240 1ftature'0 .fllMraclee, 



ent. This has been determined by borings at 

 different points to ascertain the depth of the 

 drift that was lodged during the glacial period 

 in the trough of the Ohio River. Anyone 

 traveling up or down the river to-day can 

 readily see that it is a great sinuous groove 

 cut down through the earth by millions of 

 years of water erosion, and not only this, but 

 that at some time in its history this great 

 valley has been partly filled, forming on one 

 or both sides of the river level areas called 

 bottom land. These lands are exceedingly 

 productive, owing to the great depth and rich- 

 ness of the soil. 



For many years the writer lived upon one of 

 the rivers tributary to the Ohio and often 

 made trips by steamboat up and down the 

 Ohio River. Traveling along this river a 

 close observer will be struck by the exactness 

 of the stratifications in the rock and in the 

 coal beds to be seen on each side of the river. 

 They match as perfectly as the grain of a 

 block of wood when sawn asunder showing 

 that these coal beds were formed at an age 

 long before the water cut this sinuous groove. 

 What the water was doing while these coal 

 beds were forming will be brought out in some 

 future chapter. All the rivers that are tribu- 

 tary to the Ohio, such as the Monongahela, the 

 Alleghany, the Muskingum, the Tennessee, the 

 Cumberland, the Kentucky, the Wabash, the 



