CHAPTER LXVI. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF RICHLAND COUNTY. 



BY M. C. READ. 



Richland county is situated on the highest part of the divide between 

 the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio River. The surface on the north is 

 comparatively level, but rise:! toward the south to the height, in places^ 

 of nearly one thousand feet above the Lake. In the south-east part of the 

 county there are chains of high hills, separated by narrow valleys, and 

 exhibiting almost a mountainous character. The Black Fork of Mohican 

 River, rising in the north part of the count}', and passing through the 

 townships of Blooming Grove, Franklin, Weller, Mifflin and Monroe, and 

 thence into Ashland county, flows in a d-eep channel which connects on 

 the north with the channels of drainage into the Lake. A similar chan- 

 nel, having a similar northern connection, passes a little west of Mans- 

 field, and, now filled with silt and gravel, forms the bed of Owl Creek. 

 Between these valleys the hills rise in irregular chains, often quite ab- 

 ruptly, and in the southern and south-western parts of the county to an 

 elevatioQ of from two hundred to five hundred feet above the valleys. 

 In Jefferson townshiiD a long "chestnut ridge," traversed by the road 

 leading west from Independence, reaches an elevation of four hundred 

 and fifty feet above the railroad at Independence. On my table of eleva- 

 tions this railroad station is given as six hundred and fifty-nine feet, but 

 I suspect this to be excessive. If correct, the elevation of the ridge is ten 

 hundred and fifty-nine feet above the Lake, and it is one of the highest 

 points in the State. Two and a half miles north-east of Bellville, and 

 near the north line of Jefferson township, the hills reach an elevation of 

 nine hundred and fifty-two feet above the Lake. About two miles north, 

 and on the direct road to Mansfield, the surface rises rapidly to an eleva- 

 tion of nine hundred and twelve feet, and at three and a half miles the 

 summit between Bellville and Mansfield is nine hundred and thirty-two 

 feet above the Lake, or three hundred and seventy feet above Mansfield.* 



* The height of Mansfield ahove the Lake is, on the profile of the Atlantic and Great 

 Western Railroad, 581 feet; on the profile of the Sandusky and Mansfield Eailroad, 657 

 feet; and on the profile of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad, 592 feet; 

 part of the difference being due to the different elevations of the localities passed by the 

 railroads in the town. — J. S. N. 



