238 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



would produce no effect on the distribution and character of the Drift, 

 especially in a county so level as Crawford county is. That force, what- 

 ever it was, must hence have been something that came some way into 

 contact with the rock, in order to receive different impressions from it. 



As has already been remarked, the uniformity of the characters of 

 these belts is interrupted by a series of ridges, equally pertaining to the 

 Drift, which cross them in a direction north-east and south-west. A very 

 prominent ridge of Drift materials enters the county from Wyandot 

 county,* in section 1, Todd township, and runs along the north side of 

 the Broken Sword Creek, serving in Crawford county, as in Wyandot, as 

 a barrier to the westward flow of that stream to the valley of the San- 

 dusky, driving it far to the south-west before it is able to pass it. The 

 handsome farm and residence of Mr. J. A. Klink, section 6, Liberty town- 

 ship, are located upon it. This ridge of Drift can be traced, with some 

 interruptions, through north-western Ohio a distance of over a hundred 

 miles, when it leaves the State and enters Indiana. It has been named 

 the Wabash Eidge, from the Wabash River, which it diverts from its 

 course through a distance of more than forty miles. In Crawford county 

 the Drift accumulations belonging to this ridge are not always heaped up 

 in one ridge, but are spread out into a succession of ridges having the 

 same direction and made up of similar materials. This is particularly 

 noticeable north from Bucyrus, in the township of Chatfield. This series 

 of parallel ridges crosses the northern portion of Todd and Holmes town- 

 ships. In Cranberry township, as it enters upon the rolling tract due to 

 the underlying Waverly sandstone, it becomes confused, and cannot cer- 

 tainly be identified. It lies on the north side of the watershed of the 

 State, and pertains to the Lake Erie valley, yet it serves to turn the 

 Scioto diagonally across the watershed, and causes it to turn southward 

 instead of northward. In the same way it diverts the Wabash from the 

 Lake Erie valley, and compels its waters to reach the ocean through the 

 Mississippi valley instead of the St. Lawrence. 



Soil and Timber. — The soil of Crawford county varies, of course, accord- 

 ing to the prevalence of one or the other of the foregoing varieties of sur- 

 face. In the eastern belt it is gravelly, with some patches of tough clay. 

 In the central belt it is generally clayey, and needs artificial drainage. 

 In the western belt it is a clayey soil, but shows more gravel than in the 

 central. The soil of the ridges above described is sufficiently gravelly, 

 and the surface is sufficiently sloping, to admit of perfect natural drain- 

 age. The prairie patches, situated in different parts of the county, are 



* See Geology of Wyandot County. 



