FAYETTE COUNTY. 433 



but little in direction. These streams are all somewhat sluggish in the 

 upper half of their course, but they have quite sufficient fail to constitute 

 an ample sj'stem of drainage. At an early day in the settlement of this 

 part of the country, the greater portion of the county was too wet for the 

 plow, but since the channels of the streams have been freed from ob- 

 structions, and the water has been carried into the water-courses by 

 ditching, this county has taken rank as one of the first agricultural coun- 

 ties of the State. 



The water-courses present a singular uniformity in respect of direction 

 and tributaries. The main water- channels are nearly parallel with each 

 other, and they take the same general direction, uniformly to the east of 

 south. This is as true of Deer Creek as of Paint Creek and its tributaries. 

 We notice another characteristic of all — the tributaries of all the streams 

 put into them from the west. There is no exception in the county — no 

 instance of any tributary, more than a branch a few hundred yards long, 

 coming from the east ; in fact, the tributary branches of all the creeks 

 of the county rise within a score or so of rods of the bank of the next 

 creek to the west. This shows to the most casual observer that the whole 

 county sheds to east and south, and that as the lowest land in the county 

 is at the point where the water leaves it, so the highest may be looked 

 for in the region whence it flowed — to the north-west. 



From Mr. James McClean, County Surveyor, I learn that Deer Creek is 

 about 100 feet lower than North Fork of Paint on the line of the White Oak 

 turnpike ; that Compton's Creek, on the line of the New Holland and 

 Bloomingsburgh turnpike, is 60 feet higher than North Fork, and that 

 East Fork is 87 feet higher than North Fork, and Main Point 104 feet 

 higher than the same stream — so that if this turnpike were a canal all 

 the water north of Washington could be readily turned into North Fork. 

 The rise in the land from Washington to the northern boundary of the 

 county is estimated at not more than 50 feet ; and from the extreme north 

 to the south along Paint Creek the fall is not far from 210 feet. As the 

 railroad bridge at Greenfield is 461 feet above low-water mark at Cincin- 

 nati and perhaps 75 feet above the bed of the creek at the Fayette county 

 line, the point of Paint Creek where it leaves Fayette county would be 

 376 feet above low-water mark, at Cincinnati, add 160 feet, the elevation 

 of Washington, the county seat, above Paint Creek at the southern line 

 of the county, and the elevation of this town above low- water mark of 

 the Ohio River, at Cincinnati, is about 536 feet or 968 feet above tide- water. . 

 It will thus appear that the average elevation of Fayette county is about . 

 200 feet less than that of Clinton county. 



If we trace the line of outcrop of the various formations from the points 

 28 



