f 



■Geology of the Muskingum Valley. 17 



was dug by B. Racer, Jr. in October; A. D. 1834. It Is situated 

 on a small elevation near the heads of a rivulet, or small branch, 

 about fifty feet above its present bed. The well is sixty feet in 

 depth. The first forty feet passed through a tough tenacious clay, 

 ash colored : such as is now found on the sides of some of the ad- 

 jacent hills. The next ten feet were composed of a plastic clay, of 

 a blue color, mixed with fine micaceous sand, and thickly sprinkled 

 with small fragments of wood, leaves and seeds of monocotyledon- 

 ous plants. Under this lay a bed of woody matei'Ials, composed of 

 the fragments of trunks and branches of trees, grape vines, seeds and 

 leaves. The last ten feet were chiefly fine silicious and micaceous 

 sand ; the upper part mixed with blue clay, such as is now found 

 in the bottoms of fresh water ponds, or in eddies and lagoons of our 

 (large rivers. Scattered through these ten feet, and especially the up- 

 per portion, were found numerous individuals of fluviatile shells^ ap- 

 parently of the genera Unio and Anodonta, with one perfect form of a 

 genuine oyster, and several fragments. Some of these are casts, and 

 others petrifactions of hard calcareous materials, with the cuticle still 

 adhering. Figures of the oyster, and one of Anodonta, are given on 

 page 1, of the wood cuts, numbered 22 and 23. The clay in 

 the vicinity of the shells, and amongst the fragments of the trees, 

 after being exposed to the air for a few days, shows numerous fis- 

 sures and cells, tinged with a rich blue color. The fragments of 

 wood exhibit the same color in every fissure and crack laid open by 

 the process of drying. It is evidently a phosphate of iron furnished 

 by the animal and vegetable materials. Water having been pro- 

 cured at this depth, the process of excavating was discontinued, or, 

 many more and probably other species would have been discovered. 

 The ridge of river hills between this spot and the Ohio, is at least 

 two hundred feet high and based on, or rather composed of sand- 

 stone rock. The appearance of the bed of sand, containing the 

 shells, is similar to that deposited in running water, although other 

 circumstances might indicate the bed of a lake or pond, drained 

 through the outlet of the present run^ or filled up by the sliding 

 down of the adjacent hills, although the clay and its contents of veg- 

 etable matter, would rather indicate a running stream of considera- 

 ble magnitude. The hills at the head of the run, which discharges 

 its waters into the Little Bluskingtmi, are equally high, and lie be- 

 tween the head branches and the Ohio, which here makes a large 

 bend ; and if the shells, sand, &;c. were deposited by the river, it 



Vol. XXIX.— No. 1. 3 



