Peat bed beneath Drift in Southwestern Ohio. 55 
ness; kept nearly vertical by the constant undermining action 
of the stream. 
Beneath these heavy deposits and occupying 40 rods of the 
east bank of the creek, the peat bed is found, varying in thick- 
ness, in different portions of its extent, from 12 to 20 feet. The 
amount of the bed that is exposed depends upon the stage of 
water in the stream. The stream is bedded for 10 or 15 rods 
upon the peat, but in deeper portions of the channel, upon the 
eastern bank, an underlying formation of gravel can be detected. 
The uppermost layers of the peat contain undecomposed sphag- 
nous mosses, grasses and sedges, but in other portions of the 
bed, the vegetable structure is generally indistinct, with the ex- 
ception of abundant fragments of coniferous wood, which in 
many instances can be identified as Red Cedar (Juniperus vir- 
ginianus). At the southern extremity of the bed in particular, 
there is a great accumulation of wood, in trunks, roots, branches 
and twigs, much of which has been flattened by the pressure of 
the 80 feet of clay and gravel that overlie it. Branches that 
were originally two inches in diameter now afford lenticular sec- 
tions with no more than a } inch for the shorter axis, while many 
of the smaller stems have been compressed into ribbons. The 
berries of the cedar are abundant in the upper layers of the 
peat. At a point $ mile higher up the stream, monk 
nearly two feet in diameter, have been taken from beneath these 
same drift beds and turned to account for fencing posts. 
There are indications that the peat bed has a considerable ex- 
tent to the northward and eastward. A bed of “black earth” 
A stratum of soil, one or two feet in thickness is often asso- 
ciated with these vegetable remains. The soil and the wood 
