A CASE OF PRE-GLACIAL STREAM DIVERSION NEAR 

 ST. LOUISVILLE, OHIO^ 



Howard Clark 



On account of the many interesting features in its drainage 

 development, Ohio, in recent years, has attracted much atten- 

 tion among students of physiography. Among the first in 

 Ohio to become interested was Dr. W. G. Tight,- who in a general 

 way worked out some of the fossil stream courses of the central 

 part of the state, and, in much detail, the drainage changes of 

 southeastern Ohio, parts of Kentucky and West Virginia. In 

 this wo]k he dealt not only with the evolution of the Ohio River 

 itself but also with the changes observed in many of its tributary 

 valleys, especially in the Muskingum and Scioto valleys. In the 

 western part of the state, Dr. J. A. Bownocker has studied several 

 drift-buried channels, correlating them with a major stream 

 that probably flowed to the west.^ Several other workers have 

 carried on similar studies in other parts of the state. 



Many theories have been advanced in accounting for these 

 changes in drainage: (a) piracy, (b) glaciation, and (c) diastro- 

 phism. In some cases more than one factor, it has been thought, 

 was operative. But there is a lack of agreement among students 

 of the subject in assigning relative weights to these factors. 

 Dr. Tight'* urged glaciation as the principal cause for the reversals 

 in Ohio; Mr. Leverett" also gives much weight to this factor. 

 Dr. Carney^ concludes from more recent studies in parts of 



1 This work was done under the direction of Professor Carney, as an assign- 

 ment in an undergraduate course. 



2 U. S. Geol. Surv., Professional Paper, No. 13, 1902. 



3 American Geologist, vol. xxii, pp. 178-182, 1899. Ohio Academy of Science, 

 Special Paper, No. 3, pp. 32-45, 1900. 



* Bull. Sci. Lab. Denison Univ., vol. viii, pt. II, pp. 35-61, 1894, 

 6 U. S. Geol. Surv., Monograph xli, pp. 196-198, 1902. 



6 Bull. Sci. Lab. Denison Univ., vol. xiii, pp. 139-153, 1907, vol. xiv, pp. 128- 

 134, 1909. 



339 



