Dnjt. 75 



\ct King, is returning. One by one the outposts of the arctic 

 tyrant are falling. The ancient channel of the Ohio is unlocked, 

 but when the enemy retires, it is found ineffectually barricaded at 

 North Bend by a monument of mud, whice holds the Great Miami 

 away on a devious course for ten miles, and, after untold centuries 

 have worn it away with their storms and floods, is still more than 

 five miles long by two hundred feet high. Even in death, the Ice 

 King is terrible. What can not be frozen may be drowned. As 

 his icy fingers released their grasp, and the "rivers flow unvexed 

 to the sea," their channels are filled with "modified drift,'' and 

 high-water-mark is from hill to hill. The proud Miami is forever 

 turned — its ancient channel only serving as a vent for the "spring 

 freshets," which are soon lowered, so that the sole tenants of the 

 magnificent valley are, for surface drainage, our insignificant Mill 

 Creek, and, under it, upon the original rock bottom, passing 

 through the "modified drift," the trickling underground current of 

 the ancient stream. lliere is clear, cold water, free from surface 

 contamination, when found beneath the ancient flood-plain; but it 

 may not suit our fastidious tastes, as it will bring magnesia from the 

 Dayton stone and lime from many hills. 



But where can we find the pure water of the ancient Ohio, fil- 

 tered through the sandy pebbles that lined its shores, before the 

 reign of the Ice King? Evidently, wherever such gravel bars 

 are found beneath the original flood plain. We know this stream 

 flows beneath the village of Dayton, Kentucky, because, in r.ither 

 an unsatisfactory manner, it has been found there. Can it be found 

 in the great cove above the city? Every ]:)robability says it is 

 there. Not, hoA'ever, adj icent to the foot-liills, nor in the Miami 

 terraces, nor even in the ancient channel, which was hard against 

 the Ohio cliffs, and is now filled with muddy silt; but far out in the 

 bottoms, wliere the southern shore of the ancient water-course 

 piled ihe sandy pebbles from the Kanawha, as it collided with the 

 current of the Little Miami and swung ])ast the beetling cliffs of 

 the Ohio shore, now crowned with the residences that beautify 

 East Walnut Hills. 



