MIAMI COUNTY. 475 



stratification. On the east side of the river, at French's " Old Railroad 

 Quarry," at the time of my visit, an instructive observation could be 

 made of the action of the drift on the bedded rock. The stripping of 

 one portion was composed of drift clays, bowlders of quartz, granite and 

 kindred rocks, and blocks of limestone, all commingled in a mass, and the 

 surface of quarried rock beneath, here only four feet in thickness, was 

 everywhere smoothed ; while in another portion of the same quarry there 

 is an additional four feet of the upper portion of the rock, not worn away 

 by the same agency which was acting close to it, nor was the surface of 

 this portion smoothed. Deter's quarry, near the mouth of Panther Creek, 

 illustrates the character and condition of the drift which I have just re- 

 ferred to. 



There are unworn blocks of limestone, rounded masses of the same 

 material, rounded and smoothed bowders of granite and quartz rock, 

 gravel, sand, and clay, commingled without any kind of selection accord- 

 ing to quality of material or specific gravity. 



Bowlders.— While this class of detached rocks is to be found in all por- 

 tions of the country, scattered here and there, there are some special 

 belts of them extending in a direction somewhat west of south, through 

 the entire extent of the county. The finest collection, in a continuous 

 belt, occurs in a line which passes within three and one-half miles to the 

 east of Troy, passing through the farm of John La Fevre, on Lost Creek, 

 where, as well as both north and south, in a line, it may be observed. It 

 continues in a nearly direct line throughout the county. A fine locality 

 to observe it is on the turnpike-road, leading from Tippecanoe to New 

 Carlisle, between three and four miles from the former place. Here a 

 portion of the bowlders have been removed from the field to make room 

 for the plow, and besides being ample for the construction of good fences 

 are heaped up in long rows on each side of the road, reminding one of a 

 region of igneous rocks. Here one may see nearly all varieties of gran- 

 ite and quartzose rocks. The variety is astonishing, as if gathered from 

 a hundred sources, many of them of very brilliant colors. They have 

 been removed to adorn the grounds of residences in the adjoining 

 towns. 



They vary in size, some of them reaching a weight of several tons. 

 This line extends to and beyond the southern boundary of the county, 

 passing about one mile east of Tadmor, where the Dayton and Michi- 

 gan Railroad intersects the National road. The belt is fully one mile in 

 width, and altogether contains a mass of bowlders to be greatly wondered 

 at, whether we consider their combined weight, their variety and beauty, 

 or their regular distribution and direction. There is another belt, either 



