8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BUFFALO MEETING. 



deep well borings which have been made during several years past under the direc- 

 tion of Mr F. S. Gilbert, contractor, also of Cleveland, showing that the preglacial 

 Cuyahoga valley in its last eight miles, passing through Newburg and Cleveland, 

 has a depth of 350 to 470 feet below the surface of lake Erie. At the time of my 

 writing and publication of the paper mentioned, the deepest well section in the 

 drift at Cleveland which had come to my knowledge was that recorded by New- 

 berry near the mouth of Kingsbury ran, reaching the bed rock of shale 228 feet 

 below the level of the river and lake. Even that depth of drift revealed a very 

 interesting preglacial valley and different conditions of topography and drainage 

 from those of the present day ; for the greater part of lake Erie, as is well known, 

 is only about 80 feet deep, while its maximum depth, apparently in an old river 

 valley now covered by the lake, is only 210 feet. It was also ascertained by New- 

 berry, from borings for oil, that where the Cuyahoga river enters Cuyahoga county, 

 about thirteen miles from the lake Erie shore at Cleveland, the bottom of the pre- 

 glacial gorge is 220 feet below the present river, or about 175 feet below the level 

 of the lake. 



Records of Wells in the glacial Drift. 



The most southerly well, that is, the one farthest up the Cuyahoga valley, of 

 wdiich Mr Pierce supplies me records, was bored by Mr D. B. Duff on the bottom- 

 land of the Cuyahoga river in the north edge of Independence township, about 

 eight miles distant in a direct line from Gordon park, where the deeply eroded 

 preglacial gorge passes under the present lake shore. It was bored at the works of 

 the Newburg Fertilizer Company, about a quarter of a mile south of the southern 

 line of Newburg township, and passed through many alternating deposits of gravelly 

 and stony clay (till) and stratified gravel, sand and clay to a total depth of about 

 350 feet, where it was abandoned without reaching the bed rock (shale). This 

 well is about 17 feet above the mean level of lake Erie ; hence it finds the pre- 

 glacial gorge there to exceed a depth of 333 feet below the lake surface, or 123 feet 

 below the deepest place in the lake bed. 



The relative levels will be made more clear by the following notes of altitudes 

 determined by leveling, for which I am indebted to Mr C. G. Force, chief assist- 

 ant city engineer of Cleveland. They are given in feet and are referred to mean 

 tide sealevel, according to my Bulletin 72, United States Geological Survey, pages 

 15, 147 : 



Zero reference of Cleveland city levels (high water of lake Erie in 1838), 575.20. 



Lake Erie (maximum depth, 210 feet), lowest stage at Cleveland (in 1819), approximately, 570; 



highest stage (in 183S), 575; meun annual low and high stages, 571-574; mean surface, January 



1, 1860, to December 31, 1875, 572.86. 

 Ohio canal below the Eight Mile lock, near this well in Independence, 587. 

 Cuyahoga river at the head of its portion level with lake Erie during the river's stage of least 



flow, about a half mile below the Eight Mile lock, according to observations by Mr Foi'ce during 



ten consecutive days in the summer of 1S95, 570.5-571. 



At that time the level of lake Erie was unusually low, being four to five feet 

 below the Cleveland base or zero of levels. Owing to the effect of winds on lake 

 Erie, raising its surface at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, the level of the river there 

 was occasionally, during Mr Force's ten days of observations, higher (to a maxi- 

 mum of two and a half inches) than it was at the rear of the Infirmary farm, about 

 seven and a half miles above its mouth and near the Independence well. 



