CHAPTER XXXIV. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF OTTAWA COUNTY. 



BY N. H. WINCHELL. 



That portion of Ottawa county known as "the Peninsula," including 

 the townships of Danbury and Rensselaer, is not included in this report. 

 The remainder of the county is very densely wooded, and but few out- 

 crops of rock are known. With the assistance, however, of the county 

 surveyor, Mr. Ernest Frank, and under his guidance, all those outcrops 

 were visited. 



POSITION AND AREA. 



Ottawa is one of the most northern tier of counties, and borders on the 

 west end of Lake Erie ; the peninsula included between Sandusky Bay 

 and Lake Erie, belonging to this county, being its most eastern extension. 

 North of its western end is Lucas county. It is bounded west by Wood 

 county and south by Sandusky county. It contains an area of about 

 eight townships, of thirty-six square miles each. 



NATURAL DRAINAGE. 



The Portage is the principal river of the county, and is navigable for 

 tugs and schooners as far as Oak Harbor. It intersects the county in a 

 direction a little north of east, and enters Lake Erie at Port Clinton. The 

 entire drainage of the county is in the same direction ; the other streams, 

 such as the Little Portage, which enters the Portage from the south, in 

 the township of Bay, Toussaint Creek, and Turtle Creek, having, like the 

 Portage, a very gentle descent, with slack-water several miles above 

 their mouths. The Portage itself is a mere creek in the summer season 

 above the slack-water, and some of the other streams become quite dry. 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



The surface of the county is quite fiat, and elevated but little above 

 Lake Erie. With the exception of the drainage valleys, which are exca- 



