CHAPTER LXVIII. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF LICKING COUNTY. 



BT M. C. BEAD. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The same influences which shaped the topography of Knox and Rich- 

 land counties have left their impress upon that of Licking, have deter- 

 mined the direction of the water-courses, and have divided the county 

 into several well-marked topographical areas. A deep pre-glacial channel 

 from the north enters the county a little west of the Sandusky branch of 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, extending southward to Newark, and 

 is now occupied by the northern branch of Licking River. At Newark it 

 divides; one branch turning directly to the east, in the valley of Licking 

 River, and one branch extending north-westerly, through what was evi- 

 dently at one period a broad lake, and in which now the south branch of 

 the Licking flows with a reversed current to join the main stream at 

 Newark. A smaller channel, coming from near Martinsburg, Knox 

 county, passes through Eden township and the valley occupied by the 

 Rocky Fork of the Licking, to its junction with the main stream. This 

 channel is marked by debris of the adjacent bluffs, and has had less influ- 

 ence upon the topography of the county than the others named. The 

 larger channels are now filled with water-washed pebbles, resting ordinar- 

 ily upon the old rocky bed, but in places upon the remains of the original 

 Drift clay, covered with alluvium, and sandy ridges marked by a succes- 

 sion of terraces and corresponding water-plains. South and south-west 

 of Newark these water-plains expand, covering a large area. Borings for 

 wells indicate that the rock has been here excavated to a depth corre- 

 sponding with that of the old channels, and that in the latter part of the 



