An Ancient Channel of the Ohio River at Cincinnati. 99 



Again in a well at Ivorydale, a {q\n miles to the northward, rec- 

 ords show ninety-eight feet of drift, gravel, sand and clay above 

 bed-rock, or thirty-four feet below low water-mark. Lastly, at 

 Hamilton, twenty-five miles north of Cincinnati, two wells have 

 penetrated the drift two hundred and two hundred and fourteen 

 feet, respectively, before reaching bed-rock. In other words, the 

 rock here is in one case seventy- seven and in the other case ninety- 

 one feet below low water in the Ohio, so that there is a descent in 

 the rocky bottom of Mill Creek from Cincinnati northward to 

 Hnmilion. This is the case below the ground, although, at the 

 surface, Hamilton is one hundred and twenty-three feet higher 

 above the sea-level than Cincinnati — the heights being four hun- 

 dred and forty and five hundred and sixty-three feet, respectively. 



The consequences of this difference in level of the rock-bed are 

 easily seen. The Ohio River, instead of passing Mill Creek in its 

 jireseiU channel, was barred by the land barrier extending from 

 Price tiill to Ludlow, and swe|:)t around the southwestern part of 

 the Cincinnati Terrace, took a northward course to about where 

 Hamilton now stands, along the channel now occupied by Mill 

 Creek, and received the waters of the Big Miami at that point. 

 Thence it flowed southwest along the present valley of the Miami, 

 and regained its present channel, and its ancient one too, at 

 Lawrenceburg, Ind. 



But this is not the whole story of the ancient course of the Ohio 

 near Cincinnati. The eastern end of the city lies alon ; the base of 

 an abrupt hill, which continues almost up to Columbia, while the 

 hills of Kentucky are not far from the river bank on the other side. 

 Above Columbia is the moutli of the Little Miami River, in a 

 wide bottom, three or four miles across, and extending northeast. 

 As far up as Plainville, nine miles from Cincinnati, the rise of the 

 ground is very gradual, there being a difference in level of only 

 fifty-two feet. Between a hill west of Redbank Station and another 

 one east of Plainville, a distance of two and a half miles, no rock 

 is exposed at the surface; all is drift material. Tliis fact points to 

 the existence here of an ancient arm of the Ohio River, now 

 entirely choked up. At Redbank is an immense deposit of gravel 

 at least fifty feet above the bed of the river and of unknown depth. 

 At Batavia Junction the deposit is probably one hundred feet 

 above the river. Part of this deposit is clay and sand, so fine as 

 to form excellent molding sand. Part again is a conglomerate of 

 coarse gravel. These deposits mark the ancient junction of the 

 Little Miami and Ohio Rivers. 



