CRAWFORD COUNTY. 237 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



A general division of the county may be made into three nearly equal 

 belts running north and south. The most easterly of these belts may be 

 described as rolling and stony, with frequent gravel beds and bowlders ; 

 yet in the eastern portion of the townships of Vernon and Jackson the 

 surface is decidedly flat, even in this belt. The streams throughout this 

 belt have greatly increased the original unevenness of the Drift surface, 

 and in some cases their channels are dug, not only through the Drift, but 

 also into the rock, to the depth of forty or sixty feet. At the quarry of 

 Mr. James Morrow, section 1 (Jackson), the banks of the Sandusky have 

 a height of 68 feet 6 inches, abruptly rising from the water, with a fur- 

 ther ascent of 10 feet within a few rods. Thirty-five feet of this excava- 

 tion is in the Berea grit of the Waverly sandstone. Under this stone is 

 a shale, probably belonging to the Bedford of Dr. Newberry, which is 

 not bituminous. 



The second, or middle, belt affords a strong contrast to the last, being 

 usually quite flat.' It is very distinctly marked off by a series of knobs 

 or gravelly hills pertaining to the Drift. East of this rolling upland 

 the surface is apt to continue more or less broken, producing the features 

 already described, while toward the west the surface becomes very soon 

 a monotonous flat, with a tough and heavy clay soil. This distinction is 

 very marked in the central and southern portions of the county. In the 

 northern its uniformity is disturbed by the influence of a series of ridges 

 which intersect it ; and the whole northern portion of the second belt, 

 as in the vicinity of New Washington and Annapolis, is undulating, 

 with a gravelly clay soil. This middle belt is underlain by the black 

 slate and the shale beds above and below it. The streams in this mid- 

 dle belt, though deeply cut in the Drift, very rarely expose the under- 

 lying rock. 



The third belt lies along the west side of the county, and is about co- 

 extensive with the area underlain by the upper member of the Cornifer- 

 ous limestone. The surface here varies from flat to undulating. In the 

 southern part of the county it is flat and marshy. Extensive prairies 

 prevail in Dallas township. But the northern portion of this belt is 

 more broken, and characterized by broad surface swells, or ridges, which 

 cross the belt obliquely. 



The features of these three belts seem to be coincident with, and doubt- 

 less are dependent on, the nature of the underlying rock. They are all 

 confined to the surface deposits. If these deposits were brought about 

 by a uniform force, acting equally on all parts of the county, such as 

 submergence beneath the ocean, the character of the underlying rock 



