24 Mahoning Valley. — Tertiary Deposits. 



and in this country, where the accumulation of property so generally 

 absorbs the public mind, few such men are to be found. 



May lOtk, being the Sabbath, was passed as a day of contempla- 

 tion and rest. 



Mahoning Valley, May 11. — Dr. K. and myself visited an inter- 

 esting locality of fossil vegetable remains, called " Mariner's mills," 

 lying on a small creek discharging into the Mahoning, on the north 

 side of the stream. In going out, we crossed the valley of the Ma- 

 honing, up which the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal will pass, in its 

 progress westward to join the Ohio Canal, and unite the waters of 

 Lake Erie with those of the Delaware. The Mahoning valley or 

 alluvion is about a mile broad, and depressed nearly one hundred 

 feet below the surface of the adjacent country. The soil is very 

 fertile, and finely cultivated. The whole region is gently undula- 

 ting, and beautifully formed for agricultural purposes, so that in a 

 few years it will be improved like a garden. The present staple 

 productions of Trumbull County, and generally of the " Western 

 Reserve," are those of the dairy, fat beeves and wheat. The soil 

 and climate are both congenial to grazing, and cattle, as large and 

 fine as those from the prairies of the west, are raised here with little 

 trouble. The dairy farms usually support from forty to one hun- 

 dred cows, and with judicious management are profitable. Traders 

 in produce generally contract with the farmers for their cheese be- 

 fore it is made, stipulating a certain price, to be paid on delivery, 

 generally from six to seven cents per pound, at the door of the dairy, 

 or at some adjacent store. Butter, in quantity, and of the best qual- 

 ity, is sold for eight or nine cents. There is scarcely a waste acre 

 of land on " the Reserve ;" nearly all may be cultivated, although 

 some of the low tracts will require draining. 



Tertiary Deposits. — The surface of the country, from the Penn- 

 sylvania line, north of lat. 41°, appears to be generally an imperfect 

 tertiary formation, resting on the secondary, and is composed of argil- 

 laceous earth and decayed vegetable matter. Granite and other primi- 

 tive bowlders are scattered all over the earth, with pebbles and gravel 

 intermixed to a considerable depth, varying from twenty to thirty or 

 more feet. It is, strictly speaking, neither tertiary or diluvial, but 

 partakes of the characters of both these formations. In the vicinity 

 of Poland, this deposit rests on a bed of blue clay, plastic and tena- 

 cious, like that slowly deposited from water when in a state of rest, 

 varying in thickness from six to fifteen feet. The blue clay reposes 



