Newark. — Rock Strata. 71 



which is done by means of a natural channel, cut by a small stream, 

 the canal passes over the wide and fertile alluvions of the Licking 

 valley. The crab apple is now in full bloom, and at short intervals 

 perfumes the air with its delicious fragrance. Fields are planting 

 with Indian corn, and in some warm and sheltered spots, it is already 

 two inches high. We reached the town of Newark, at 8 P. M. 



Newark, May \9th. — Newark is the seat of justice for Licking 

 County. It is a place of considerable commercial importance. The 

 canal passes along one of its principal streets, and by moonlight re- 

 minds one of some of the towns in Holland. The present number 

 of inhabitants is said to be about eighteen hundred, and is rapidly 

 increasing. In the centre of the town is a large public square, in 

 the midst of which stands the court house. This square, when en- 

 closed with a raiHng, and ornamented with our native forest trees, 

 will make a fine promenade, and add more than any thing else, to 

 the credit and the beauty of the place. A town without trees is 

 altogether too artificial, either for health, comfort, or good taste. 

 The new Episcopal church, now nearly finished, with its buttresses, 

 battlements, and high gothic windows, is quite creditable to the pro- 

 jectors, and an ornament to the town. 



Rock Strata. — I made an excursion to-day with a friend, for the 

 purpose of examining more closely than my hasty view of yester- 

 day would allow, the character of the rock strata at the narrows of 

 Licking, distant nine miles from Newark. Several quarries are now 

 opened, and with the excavation to form the tow-path, give a fine 

 view of the order of superposition. So far as accessible, I find it 

 very similar to that of the falls of the Cuyahoga, and of the same 

 character with that of the chain forming the western and northern 

 termination of the coal measures in Ohio. A loosely cohering, 

 coarse aggregate, or pudding-stone, composes a deposit twelve or 

 fourteen feet in thickness, about midway to the tops of the cliffs ; 

 above which is a coarse sandstone, splitting easily into large blocks 

 for architectural purposes. Below this conglomerate, or pudding- 

 stone, is a deposit of finer grained rock, tinged highly with red in 

 many places, but it has not been exposed to a sufficient depth to dis- 

 close the true red sandstone, which, judging from the character of 

 the fossil shells, found a little farther west, and high in the hills, I 

 have no doubt will be found here. I could discover no traces of coal, 

 nor any fossil plants belonging to the coal series. 



