higher than the top of the gorge of the Licking to the 

 South. A deep well below the dam sunk to a depth of 

 two-hundred and eighteen feet did not strike rock. 

 The rock at Newark is about three hundred feet below 

 the surface in the open valley. 



If it is assumed that this old buried channel was at 

 one time the outlet of the drainage of the County then 

 the filling in of this dam must have backed the waters 

 up over the county until they found an outlet at the 

 low^est place in the water shed, which seems to have 

 been at the present location of Licking gorge. This 

 lake, which is termed Lake Licking, had a depth of 

 about one hundred and twenty- five feet at Newark. This 

 would bring the waters within about 25 feet of the 

 top of the water shed to the south, which separates 

 the basin, which now drains into the Scioto at Big 

 Walnut and Walnut creek. 



This water shed, upon which the Licking reservoir 

 is located, is of glacial origin, and has been penetrated 

 by the gas-borer's drill to a depth of over three 

 hundred feet before rock was struck. 



A buried channel of such a depth would seem to 

 indicate that the oldest drainage, that is immediately 

 preglacial, set to the south and hence conformed to 

 the underlying rock structure making the outcrop of 

 the Logan conglomerate and the carboniferous sand- 

 stone the north and south trending divide between the 

 great Scioto system and the Muskingum. 



If these conclusions are true, then Licking County 

 once formed a part of the Scioto basin, was hemmed in 

 by a great dam at its southern boundary, which forced 

 its waters over the eastern divide, where they excavated 

 the old buried channel, \vhich is now represented by a 

 broad and open valley, leading to Dresden; this was 

 subsequently blocked and the waters raised until they 

 found another low gap at the present location of the 

 Licking river, where they cut their new channel and 

 appropriated that of a smaller stream leading to the 



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