LITTLE MIAMI DRAINAGE SYSTEM. 181 



This deep portion apparently unites at least three old valleys which formerly 

 discharged westward into the Great Miami Basin, as indicated below. In 

 the headwater portion the streams are in places entirely independent of the 

 old drainage lines, and there is e\'idently but little harmony between the 

 present drainage system and the old one. 



A hint concerning the old discharge of a part of the Little Miami Basin 

 into the Grreat Miami is given by Orton in his map of Warren County, Ohio, 

 though his description leaves the direction of discharge uncertain.' A drift- 

 filled lowland departs from the Little Miami at Deerfield (South Lebanon) 

 and passes northwestward to the Grreat Miami just below Middletown. It 

 appears to have been a line of discharge for the middle part of the Little 

 Miami into the Great Miami drainage basin. The only element of uncer- 

 tainty is the report that wells in the lowland near the present divide have 

 in some instances entered rock at higher levels than those in parts of the 

 lowland nearer Little Miami and Great Miami rivers. These, however, do 

 not rule out the presence of a channel at a little distance from the wells.^ 



In the Little Miami near P^ort Ancient, a few miles above Deerfield, 

 there is a notable constriction, which was apparently the site of an old 

 divide. Another divide was probably situated below Deerfield, near the 

 south line of Warren County. Between these divides there appears to have 

 been a drainage system which embraced most of the area now drained by 

 Todds Fork, as well as a small section of the Little Miami which led north- 

 westward through the lowland above mentioned to the Great Miami. 



The headwater portion of the Little Miami, down at least to the vicinity 

 of Xenia, appears to have connected with the Great Miami through the 

 lower course of Mad River. There is an open channel between the two 

 rivers tliat is now drained to the Little Miami by Beaver Creek. This evi- 

 dently was used as a southward discharge for glacial waters, but it seems 

 probable that earlier it ma}^ have constituted a line of northward discharge 

 from the headwater portion of the Little Miami into Mad River. Possibly 

 the course was not coincident with the open channel, for on the border of 

 the channel there is a morainic belt tha.t greatly disguises the old features. 



The East Fork is in an old valley in its lower course, but the headwater 

 portions are largely independent of the old drainage lines. It seems prob- 

 able that a part of the region now drained southward to the Ohio by Brush 



'Geology of Ohio, Vol. Ill, 1878, p. 382. 



^Compare Bownocker: Ohio Acad. Sci., Special Paper No. 3, 1900, pp. 32-45. 



