148 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



ducing or advocating a theory but attempting to insure the non- 

 acceptance of any theory, howsoever plausible, that is not 

 supported by conclusive proofs. Others have undertaken to 

 show how much proof Ohio has furnished in support of a par- 

 ticular hypothesis ; they cannot now object to my attempting to 

 show how insignificant this proof really is. 



At the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science in Washington, in 1891, much attention was paid 

 to glacial geology, and one paper by Mr. Frank Leverett, of the 

 Geological Survey, treated of the gravels of Loveland, Ohio, 

 and of the finds of implements in them by Dr. C. L. Metz. 

 Mr. Leverett was then about to return to Ohio and I resolved to 

 accompany him to the Little Miami Valley with a view of mak- 

 ing a brief preliminary study of the gravels and their contents. 

 A week later Dr. Metz joined us at Loveland, and we proceeded 

 at once to the great gravel pits just west of the village. Gravel 

 was then being taken by the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Com- 

 pany from the south side of the road, two hundred yards beyond 

 the bridge, but the old pit is a little farther on and on the north 

 side of the road, the excavation running into the high terrace 

 from the track at an oblique angle. The excavation is upward 

 of two hundred yards long, and is from two hundred to three 

 hundred feet wide, and has an average depth of perhaps twenty- 

 five feet. The west wall had not been worked recently, and was 

 reduced by erosion to a steep slope covered with vegetation. 

 The curved wall of the east side was thirty or more feet high 

 and very steep, affording an excellent exposure of the gravels ; 

 these consisted of very coarse material laid down in heavy 

 irregular beds. At least one -fourth of the mass consisted 

 of sub -angular or but imperfectly rounded slabs and flattish 

 masses of limestone, which lay flat or with a slight inclination 

 toward the river. The larger slabs, which were often as much 

 as two feet or more across, projected like steps or shelves 

 from the wall. The remainder of the deposit consisted of 

 smaller rounded masses and bits of limestone ; of masses, 

 bowlders and pebbles of granitic rock constituting perhaps one- 



