CHAPTER XL. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF PAULDING COUNTY. 



BY X. H. •WINCHELL. 



SITUATION AND AREA. 



This county lies in the north-west corner of the State, and borders on 

 Indiana. It occupies the angle between the Auglaize and Maumee 

 Rivers before their union, extending a little beyond the limits of that 

 angle on both streams. Its area is given by the State Board of Equali- 

 zation at 259,235 acres, of which 21,443 acres are arable, or plow land ; 

 7,552 acres meadow or pasture land ; and 230,240 acres uncultivated or 

 wood land. 



NATURAL DRAINAGE. 



The Maumee is the principal stream of the county. It cuts off the 

 north-west corner of the county, running north-easterly. In a similar 

 manner the Auglaize cuts off the north-east corner, running north- 

 westerly. They unite a short distance north of the north line of the 

 county, at the city of Defiance. The slope of the county is very gentle 

 toward the north-east, and all the other streams flow in that direction, 

 the most of them uniting with the Auglaize. The streams are all slug- 

 gish, and flow with a winding course through wooded land, which is also 

 to a large extent very slowly drained of surface water in the spring. 



SURFACE FEATURES. 



These are to a great extent hid by the existence of a heavy growth of 

 forest timber. About eighty-nine per cent, of the acreage is classified as 

 " uncultivated, or wood land." In general the county is an unbroken 

 plain, the valleys of streams, eroded entirely in the loose Drift materials, 

 constituting almost the only variations from a dead fiat. On the north 

 side of the Maumee there is a gentle descent of about forty feet between 

 the county line and the north bank of the Maumee, at Antwerp, with a 

 further*descent of about fifty feet to the water level. This dense forest, 

 which is but little intersected by roads, is the hunting ground for parties 

 coming in the fall of the year from the central and southern parts of the 



