766 JESSE E. HYDE 



of both the irregular cut-and-fill and the regular inclined-bedding 

 types; which, over extensive portions of the eastern side of the 

 Hocking Valley area, dumped coarse conglomerate to a thickness 

 up to 50 feet or more at an angle of from 15° to 20°, with north- 

 easterly dips. 



The material on the whole is far coarser than that observed, 

 according to Barrell, at present in the deltas of large rivers, and the 

 current-action was far stronger. It is the writer's opinion that the 

 sands of the more gently inclined beds (5° to 10°), where cross- 

 bedded as in the Black Hand member of the Toboso facies, were 

 spread out on the ocean floor in part by the assistance of wave- 

 action and shore currents, but chiefly under the direct influence of 

 strong currents from a river mouth or other source of sand-laden 

 waters. Where cross-bedding is reduced in amount and magnitude, 

 as in the beds of the Fairfield member, the stream current is believed 

 to have been relatively less important and the wave and shore 

 currents more important. Much of the Black Hand member of 

 the Hocking Valley facies has been laid down, according to this 

 interpretation, under the former conditions, but large portions, 

 especially near the margins of the facies, under the latter conditions. 

 Where steeply inclined conglomerates with dips of 15° to 20° are 

 extensively developed, as in the eastern portion of the Black Hand 

 of the Hocking Valley area, it appears that the material was dumped 

 into a protected area of relatively deep water, where it formed a 

 face at the angle of repose for such material in water, uninfluenced 

 by waves or bottom currents. A glance at the map will show that 

 the eastern margin from Lancaster to Logan must have been, under 

 the interpretation given these facies, well protected, and it is here 

 only that such extensive steeply inclined bedding is found. It 

 seems necessary to believe that the wave-action was far weaker 

 than that obtaining along the seaward faces of present-day deltas 

 facing the open ocean; otherwise this material would have been 

 spread laterally along shore and outward to such an extent that 

 the Toboso and Hocking Valley facies would not have remained 

 as sharply defined, individual lobes. 



The structures observed in the cross-bedded conglomerate, 

 whether steeply or gently inclined, are precisely the ones that 



