2 Facis relating to certain parts of the state of Ohiv. 
the nature and composition of rocks, and their position, 
whether in strata or otherwise, inclined or horizontal; the 
strata observed in digging wells, whether for salt or common 
water; petrifactions and shells?” 
The soil in Washington county, except the river and 
creek bottoms, is composed principally of clay, intermixed 
with loam. It is in most places, except upon the south sides 
of hills that have been frequently burnt over by the spring 
and autumnal fires, covered with a coat of black, loose, ve- 
getable mould, of from two to six inches in thickness—where 
fires in the woods have been least frequent, there this vege- 
table mould most abounds. The soil is no where very stony: 
the hill-tops are in some places covered with secondary 
limestone, in a stratum one or two feet in thickness, full of 
crevices, cracks, and broken pieces, as if the composition 
had been exposed to the sun, while it was yet moist and soft, 
and it had cracked, and shrunk in drying. The soil in some 
parts of the county is sandy; but those tracts are usually in 
the neighbourhood of large streams of water, and appear to 
me to be alluvial. The river and creek bottoms are entirely 
alluvial; being composed of earth brought from the higher 
grounds, by rains, and periodical freshets, in the long 
lapse of ages that have succeeded the receding of the ocean 
from this part of our globe. The surface is composed of de- 
cayed vegetables; and as you proceed in depth the compo- 
sition ‘is more clayey, but still mixed with vegetable mould, 
until you reach the gravel and loose stones, on a level with 
the present bed of the stream, on which the bottom land is 
situated. 
The face of the country is generally broken; being much 
diversified with hills, ridges, and Jong slopes of uneven land; 
but will generally admit of cultivation, either for corn, wheat, 
meadow, Or pasture; and if for neither of these, it will do for 
wood-land and timber, of which in a few years there will be 
a great scarcity in many parts of our country, unless our far- 
mers pursue a more systematic course in clearing up their 
inds, and cease to burn and destroy the most valuable timber 
their farms with as little remorse as they would a field of 
wheat stubble. Indeed, at this day, there are many farms in 
this county, particularly near the rivers, where they have 
often Jost their fences by high water, which have not timber 
enough on them to keep their fences in repair. Extensive 
pains are not common in this part of the state, Those of 
