602 



OHIO. 



Heaton, 204,287; Edmondson, 2,780; member 

 of the Board of Public Works Herzing, 220,- 

 804 ; Spencer, 205,081 ; Collins, 2,965. 



Prohibition candidates were run in the 

 fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth, fourteenth, 

 fifteenth, and eighteenth districts. The result 

 of the election was the return of 14 Republi- 

 cans and 5 Democrats, leaving the Ohio delega- 

 tion in the House of Representatives numeri- 

 cally the same as before. 



The geological survey of the State, ordered 

 by the General Assembly in 1869, was com- 

 menced in the summer of that year under the 

 superintendence of the Chief Geologist, Prof. 

 J. S. Newberry. The State was divided into 

 four districts, all convening at Columbus. The 

 immediate supervision of the work in the 

 northeastern section was assumed by Prof. 

 Newberry; that of the southeastern quarter 

 by Prof. Andrews; of the southwestern by 

 Prof. Orton; and of the northwestern by 

 Messrs. Hertzer and Gilbert. The first sum- 

 mer's work was devoted to a general survey, 

 and the construction of a geological map of 

 the State. The result of the survey showed 

 that the rocks of Ohio lie in sheets, resting 

 one upon another, but not horizontal; as a 

 great arch traverses the State from Cincin- 

 nati to the lake-shore between Sandusky and 

 Toledo. Along this line (which extends south- 

 ward to Nashville, Tenn.) all the rocks are 

 raised iu a ridge or fold which was once a low 

 mountain-chain. In the lapse of ages it has, 

 however, been extensively worn away, and 

 now, along a large part of its course, the strata 

 which once arched over it are removed from 

 its summit and are found resting in regular 

 order on either side, dipping away from its 

 axis. Where the ridge was highest, the erosion 

 has been greatest, and that is why the old Si- 

 lurian rocks are exposed in the region about 

 Cincinnati. 



Following the line of this great arch from 

 Cincinnati northward, the Helderberg lime- 

 stones, midway of the State, are still unbroken 

 and stretch across from side to side, while the 

 Oriskany, the Corniferous, the Hamilton and 

 the Huron formations, though generally re- 

 moved from the crown of the arch, still remain 

 over a limited area near Bellefontaine, where 

 they form an island which proves conclusively 

 the former continuity of the strata which com- 

 pose it. 



On the east side of the great anticlinal axis, 

 .the rocks dip down into a basin which occupies 

 the interval between the Nashville and Cin- 

 cinnati ridge apd the first fold of the Alleghany 

 Mountains for a distance of several hundred 

 miles. In this basin all the strata form trough- 

 like layers, their edges outcropping eastward 

 on the flanks of the Alleghanies, and westward 

 along the anticlinal axis. As they dip from 

 the margins toward the centre on all sides, 

 along the middle of the trough the older rocks 

 are deeply buried and the surface is here 

 occupied by the highest and most recent of the 



rock formations, viz., the coal-measures. In 

 the northwest corner of the State, the strata 

 dip northwest from the anticlinal and pass 

 under the Michigan coal-basin precisely as the 

 same formations east of the anticlinal dip be- 

 neath the coal-fields. 



The oldest rocks which come to the surface 

 in the State are the " blue limestones" of Cin- 

 cinnati, named by the survey the " Cincinnati 

 Group." These are the equivalents of the Hud- 

 son River and Utica shales of New York, with 

 some representation, at the base, of the Tren- 

 ton limestone. Below the limestone group lie 

 the calciferous sandrock and Potsdam sand- 

 stone, as has been discovered by deep borings, 

 but they nowhere reach the surface. The Cin- 

 cinnati Group has a thickness of from 800 to 

 1,000 feet. The next above is the Clinton 

 Group of the New York geologists. Here it is 

 mostly limestone, from 20 to 50 feet in thick- 

 ness. In Highland and Adams Counties, Prof. 

 Orton has discovered that the lower portion 

 of the Clinton is a conglomerate formed of 

 rolled pebbles and fossils of the underlying 

 blue limestone. This shows that, before the 

 deposition of the Clinton Group, the Cincinnati 

 Group has consolidated to rock and that por- 

 tions of it had been raised above the sea-level 

 and formed shore-cliffs, the rolled fragments 

 of which helped to make up the next succeed- 

 ing deposit. From this fact we learn that the 

 Cincinnati and Nashville ridge was first ele- 

 vated between the Upper and Lower Silurian 

 ages, though it continued to be a line along 

 which disturbing forces acted to a much later 

 period. In the Eastern and Northern States, 

 the Clinton Group contains a remarkable de- 

 posit of iron called the "fossil ore," which 

 forms an almost continuous line of outcrop 

 from Dodge County, Wis., through Canada, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, etc., to Georgia. In 

 Adams County a thin sheet of this peculiar ore 

 is found, and this, with various characteristic 

 fossils, has served to identify this formation. 

 On the Clinton rest the Niagara limestones, 

 which in some places attain a thickness of 

 nearly 200 feet. The surface area which they 

 occupy forms a broad margin around the Clin- 

 ton outcrop. It is also exposed for nearly 100 

 miles along the crown of the arch at its north- 

 ern extremity. The Niagara limestone takes 

 its name from the cascade of Niagara, which 

 pours over a sheet of this rock. It is general- 

 ly a magnesian limestone, furnishing excellent 

 lime, and also beautiful building-stone. The 

 Water-lime Group, which lies next above, is gen- 

 erally composed of impure limestones, attain- 

 ing a thickness of 150 feet. In many localities 

 some layers of these limestones have hydraulic 

 qualities, and can be manufactured into cement. 

 On the lake-shore the water-lime is underlaid 

 by 30 to 50 feet of the Salina or Salt Group, 

 and it is this that contains the gypsum of 

 Saadusky. The Water-lime composes all the 

 islands in Lake Erie belonging to the United 

 States, except Kelly's Island, which is Cor- 



