HOCKING DRAINAGE BASIN. 169 



HOCKING RIVER. 

 THE PRESENT DRAINAGE. 



The Hocking drainage basin lies southeast of the southern part of the 

 basin drained hj the Muskingum. It has its headwaters on the east side of 

 the Scioto Basin, near Lancaster, and connects with the Ohio at Hocking- 

 port. The length of the main stream is scarcely 100 miles, and the area 

 tributary to it is only 1,200 square miles. 



The fall of the main stream is about 250 feet between Lancaster and 

 the mouth, a distance of perhaps 90 miles. Of this fall about 1()0 feet is 

 made in the first 25 miles. The headwater portion of the basin carries a 

 drift filling of 200 to 300 feet, but the middle and lower portions have 

 but a moderate filling. They lie outside the glacial boundary, and have 

 received a train of gravel and sand which was carried down toward the 

 Ohio, and which graded up the valley to a level 75 to 100 feet above the 

 present stream. The stream has carried away much of this gravel and 

 sand, leaving only narrow strips of it as terraces on the borders of the 

 valley and a small filling beneath the stream bed. 



CHANGES IN THE HEADWATER PORTION. 



There is no doubt that the headwater portion of Hocking- River, as far 

 down as the glacial boundary, and also nearly all the tributary drainage 

 within the glacial boundary, formerly discharged northwestward into the 

 westward outlet of the old Muskingum. This is indicated both by the slope 

 of the rock floor and by abandoned valleys which connect the headwaters 

 of the Hocking and its tributaries with the portion of tlie Scioto Basin 

 .traversed by the old Muskingum. The rock floor is shown b}^ numerous 

 gas borings at Sugar Grove to be about 650 feet above tide, while at Lan- 

 caster, 7 miles up the present valley, it is only about 600 feet, and at Had- 

 ley Junction, near which it connected with the old Muskingum, 550 feet. 

 The valley from Sugar Grove to Lancaster is nearly a mile in average 

 width, and becomes still wider as it opens into the Scioto Basin northwest of 

 Lancaster. Yet the bordering uplands near Sugar Grove are higher than in 

 any part of the Hocking drainage basin below that village, the highest points 

 being above 1,200 feet, or nearly 600 feet above the rock floor of the valley. 



Within 8 or 10 miles below Sugar Grove the uplands fall to about 

 1,050 feet. Within 3 miles the valley narrows to scarcely one-third its width 



