MIDDLE OHIO DRAINAGE SYSTEM. 



101 



Since the principal stream of the system east of the supposed divide is 

 the Big Kanawha River, it seems pertinent to give the name Kanawha to 

 the old system of drainage. It might also be appropriately termed the 

 Middle Ohio system. 



THE NORTHWARD OUTLET. 



HILLY UPLAND 



An abandoned channel leaves the Ohio at Wheelersburg, about 8 miles 

 above the mouth of the Scioto, and, as shown in tig. 3, passes northward 

 in a somewhat winding course, 

 coming to. the Scioto Valley 

 at Waverly. That it was the 

 course of a northward-flowing 

 stream is attested by the pres- 

 ence of quartzite cobble and 

 gravel, such as occur along the 

 Ohio above this point. This 

 material was dei'ived from the 

 headwaters of the Kanawha 

 drainage basin. 



The rock floor of this old 

 drainage line is far above the 

 level of the present stream, 

 being about 625 feet above 

 tide where it leaves the Ohio, 

 while the altitude of the pres- 

 ent stream at that point is 

 about 475 feet; at Waverly its 

 altitude is fully 600 feet, while 

 the Scioto at that point is about 

 75 feet lower. Its altitude 

 corresponds with that of the 



cx^af piTi of pradation IllainS in ^'"^ S— Tlie old Kanawha drainage system in southern Ohio. 



that region, and its course must be determined by an examination of the 

 gradation plains on the Scioto. 



From Waverly the old Kanawha must have taken one of two courses, 

 either northward into the Scioto Basin along the line of the present Scioto 

 (reversed), or southward down the present Scioto Valley to the Ohio at 



