lopograjthy of the Valley of the Muskingum. 13 



h 



The white cedar Is said to grow in some of these swamps, with a 

 shrub which bears a berry similar in taste to the cranberry, and is 

 called the J^ high cranberry." It is a fruit-bearing viburnum. 



In very wet seasons, the swamps between the waters of the 

 branches of the Cuyaho£^a and Tuscarawas, were formerly passed 

 by canoes, and this was the mode of communication between the 

 waters of the lake and the Ohio river, anterior to the construction 

 of the canal. The streams which rise in the table lands and tertia- 

 ry portions of the valley, are much more permanent and durable than 

 those iu the hilly and sandstone formation. All of them, in propor- 

 tion to their length and the elevation of their heads, afford scites 

 more or less favorable for mills, as the water in its passage over the 

 strata of rocks has a gradual or precipitous descent. The most cel- 

 ebrated of tbese falls, are those of the Vernon, Lickin? and Musk- 



ingum rivers. 



Several of the eastern branches of the latter river, take their rise 

 within a few miles of the Ohio, especially Wills creek, and Still 

 water creek, and both flow in a northerly direction in opposition to 

 the general course of the Muskingum, as may be seen by looking at 

 the map. A westerly branch of the former creek rises within a short 

 distance of the Muskingum, at a spot forty miles below its mouth, 

 and runs more than a hundred miles to pass the same place on its 

 way to the Ohio, demonstrating that the dividing ridges between the 

 Ohio and Muskinofum, are of considerable elevation. One ridge, a 

 few miles south of Barnsville, is" estimated at five hundred feet. 

 The region occupied by the valley of the. Muskingum, is nearly two 

 hundred miles In length, by one hundred or more in breadth at its 

 central and northern portions ; while its southern extremity below 

 ZanesviHe is but little over fifty miles, having its naiTowest portion 

 on the Ohio river. All the north east part of the valley, and the 

 hilly sandstone region south and east, between it and the latter 

 stream, belong to the carboniferous group and coal measures, and 

 nearly all the streams that flow into the Ohio, in some part of their 

 course, pass over deposits of bituminous coal, while those which flow 

 northerly into lake Erie, passing over calcareous rocks,' are without 

 the margin of the great basin through the most depending part of 

 which the Ohio takes its course, and no coal has been as yet found 

 on the northerly side of this anticlinal line. Although the Cuya- 

 hoga, which is a lake stream, and runs for many miles, parallel with 

 the table lands, in its most southerly bend, touches the sandstone de- 



