22 THE PREGLACIAL DRAINAGE OF OHIO. 



main stream are most striking. The country around the head 

 waters is rather flat or gently rolling with very deep soils. 

 Many of the smaller tributaries rise in extensive swamp areas. 

 These swamp areas often lie on the divide which separates the 

 waters of Wolf Creek from those of the Little Hocking. The 

 slope of this divide on the north side which is drained by the 

 tributaries of Wolf Creek is much less dissected than the south 

 slope which is drained by the tributaries of the Little Hocking. 

 The Little Hocking valley is divided into two main branches 

 which are very similar to each other in characters and present 

 no special modifications from the normal. They are rather nar- 

 row with moderately steep valley sides. Every where are pres- 

 ent the marks of the recent rejuvenescence. The valley of the 

 East Fork occupies much the broader depression in the old land 

 surface. Several of its tributaries on the north side, like the head 

 waters of the South Fork of Wolf Creek, rise in the flat tracts 

 on the same divide. The tributaries on the south side of the 

 East Fork are all short, as the East Fork, like the Little Mus- 

 kingum, parallels the Ohio throughout its entire length and is 

 separated from it by a high ridge but a few miles wide. 



CHARACTERS OF THE HOCKING VALLEY BELOW ATHENS. 



At Athens there is a large loop in the Hocking River and the 

 valley is quite broad. Some distance below the city the present 

 river has crossed an old col. The valley is not as narrow as 

 might be expected but the presence of the old col is shown by the 

 vertical cliffs that face the river and the persistency of the old 

 water shed at its maximum elevation, up to the very walls of the 

 valley. 



Below this col the valley gradually widens and the walls be- 

 come less precipitous, although they remain quite steep, to the 

 bend at Guysville. Below this point the valley gradually nar- 

 rows again to the mouth of Federal Creek. Below this the nar- 

 rowing is much more abrupt and at the point marked col on the 

 map the valley is a very narrow gorge with vertical rock walls. 

 There were here several channel ways during the cutting out of 

 the old col by the present river. Some of these were cut nearly 



