The Geology of Cincinnatt. 49 
ARTICLE Ul.—THE GEOLOGY OF CINCINNATI. 
By J. M. NICKLES. 
i, LOPOGRAPELY.. 
The name chosen for the hamlet, settled in 1788, which has 
become the city of Cincinnati, suggests the reason for its 
location — Losantiville, L [icking] + os, mouth, + anti, oppo- 
site, + ville — the village opposite the mouth of the Licking. 
The comparatively level tract of land, safely above the flood 
waters of the Ohio, rendered easy the growth from hamlet to 
city. Opposite the mouth of the Licking, it stood at the 
gateway to the northern part of the fertile blue-grass region 
of Kentucky, at a time when river navigation was the best 
available mode of transportation. An equally fertile region 
lay to the north, to which the broad valley of the Millcreek 
furnished a natural outlet when the locomotive replaced the 
canoe and flatboat. 
This level tract, roughly circular in outline, of an average 
diameter of three miles, is bounded on three sides by a belt 
of hills, so-called. On the south the Ohio River separates it 
from a similar, somewhat smaller, tract lying to the south- 
east, which is also bordered on three sides by a belt of hills. 
The two tracts together form a quadrangular area, extending 
northwest and southeast. The area is really a somewhat 
basin-shaped depression in a generally rolling country. The 
so-called hills are the escarpments of the higher land fringing 
upon the basin. The Kentucky part of the basin is inter- 
sected by the Licking River traversing it from the south, 
dividing it into two parts, now occupied by the cities of New- 
port and Covington. 
Some of the peculiarities of the topography of Cincinnati 
and vicinity early attracted attention. It was observed that 
the valley of the Little Miami River for several miles above 
its confluence with the Ohio is wider than that of the Ohio 
from this point down; for many miles below the mouth of 
the Millcreek, the valley of the Ohio is very narrow, scarcely 
more than a trough; the valley of the Licking is quite wide 
for several miles up from its mouth; the valley of the Mill- 
Jour. Cin. Soc. NAT. HIST., VOL. XX, No. 2. PRINTED JANUARY Io, 1902. 
