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CHAPTER LVIII. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OP PORTAGE COUNTY. 



BY J. 8. NEWBERRY. 



SURFACE FEATURES AND DEPOSITS. 



Portage county lies entirely on the watershed which separates the 

 streams that flow into Lake Erie from the tributaries of the Ohio. Its 

 central portion rises to an altitude of six hundred and eighty-five feet 

 above the Lake, while the valleys by which its surface is diversified de- 

 scend about tiree hundred feet lower. The highest point of the county 

 is near the line of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, between 

 Rootstown and Atwater, while the lowest is in the valley of the Mahon- 

 ing, below Garrettsville. 



When first entered by the whites, the county was covered with an un- 

 bj^oken sheet of primeval forest, consisting, on the lower and more level 

 portions, of beech and maple; of oak, chestnut, etc., on the higher and 

 drier lands. 



Though underlain by rocks of diverse character, the surface is mainly 

 formed by a sheet of clay, which has given a peculiar character to the 

 agricultural pursuits of the inhabitants, and has made this a portion of 

 the great dairy district of the Western Reserve. 



In some localities on the northern and western slope of the watershed'^ 

 but near its summit, are heavy beds of gravel, forming swells of the sur- 

 face, or even rounded hills of considerable altitude. Typical examples of 

 t^ese may be seen in Randolph, Rootstown, Sufiield, Franklin, and Brim- 

 field, and near Earlville, on the lines of the two railroads which pass 

 thropgh the county. In the basins inclosed by these gravel hills and 

 ridges lie most of the lakes and peat bogs of th^ county. These gravel 

 hills constitute an i,nteresting feature in the surface deposits, and will be 

 found described in the first chapter of Vol. II, under the head of Karnes. 

 I have ascribed them to the action of waves on the Drift deposit of the 



