36 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



Feet. Inches. 



7. Blue clay 10 



8. Yellow clay 8 



9. Blueclay 1 



10. Eed parting i 



11. Yellow clay 10 



12. Blueclay 2 



13. Eed clay i 



14. Yellow loamy clay 2 



15. Blueclay 2 



16. Yellow loamy clay 4 



17. Blueclay 4 



18. Yellow clay 4 



19. Blueclay 2 



20. Yellow clay 1 6 



21. Blueclay 3 



22. Yellow clay, streaked with blue and red 5 



23. Blueclay 2 



24. Yellowclay 2 



In the preceding sections the clay is all more or less loamy, %. e., mixed 

 with very fine sand; and though plastic when wet, is crumbling when 

 dry. All the layers contain much iron : that in the blue bands, which 

 are finer and wetter, as protoxide ; that in the yellow layers, which are 

 somewhat ochery, in the condition of hydrated sesquioxide ; that in the 

 red bands, as anhydrous peroxide. The remarkably regular stratification 

 of the series of beds now under consideration proves them to have been 

 deposited in quiet water ; and as they reach down the valley of the Cuy- 

 ahoga for many miles, apparently connecting with the laminated portion 

 of the Erie clay, we are compelled to conclude they were deposited in the 

 Cuyahoga valley when it was completely filled with the water of Lake 

 Erie ; and the absence of all coarse material proves conclusively that this 

 was not then a drainage channel. From their peculiarly permeable and 

 loamy character, these clays would be removed with more facility than 

 any other of our Drift deposits ; and it is probable that the only reason 

 why they are present here, while wanting over most of the slope of the 

 watershed, is, that, in this deep gorge, they have been protected from the 

 action of the shore waves, which washed away from the surrounding 

 country all of the superficial deposits, except the tough and impervious 

 bowlder clay. 



THE LOESS. 



The " Bluff formation " of the West is sometimes called the " Loess," 

 from its resemblance to the Loess of the Rhine. I have designated it in a 



