III. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRE- 

 GLACIAL DRAINAGE OF OHIO. 



PART II. 



Pre-Glacial and Recent 'Drainage Channels in Ross County, 



Ohio. 



By Gerard Fowke. 



Ross county presents an interesting field for the student of gla- 

 cial geology. 



The southern limit of the ice-sheet is marked by a well-defined 

 terminal moraine which follows almost exactly the diagonal of the 

 county, as it enters at the northeast corner near Adelphi and passes 

 out about two miles beyond Bainbridge at the junction of Ross, Pike, 

 and Highland counties. There are few points along this line where 

 the drift is not a prominent feature of the landscape ; in many places 

 it has a thickness of more than loo feet exposed and occasionally at- 

 tains an elevation of about 150 feet above the streams which flow 

 across it or along its margin. Some very large "kettle-holes" exist 

 on this border; while numerous sections along the nearly vertical 

 banks of streams or in excavations for ballast or pike material afford 

 excellent opportunities for observing the complicMted structure pro- 

 duced both by the ice itself and by currents from its melting. These 

 features, however, except perhaps as to the thickness of the deposits, 

 are common in all glaciated regions and may be as well studied else- 

 where ; but there are few, if any, places where in an equal area may 

 be found so great an alteration in water courses as has taken place in 

 the southwestern quarter of this county since it was first invaded by 

 the glacier. 



By reference to the map (Plate I), it will be seen that, at 

 present, Paint creek forms the western boundary of the county from 

 Greenfield to the mouth of Rocky Fork, near the point marked If. 

 Thence it flows nearly east for about three miles, after which its gen- 

 eral direction is northeast to the point £. Here it bends abruptly to 



