10 Topography of the Valley of the Muskingum. 



with the open valves of bivalve shells, a rich and beautiful appear- 

 ance to its bed, especially in low stages of the stream in the summer 

 and autumnal months. The alluvial lands along its borders are com- 

 posed of a rich but rather arenaceous soil, formed, in the course of 

 ages, from the debris and washings of the uplands, mixed with decayed 

 vegetable matter. The early or ancient alluvions, which form bluffs 

 in the bends, and elevated plains back of the bottoms, where they 

 are not washed away by changes in the bed of the river, are composed 

 of gravel and pebbles, with a very light or thin soil on the surface. 

 The elevation of these plains, is, in many places, more than one hun- 

 dred feet above the present bed of the river, from which we are 

 led to infer, that when the superabundant waters took the course 

 now followed by the river, the hills, if formed at all, were very low, 

 as in many places they are now not more than seventy five or a 

 hundred feet above the surface of these ancient plains. On these 

 elevated alluvions, almost without exception, are seated those an- 

 cient ruins of fortifications and cities, so long the wonder of antiqua- 

 rians. Much of the gravel and many of the pebbles composing 

 these plains, are the remains of disintegrated primitive rocks ; being 

 composed of greenstone, gneiss, varieties of granite, mica slate, 

 &c. intermixed with fragments of fossil organic remains, and with 

 some perfect forms ; amongst which are distinguished, numerous 

 species of alcyona, madreporites, corallines, and shells, the tenants 

 of the antediluvian ocean. 



Broken remains of fossil trees are also found, the vegetable struc- 

 ture being easily recognized. The latter are generally in an agati- 

 zed or quartzose state, many of the former are also, siliceous, and 

 may have been torn, at an early period from those abundant depos- 

 its of organic fossils, found in Flifit ridge, and many other places 

 on the streams which pour their tributary waters into the Musk- 

 ingum. The country, on the head waters of the Muskingum, al- 

 though not very hilly, is, without doubt, the most elevated portion 

 of the northern side of the valley. The streams from this region 

 takiftg-, a northerly, a southerly, and an eastern direction, furnish 

 their perennial tribute to the ocean, at very remote points, finding 

 their outlet either in the gulf of Mexico, or the bay of the St. Law- 

 rence. 



A number of small lakes and ponds repose in the hollows of these 

 elevated table lands. 



