Ten Days in Ohio. 237 
Rush creek. This creek is the eastern and main branch of the Big 
Hockhocking river, about twenty yards in breadth, and has worn it- 
self an immense chasm in the loose loomy earth, one hundred and 
fifty or two hundred feet below the average height of the adjacent 
uplands. In its bed is a stratum of limestone, a fact common to ma- 
ny of the streams in the hilly region of Ohio; and sandstone is found 
near the top of the slope. West of this creek the soil is more argillace- 
ous, and the country, gradually declining, becomes more level, as 
we leave the hilly portion and approach the great valley of prairies. 
What is properly called the sandstone formation, terminates wester- 
ly, near Lancaster, in Fairfield County, in immense detached mural 
precipices, like the remains of ancient islands; one of these called 
mount Pleasant, seated on the borders of a large plain, is nearly four 
hundred feet high on the S. W. side; affording from its top a fine 
view of the adjacent country. The base is a mile and a half in cir- 
cumference, while the apex is only about thirty by one hundred 
yards, resembling, at a distance, a huge pyramid. ‘These lofty tow- 
ers of sandstone are like so many monuments, to point out the boun- 
daries of that ancient western Mediterranean, which once covered 
the present rich prairies of Ohio.. 
LANCASTER. 
We reached Lancaster at 6. P. M. thirty six miles S. Westerly 
from Zanesville and thirty four miles N. E. from Chilicothe. 
May 25.—The weather this morning is cold, with a smart white 
frost—day cloudy. Lancaster is a flourishing post town ; and is the 
seat of Justice for Fairfield County. It is near the center of the 
county, in a rich valley, extending several miles on the Hockhock- 
ing; surrounded by a widely extended country of excellent lands, 
It was laid out, or surveyed into lots, in the year 1800, with conven- 
ient streets and alleys crossing at right angles. ‘The agricultural pop- 
ulation are chiefly of German origin, from Lancaster County Pa. and 
are an industrious, peaceable, frugal race, following the good old 
ways of the early Dutch settlers in America. The public buildings 
are a brick court house, market house, town house, banking house 
and four or five churches. The private dwellings are chiefly of 
brick, neat and commodious. ‘The public houses for the entertain- 
ment of travellers, are surpassed by few in America, either in size, 
kind treatment, or good fare. The same may also be said of Zanes- 
ville and Chilicothe. Here are two printing offices, which publish 
