Geology of the MusMngum Valley. 15 



kinds. In these situations, the wild grape grows in great abundance 

 and makes an excellent wine. The laws of climate, soil, &c. are so 

 beautifully and so certainly adapted to vegetable life, that the geology 

 of a country is intimately connected with the trees which clothe and 

 beautify its bold and rugged features; and he who is acquainted with 

 the rock formations of a country, can describe, before he has seen 

 them, the species of trees most natural to its soil. The bottom 

 lands, or recent alluvions, are clothed with different species of for- 

 est trees, suited to their elevation. If low and wet, sycamore and 

 beech prevail, with red and sweet elm, and the over cup, white oak, 

 or swamp oak ; if high and dry, sugar trees, poplars and walnuts, 

 with the low land hickory, often intermixed with groves of acacia or 

 black locust, honey locust, and solitary trees of hackberry — on the 

 dry plains back of the bottoms, the Persimon, or American date tree, 

 grows in great luxuriance ; its rich, glossy leaves emulating the 

 orange in beauty. If the soil is gravelly, the red cedar springs up, 

 and along the rocky sides of the creeks the hemlock spreads its rich 

 green branches and tapering top. The rocky cliffs are ornamented 

 with the rosebay and kalmia latifolia. While the red men possessed 

 the country, and every autumn set fire to the fallen leaves, the for- 

 ests presented a most noble and enchanting appearance. The an- 

 nual firings preventing the growth of shrubs and underbrush, and 

 destroying the lower branches of the trees, the eye roved with de- 

 light, from ridge to ridge and from hill to hill ; which, like the divis- 

 ions of an immense temple, were crowded with innumerable pillars, 

 the branches of whose shafts interlocking, formed the arch work of 

 support to that leafy roof which covered and crowned the whole. 

 But since the white man took possession, the annual fires have been 

 checked, and the woodlands are now filled with shrubs and young 

 trees, obstructing the vision on every side, and converting these 

 once beautiful forests into a rude and tasteless wilderness. 



Geology of the MusMngum Valley. 



The northern and western portions of the valley belong to the 

 tertiary, or the supercretaceous of De La Beche ; the southern 

 and eastern, to the carboniferous series of the same writer; while 

 a portion on the extreme southerly borders is identified with the 

 new red sandstone group. As the valley approaches within twen- 

 ty or thirty miles of the Ohio river, the limestone rock becomes 

 more sparry, and retains no traces of organic remains, or fossil 



