460 GEOLOGY OP OHIO. 



will make special mention of one of the roads, constructed by Mr. D. W. 

 Pampell as engineer — I refer to the one called at Sidney " the St. Mary's 

 road," on the line of an old road formerly projected to connect Sidney 

 ■with the town of St. Mary's. This road, of excellent width, careful and 

 full grading, and well graveled, is carried on a 'perfectly straight line for a 

 distance which falls short by but a few rods of thirteen miles, wholly in 

 this county. The numerous excellent roads which have been recently 

 constructed through all portions of the county must have an important 

 influence on its future development. 



The total number of miles of turnpike roads in Shelby county, at the 

 present time, is one hundred and fifty-nine, of which only eighteen miles 

 are toll-roads. The free turnpikes extend to all parts of the county and 

 intersect nearly every important neighborhood, and are the means of the 

 development now seen in progress of the material, moral, and intellect- 

 ual interests of the county. The cost of these roads I ascertained, from 

 the county auditor, Mr. Guthrie, who kindly furnished me with the 

 statement, to be about $4,000 per mile, or an aggregate of 8564,000 for the 

 one hundred and forty-one miles of free turnpike road within the county. 

 While there has been found an abundance of gravel for these roads, it 

 has not always been convenient, and the distance it has been necessary 

 to haul it has enhanced the cost considerably. But for this expense the 

 people of the county have obtained good roads, carefully laid out and 

 well graded and drained. 



Washed gravel. — Wherever the drift has been washed into troughs or 

 valleys, more or less gravel has been deposited in beds, generally at the 

 junction of two such valleys. Usually these depressions are far from 

 any water-course that could in the least affect them at present. They 

 are on the higher levels where no streams of water exist now, and 

 show the effect of the washing of the water which once covered over the 

 whole surface as it ebbed and flowed when it was gradually subsiding, or 

 they are more visibly related to the water-course of to-day and serve to 

 mark the stations where the water stood successively during the time in 

 which the deejj valleys, in which the streams now flow, were being ex- 

 cavated. In this county, the gravel of the higher beds is less abundant, 

 is not so coarse or so free from clay. This must have resulted from the 

 condition of the higher deposits of the drift, in which a gravel of a 

 a smaller grain was found ; as if there had been coarser gravel in this 

 portion of the drift, not it, but the finer, would have been the sooner 

 washed onward, and the coarser would have been left in the higher beds. 

 Above and separated from the portion of the valleys of the water-courses, 

 particularly of the river, affected by the action of the water at any stage, 



