Ten Days in Ohio. 231 
The general face of the country is hilly; but the industry of its in- 
habitants has filled it with valuable and productive farms. _ Its prin- 
cipal agricultural prosperity is derived from the crops of wheat, 
which are fine and abundant; and they are made so, chiefly, by the 
system of “clovering.” This grass affords excellent pasturage for 
cattle, sheep and hogs; and when turned under the earth, greatly 
improves the soil, and after one or two changes, reappears in the 
form of dollars and eagles, to enrich and repay the labors of ‘the 
husbandman. Other sources of wealth lie deeper in the earth, and 
are found in the salt, the coal, and the iron; each of which annually 
yields many thousand dollars to the capital of the county. The 
present population amounts to thirty two thousand. 
Moxahela Creek, and its geology. 
Soon after leaving Putnam, on the great western road, we come 
into the valley of the Moxahela Creek, and travel along its borders 
for several miles. It rises in Perry County, and running in a north 
easterly direction across a part of Muskingum County, falls into the 
river three miles below Putnam. It is a handsome stream, about 
thirty yards in width. The present inhabitants, without regard to 
euphony, or the prior right of a much more harmonious name given 
it by the aborigines, call it “‘Jonathan’s Creek.” The bed is com- 
posed of shelly limestone, worn down into the solid rock, four or five 
feet, by the abrasion of its waters. ‘The surface of the rock is regu- 
larly divided every six or eight feet, by horizontal seams, several 
inches wide, running in a south westerly direction, the whole width 
of the creek, and doubtless continues under the adjacent hills. They 
have the appearance of cracks, made by the contraction of a semi- 
fluid body passing into a solid state. Immediately over the lime- 
rock is a deposit of sandstone, tinged by a pale yellow oxide of iron; 
rather loose in texture, and abounding in casts and impressions of va- 
rious fossil plants; especially of those described by Mr. Parkinson 
as Phytolithus, and extending south westerly through Perry County. 
The inhabitants and quarrymen call them “snake stones,” from the” 
impressions on the surface resembling large scales, and from their 
cylindrical form. In the same locality, it is said the leaves and the 
blossoms of the tropical palm tree, have been found, beautifully im- 
pressed in the rocky bed. Eight miles west of Putnam, we passed 
through a small village called Bridgeport, seated on the north branch 
of the Moxahela. 
