MIDDLE OHIO DRAINAGE SYSTEM. 103 



qualified and four jjossible courses were suggested for the discharge from 

 the southern end of the Scioto Basin: First, southward, down the Scioto 

 from Waverly to the Ohio and thence down the Ohio; second, northward, 

 along the axis of the Scioto Basin to Lake Erie; third, northwestward across 

 western Ohio, along one of the several deep valleys brought to light in that 

 region by the oil and gas wells, eventually to either the low tract on the 

 lower course of the Wabash or the basin of Lake Michigan; fourth, north- 

 eastward past the Licking reservoir and an old valley east of Newark to 

 the Muskingum at Dresden, and thence northward along or near the pres- 

 ent valleys of the Muskingum, Tuscarawas, and Cuyahoga to the basin of 

 Lake Erie at Cleveland. 



It was since that paper was prepared that the writer discovered the 

 oxbow channel back of Lucasville, above noted, which seems to testify 

 strongly against the southward discharge down the Scioto and renders that 

 line an improbable one. The writer also has since found decisive evidence 

 against the suggested northeastward line, in the presence of an old divide 

 now crossed by the Tuscarawas between Zoar and Canal Dover, Ohio, 

 discussed farther on. 



Concerning the relative probabilities of the remaining two lines but 

 little has been determined. If the present surface is examined both the 

 northward and northwestward coiTrses seem beset with difficulties. The 

 northward route along the axis of the Scioto Basin encounters a general 

 rise in the bordering plain of about 200 feet in the 100 miles between the 

 south end of the basin, near Chillicothe, and the continental divide near 

 Marion, north of which there is an even greater descent to the Lake Ei'ie 

 Basin. If the course of drainage was northward across the divide, and if 

 the divide has not suffered recent uplift, there must have been channeling 

 in it to a depth of about 300 feet. That an axis of uplift exists in this part 

 of the continental divide is shown by the arching of the rock formations 

 over it; but its extent and its date are not yet determined.' 



The northwestward route leads across the limestone belt on the west 

 side of the Scioto Basin, whose general level is about 200 feet above the 

 continental divide . at the north end of the basin and 500 feet above 

 the gradation plain near Chillicothe. To pass through that region the 



^See Geology of Ohio, Vol. VI, 1888, pp. 57-58, 312, 316. See also the sections of rock forma- 

 tions from Cleveland to Marietta, and from Berlin Heights to Ironton, opposite p. 321 of same 

 volume. 



