Geology of Cincinnati. , 27 



where Pearl street is laid out, and the other follows in its general 

 direction Fourth street. Both these levels decline toward the 

 west and northwest, and finally melt away into Mill Creek valley. 

 Low water mark of the Ohio river is 432 feet above tide water at 

 Albany ; the Pearl street level between Broadway and Vine is 

 about seventy feet higher, or 500 feet above tide water, and the 

 Fourth street level is about forty feet higher. 



Tell a citizen of Cincinnati that there are no hills in or about 

 his city, and he will laugh at you ; tell the same to a resident of 

 Clifton, Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn, or any of the so-called " hill- 

 top " suburbs, and he may call you crazy. For they would con- 

 sider it an absurdity to be told this when they must, nearly every 

 day of their lives, be hauled up inclined planes, and carried by 

 cable roads, or horses, 300 feet or more above the level of Fourth 

 street. Yet to say that there is not a hill in or about Cincinnati, 

 or even in Hamilton County, would be but telling the strict truth. 

 There are elevations, but no true hills, for a hill is a mass of earth 

 raised above the general level of the surrounding country. If 

 Mount Auburn towered above Walnut Hills as high as it stands 

 above Fourth street, and from its top one could command a view 

 of the country far and wide, then indeed it would be a true hill. 

 But such is well known not to be the case, and a study of our 

 city's surroundings will reveal the real state of affairs and show its 

 "hill-top" resorts to be the remnants of a once extensive level or 

 nearly level plateau. 



If we go to Eden Park and stand awhile on the brow of the 

 hill beneath the shelter house, and look down upon Gilbert avenue, 

 we note several things. Back of us are ledges of rock projecting 

 from the bank, below us are other ledges of the same character. 

 If we turn our eyes to the westward, across the deep valley of 

 Deer Creek, on a level with where we stand we see another bank, 

 out of which also project rocky ledges of the same character as 

 those near us. Turning our gaze gradually to the north and 

 thence to the east, we perceive one, two, three, four, similar per- 

 pendicular banks, out of which project the same kind of ledges. 

 All these are evidently on a level, and it takes but a short time to 

 conclude that all the ledges were once united, and formed a con- 

 tinous floor from where we stand across Deer Creek valley to Mt. 

 Auburn, and up to the northward. In imagination we see the 

 valley filled with limestone rock piled ledge upon ledge and form- 

 ing a level plateau stretching away as far as the eye can see. 



