CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



KEPOKT ON THE GEOLOGY OF VAN WERT COUNTY. 



BY N. H. TVINCFELL. 



SITUATION AND AREA. 



This county lies on the Indiana border, three other counties interyen- 

 ing between it and the State of Michigan. Allen and Putnam counties 

 lie east, and Mercer south. Paulding county joins it on the north. It 

 contains 258,592 acres, of which 51,142 are denominated arable or plow 

 land, 21,042 meadow or pasture land, and 186,408 uncultivated or wood 

 land. The average value per acre is $11.15, or, including buildings, 

 $11.87. The county forms nearly a square. It has a projection in the 

 middle of the east side including half a town. 



NATURAL DRAINAGE. 



The surface drainage consists in a number of gentle, small streams 

 that flow north-easterly, joining the Auglaize River in Putnam and 

 Paulding counties. There are several large, uncultivated prairii or 

 marshes, which are subject to inundation in spring time. These give 

 rise to some of these small drainage streams. 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



By saying the county is flat the general character of the surface is ex- 

 pressed. It lies in the Black Swamp, the features of ,yhich have been 

 already described in reports on other counties, and in a former chapter 

 devoted to the Drift in north-western Ohio. In the south-west corner 

 this county is crossed by the St. Mary's River, which brings into that 

 part of the county a few miles of the more undulating surface charac- 

 terizing the St. Mary's ridge. Through the center of the county, in a 

 north-west and south-east course, runs- tl.3 gravelly Van Wert ridge. 

 North of this ridge there is no variety of surface whatever. There is a 

 gentle, very regular descent, sometimes hardly enough to sufficiently 

 drain the land for easy agriculture, from this ridge to the north line of 

 the county, and beyond to the Auglaize River. 



