LOGAN COUNTY. 483 



The main body of the Central valley is drained by Mad River, flowing 

 southward, while the waters of the extreme northern part flow through 

 Hush Creek into the Scioto, which also receives, through Mill Creek and 

 the Darby's, the drainage of the eastern edge of the county. 



The Great Miami, rising in the Eouthern part of Hardin county, flows 

 southwardly through the western half of Logan until within two and 

 one-half miles of the southern boundary, and then suddenly turning to 

 the west by north flows out into Shelby county. 



Scattered over the surface of the county are numerous small lakes, or 

 ponds, as Rush Creek Lake, Silver, Black, Dokes, Twin Lakes, etc. 



Several of these ponds are valuable for their icecrop, and some furnish 

 considerable numbers of fish. One, the Indian Lake; in Stokes and Rich- 

 land townships, is now included in the Lewistown Reservoir, w'hich was 

 designed to collect and hold in reserve the rainfall of that region for the 

 benefit of the State canals. 



Although the center has been upheaved and split in two, and time 

 and the elements have fashioned the fissure into the lovely valley of 

 Mad River, heading in some rugged, rocky ravines south of Wickersham's 

 Corners, yet the general surface of the county is so level, or modulates so 

 gently, and the rocks are so well covered by the gravel and clays of the 

 drift that the untillable land, if all collected into a body, would scarcely 

 ■cover one section. The very summits are wheat-fields, and, though now, 

 in the wet beech woods of Bokes Creek and Stokes townships, the first 

 ■clearings are being made, and log-cabins built, it will be but a very few 

 years until the whole county is brought under the plow. 



SOIL AND TIMBER. 



The soil is almost entirely derived from the drift-gravel and clays. 

 Although much of it is at first wet and heavy, yet, under proper drain- 

 age and tillage, it proves rich and generous. 



In the valleys of the Miami and Mad Rivers, oaks and hickories pre- 

 vail, but on the higher lands sugar-maples take their place, mixed with, 

 and, on the flat clay lands, overpowered and driven out by, the beech. 

 Tulip, or, as it is often called, poplar or white wood (Liriodendron tulipi- 

 fera), elm, ash, sycamore, basswood, dogwood, sassafras, and other trees are 

 found in large numbers, but oaks and hickories, sugar, and beech largely 

 prevail and give character to the forests. ^ 



At no time of the year is this so apparent as in the early spring, when, 

 in passing from an oak region to a maple one, as in going from West 

 Liberty to Zanesfield, points of view may be chosen so that the landscape 

 on one side will appear bleak and bare as midwinter, while on the other 



