Ten Days in Ohio. 231 



The general face of the country is hilly ; but the industry of its in- 

 habitants has filled it with valuable and productive farms. Its prin- 

 cipal agricultural prosperity is derived from the crops of wheat, 

 which are fine and abundant ; and they are made so, chiefly, by the 

 system of " clovering." This grass affords excellent pasturage for 

 cattle, sheep and hogs ; and when turned under the earth, greatly 

 improves the soil, and after one or two changes, reappears in the 

 form of dollars and eagles, to enrich and repay the labors of the 

 husbandman. Other sources of wealth lie deeper in the earth, and 

 are found in the salt, the coal, and the iron ; each of which annually 

 yields many thousand dollars to the capital of the county. The 

 present population amounts to thirty two thousand. 



Moxahela Creek, and its geology. 



Soon after leaving Putnam, on the great western road, we come 

 into the valley of the Moxahela Creek, and travel along its borders 

 for several miles. It rises in Perry County, and running in a north 

 easterly direction across a part of Muskingum County, falls into the 

 river three miles below Putnam. It is a handsome stream, about 

 thirty yards in width. The present inhabitants, without regard to 

 euphony, or the prior right of a much more harmonious name given 

 it by the aborigines, call it ''Jonathan's Creek.'' The bed is com- 

 posed of shelly limestone, worn down into the solid rock, four or five 

 feet, by the abrasion of its waters. The surface of the rock is regu- 

 larly divided every six or eight feet, by horizontal seams, several 

 inches wide, running in a south westerly direction, the whole width 

 of the creek, and doubtless continues under the adjacent hills. They 

 have the appearance of cracks, made by the contraction of a semi- 

 fluid body passing into a solid state. Immediately over the lime- 

 rock is a deposit of sandstone, tinged by a pale yellow oxide of iron j 

 rather loose in texture, and abounding in casts and impressions of va- 

 rious fossil plants ; especially of those described by Mr. Parkinson 

 as Phytolithus, and extending south westerly through Perry County. 

 The inhabitants and quarrymen call them "snake stones," from the 

 impressions on the surface resembling large scales, and from their 

 cylindrical form. In the same locality, it is said the leaves and the 

 blossoms of the tropical palm tree, have been found, beautifully im- 

 pressed in the rocky bed. Eight miles west of Putnam, we passed 

 through a small village called Bridgeport, seated on the north branch 

 of the Moxahela. 



