OUT WASH FROM THE MIAMI LOBE. 337 



not clearly outwasli deposits, being disposed in arching and oblique beds. 

 One gravel pit exhibits beds which dip sharply eastward toward the bluffs. 



Gravel terraces apparently of glacial ag-e are well defined along the 

 Little Miami, below the point where the moraine crosses, but they are 

 surprisingly low down, the general altitude of the upper terrace being but 

 50 feet above the river. In the vicinity of Kings Mills the moraine comes 

 down to the borders of this terrace at the low altitude just named, thus 

 indicating that no higher glacial terrace exists which can be correlated with 

 this moraine. Upon approaching the Ohio the river descends more rapidly 

 than the terrace; as a consequence the same terrace that stands 50 feet at 

 Kings Mills stands about 1 00 feet above the river at its mouth. The altitude 

 of the terrace at the point where the river leaves the moraine (near the 

 mouth of Caesars Creek) is about 730 feet above tide, while at the mouth 

 of the stream it is but 530 feet, a fall of 200 feet in 40 miles The ^oresent 

 bed of the river falls 250 feet in this distance. The material embraced in 

 the terraces varies greatly within short distances, showing a range from tine 

 pebbles, well rounded, up to coarse subangular blocks, but the variations 

 may, in many instances, be readily accounted for. For example, at Love- 

 land the terrace is loaded with local limestone slabs which are thought to 

 have been brought in, in part at least, by the freshets on a tributary which 

 enters the river there from the east. Instances were noted where blocks 

 of local limestone were derived from projecting points a short distance 

 upstream, and it is possible that the blocks at Loveland were in part 

 derived from such sources. 



In many instances the coarseness of the material varies in accordance 

 with the curve of the stream, being much coarser on the outer than on the 

 inner curve. Where unaffected by these local influences the material in 

 the terrace consists of well-rounded gravel with but a slight intermixture of 

 sand or earthy matei'ial. The pebbles, like those in the moraine, consist 

 largely of local rocks, the Canadian rocks forming less than 5 per cent of 

 the material. The gravels present a remarkably fresh appearance, the 

 surface of limestone pebbles slightly embedded, as well as those at some 

 depth, being scarcely at all oxidized, while pebbles of crystalline rocks 

 seldom show signs of disintegration. In these respects the pebbles are 

 decidedly in contrast with those of gravels in the earlier drift whose lime- 

 stones, when slightly embedded, are deeply oxidized and whose crj^-stalline 



MON XLI 22 



