THE PREGLACIAL DRAINAGE OF OHIO. 19 



can scarcely be said to have a valley in the general usage of 

 the term, for it is hardly more than a passage way through a 

 rough and hilly country. The bottoms along the sides of the 

 stream are very narrow or entirely wanting and the high water 

 stages of the river wash the talus slopes on both sides of the 

 river. Figures i and 2 of plate II show some of the features 

 of this part of the valley. 



Passing down the river towards Marietta, the valley be- 

 comes gradually wider and the bordering hills less high and 

 abrupt. This is more noticeable where the larger streams enter 

 the Ohio. There is a sharp bend in the valley at the mouth of 

 Bull Creek where the river turns north towards Marietta and 

 again at the mouth of the Muskingum at Marietta where the val- 

 ley turns again towards the southwest. A little below Marietta 

 there is a very considerable narrowing of the valley. This is so 

 apparent that it is quit,e suggestive that possibly this might be 

 the location of an old col in the ridge that separates the Middle 

 Island creek and Little Kanawha basins and which appears so 

 strongly developed on the north side of the Ohio between the 

 head waters of east fork of little Hocking and the Muskingum. 



A little below Marietta the valley turns to the south as far 

 as the mouth of the Little Kanawha at Parkersburg. Through- 

 out this portion the valley is quite broad but still the valley 

 walls are quite steep and precipitous. In making the 

 great bend at Parkersburg the river has cut back the hills 

 on the West Virginia side so that the valley has ex- 

 tensive bottoms on the Ohio side. The valley width remains 

 about constant from Parkersburg to the mouth of the Little 

 Hocking but it narrows very rapidly from that point to the col 

 marked on the map above the mouth of the Big Hocking. At 

 this col the valley is only about three quarters of a mile wide 

 and vertical cliffs form the valley walls. Below this col the valley 

 broadens again gradually towards the southwest. 



CHARACTERS OF THE MUSKINGUM VALLEY. 



The Muskingum River crosses the north Morgan county 

 line in a very narrow gorge-like valley. The bordering hills 

 present very steep, often vertical faces to the river and rise from 

 250 to 350 feet above it. 



