1 oo Cincinnati Society of N'atural History. 



Following Duck Creek, a small tributary of the Little Miami 

 heading northward, we find at Madisonville, a wide, open valley, 

 evidently the site of an ancient lake or expansion of the Criant 

 River. The Rock is exposed on the eastern side of the valley. 

 Still farther north the valley merges into that of Mill Creek, near 

 Ludlow Grove^ Thus, the Ohio surrounded the high ground upon 

 which the suburbs of Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn, Avondale and 

 Clifton are situated. Here at Ludlow (}rove is an immense 

 accumulation of water-worn gravel, jjrobably the resulting deposit 

 from the meeting of two bodies of water on the east and west of 

 the island. The extent of the gravel deposit and the depth to which 

 the channel was excavated, are evidences of the presence of large 

 bodies of water for long periods of time. 



To still further prove that here probably lay the ancient channels 

 of the Ohio, and that the present channel past Mill Creek is of 

 much more recent date, is the fact that west of the mouth of this 

 stream the water of the Ohio flows over the bedded rocks. These 

 are exposed, at low water along the bank, near Ludlow, Kentucky, 

 and on the Ohio side near Price Hill, and even at the mouth of 

 Mill Creek, in all probability extending across the river's bed. 

 While this is the case at this point, near Mill Creek, the river 

 piers of the new Chesapeake and Ohio railroad bridge, about a half 

 or three-quarters of a mile up stream, rest upon rock beneath sixty 

 feet of sand and gravel. It seems, therefore, that the present 

 channel of the Ohio below the mouth of Mill Creek is of compara- 

 tively recent date. 



At Ludlow, Kentucky, upon the slope of a hill above the Ohio 

 s an extensive deposit of reddish, sandy clay. The rock is exposed 

 at the top and at the bottom of the hill, but is hidden between by 

 this clay deposit. . Farther up the river a similar dejiosit forms a 

 hill of considerable size just back from the river bank. 



The inference to be drawn from these facts is, that previous to 

 the glacial period a barrier of land extended from Price Hill on 

 the north to the mouth of the Licking River on the south, pre- 

 venting the westward flow of the Ohio, and forcing it north and 

 northwest along the channels of Mill Creek and Duck Creek. 

 These met at Ludlow Grove and together continued north to 

 Hamilton. Here entered the Big Miami, "-''" and the united streams 

 contmued in great volume southward to the present channel of 

 the Ohio, at Lawrenceburg 



"'■■There is at this p )int also an enormous aniiunt of gravel, whicli has been 

 extensively iisea by the railroads. 



