SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PREGLACIAL DRAIN- 

 AGE OF WAYNE AND ADJACENT COUNTIES. 



By J. H. Todd, M. D. 



In presenting this paper to the Academy I simply wish to 

 lay before you — for your criticism — the results of careful obser- 

 vations on the present drainage system of Wayne and associate 

 counties, together with the relation it sustains to pre-glacial 

 channels, and to a topography modified by glacial forces. 



The associate counties are Medina, Ashland, Richland, 

 Knox and Holmes; but even parts of these (with all of Holmes) 

 must be excluded from any associate activity in the initial forces 

 that determined the pre-glacial drainage lines. Although later, 

 and before the glacier's advent, they became potent factors in 

 establishing an outlet for the waters, their hills were not in exist- 

 ence when the first lines of drainage were cut; and these first 

 lines are still marked features in our landscape. 



These counties rest on the Waverly capping of the north- 

 east face, or incline, of that island or low mountain chain known 

 as the "Cincinnati Arch." Here the arch, owing to its hood of 

 hard Waverly, is least eroded ; and, although in Kentucky it pre- 

 sents in intaglio, and at Cincinnati only in slight relief, here the 

 Waverly stands out in bold headlands forming a crescent of 

 highest hills in the State, which decline rapidly to the bed of 

 Lake Erie, and show the original topography, scarred by the 

 original drainage lines. 



In studying the Waverly group of rocks in this part of the 

 Island, I find that they dip away rapidly on the west to the oil 

 regions, and on the north under the bed of Lake Erie, while 

 on the east they decline more gradually into the synclinal trough 

 of the Allegheny coal basin; thus constituting a water-shed in 

 three directions. Prof. Newberry says (Vol. I Geological Sur- 

 vey) "It will be noticed that the direction of the drainage streams, 

 which follow the strike of the strata on either side, indicates 

 that it once formed a water-shed that gave the initial bearing 

 to their flow." 



