CHAPTER LIX. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OP STARK COUNTY, 



BY J. 8. NEWBERRY. 



SURFACE GEOLOGY. 



The surface of Stark county is without any striking features. It is 

 generally rolling, and along the southern border may be called hilly, 

 since the valleys of some of the draining streams are cut to a depth of 

 three hundred feet. In most parts of the county the surface is pleas- 

 antly diversified by rounded hills, with very gentle slopes, and which are 

 cultivated to their summits. The valleys that divide these hills are 

 broad and shallow, and rarely show precipitous sides or exposures of 

 rock. 



The soil is generally light, often loam, sand, or gravel, and was origin- 

 ally covered, with a forest composed principally of oak, but in the cen- 

 tral portion of the county there were many glades and openings where 

 the timber was light. This consisted largely of willow-oak and black- 

 jack oak, which formed clumps and islands, separated by spaces over- 

 grown with wild grasses, flowers, and scrub oak. Prom the nature of 

 the soil, the farmers of the county have usually been cultivators of grain, 

 and Stark has long been famous for its crops of wheat. 



The altitude of the county is from three hundred and fifty to seven 

 hundred and fifty feet above Lake Erie ; its eastern portion reaching up 

 on the great divide or water-shed between the Ohio and Lake Erie. 

 Like most of the other counties that lie along the water-shed, the sur- 

 face of Stark county is dotted over with lakes such as have, been de- 

 scribed as occurring in Portage county. Of these, Congress Lake, in Lake 

 township, Myers Lake, Sippo Lake, etc., may be taken as examples. 

 Here, too, as in the adjacent counties, we find many drained or filled lake 

 basins, where peat and marl now hold the place formerly occupied by 

 water. 



The extent of this kind of surface is, however, not great, as Stark has 

 little marsh land, and since it is so abundantly supplied with excellent 

 coal, it is scarcely probable that the scattered patches of peat will ever 



