454 GEOLOGY OP OHIO. 



On this water-shed the effect of continued washing is seen in a slight 

 furrowing of the surface into broad and shallow troughs, leading toward 

 the drainage of Loramie Creek. Suppose that at a time when all the 

 region was densely covered with forest and protected from the sun's rays, 

 the falling of a tree, or the erection of a dam by beavers should have cut 

 off the passage of the water, bogs of greater or less extent and depth 

 would have been formed. In these vegetation would soon flourish suited 

 to such localities— plants which flourish in^ and near moisture — coarse 

 grasses and vines, luxuriant ferns, and particularly the sphagnous mosses 

 which are known to compose so large a proportion of peat-beds. We 

 can hardly conceive of the rapidity with which the accumulation of veg- 

 etable material takes place in such circumstances. The remains of bea- 

 ver dams are still confidently pointed out by residents there, and the 

 traditions of the county are numerous, and corroborative in regard to the 

 existence of these ingenious animals at a time not long antedating the 

 memory of the "oldest inhabitant." In complete confirmation of this 

 general conviction, I have in my possession teeth of the beaver found in 

 the county. 



The peat is of a uniform consistence, and of a drab color, where freshly 

 exposed. On the surface, where it has been drained, it is sufficiently 

 decomposed to nourish the most luxuriant vegetation which I saw in the 

 county — vines, grasses, briars, bushes and ferns, and, where under culti- 

 vation, the finest of corn crops. The beds are purely vegetable; neither 

 on the surface, nor beneath it, could there be distinguished a particle of 

 earth mixed with the peat. Being about at the Summit, there was no 

 source from which earth could have been vv^ished into the forming peat. 

 When dry it burns readily with a cheerful blaze and rather strong odor, 

 glowing like the embers of leaves in a draft. It is not, however, used as 

 fuel, on account of the great abundance of wood in that region and its 

 distance from any market, and doubtless the day is remote when it will 

 be in demand as fuel on account of the abundance of coal even more con- 

 venient to the great markets than these beds of peat. The great pro- 

 ductiveness of the porous, friable upper crust, where the beds have been 

 drained, suggests a use for this material of great interest. It is contigu- 

 ous to these great beds of peat that the thin, light-colored soils, so desti- 

 tute of vegetable mould, abound. Here is a supply, not easily exhausted, 

 of the very material which that soil needs. If these beds average ten 

 feet in thickness, there is enough vegetable matter in them to cover, to 

 the depth of one-half a foot, nearly ten square miles of land. I pointed 

 out to Mr. William Kettler a danger which threatens the destruction of 

 those beds which are perfectly drained. He has dug large trenches 



