Introductory Views. 3 



occupied a vast period of time to hollow out the local valley be- 

 tween the hills, in which the Ohio now meanders, and to deposit that 

 vast bed of alluvial earth which constitutes its present fertile and rich 

 bottoms. It is obvious that these were all formed after the currents of 

 water had cut away the deposits of clay and earth, which the rains and 

 small rivulets had washed away from the adjacent highlands into the 

 bed of this vast fresh water lake or lakes, down to the sandstone 

 rocks formerly deposited in the bed of the ocean ; and after they had 

 also cut away the sandstone rocks themselves down to the present bed 

 of the Ohio, a depth of one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet, it is 

 evident that little or no river alluvions could have been deposited, for 

 they rest on the rock, which forms the present bed of the river. This 

 cutting away of the sandstone rocks, must have occupied a long period 

 of time ; for, the operation, of necessity, commenced at some point be- 

 low, at least as far west as the falls of the Ohio, giving at this outlet, 

 an impulse and impetus to the waters above, that neither earth nor 

 rocks could resist ; enabling them to cut away the solid strata, and to 

 form the present bed of the river in their bosom. That this was ac- 

 tually the fact, is made to appear from the mural walls of sandstone, 

 seen in many places, at the same elevation, in the face of the river 

 hills, on both sides of the stream ; they are composed of the same 

 materials with the same texture, for the distance of several hundred 

 miles. Various other strata confirm this opinion ; clay, limestone 

 and coal, being found at the same level on both sides of the river, 

 shew, as plainly as demonstration can speak, that these strata were 

 all deposited in a tranquil state, and that, in the course of ages, they 

 have been cut through by the abrasion and tearing away of the wa- 

 ters. The hills bordering the rivers and creeks have all been formed 

 in the same way : the, ridges corresponding to the course of the 

 streams and not the streams to the ridges ; and although there is a 

 considerable descent from their heads to their outlets, yet the hills 

 and ridges are considerably higher near their heads than at their 

 mouths, which is evidently attributable to the greater abrasion and 

 wearing away of the general surface, as we approach the Ohio, on 

 account of the action of the waters which descended into the lower 

 parts of the valley before the present channels of the water courses 

 were formed. This is made evident from the wasting and wearing 

 away of several of the deposits, which are found in the heads of the 

 streams, at the depth of many feet below the surface, and which, as 

 we descend, gradually crop out, and finally in a few miles disappear: 



