erie through the Cuyahoga. 



To the west of Akron, at the distance of about three miles, lies a wide swamp 

 leading south from the Cuyahoga to the Tuscarawas valley, and to this my atten- 

 tion was directed some years ago, but no data could be obtained concerning it ; all 

 indications were in favor of a buried channel of considerable depth through which 

 the long-sought passage might be found. During the winter of 1890, however, an 

 Akron firm determined to put down a deep well in search of brine. Fortunately 

 forthe geologist, they chose nearly the middle of the valley above mentioned. Sup- 

 posing that there would be some depth of soft material, the contractor obtained 100 

 feet of 8-inch pipe to be driven. A second lot followed, and a third, nor was it until 

 nearly 400 feet had been driven (389) that the rock was at length reached. 



This result, so different from expectation, changed the views previously enter- 

 tained regarding the preglacial drainage of the district and revealed the true level 

 of connection between the two above-mentioned rivers. Evidently the southern 

 waters had come north, not through Akron, but through this newly revealed valley, 

 whose bottom five miles south of Akron was now found to lie on the present level 

 of Lake Erie. So deep a preglacial channel close to the watershed of the continent 



*From one of these wells, at the depth of aboul 150 feel tip- sand-pump brought up with the 

 gravel a flint arrow-head. 



