PUTNAM COUNTY. 391 



At Ottoville, in the Little Auglaize, S. E. J section 24, Monterey town- 

 ship, the Waterlime presents a surface exposure. ■ 



In the Blanchard River the rock often shows in Blanchard township. 

 It was noted particularly at a point three miles west of Gilboa, on land 

 of Mr. George Harding; also, S. E. J section 29, on Samuel Kline's land. 

 It also appears on sections 27 and 28, land of 0. W. Crawfis. 



Occasionally, in the southern portion of the county, the Waterlime 

 rises in gentle undulations, which are observable through the Drift. In 

 such cases the rock is sometimes visible, and has been quarried. These 

 undulations are not conspicuous enough to be known as "limestone 

 ridges." Indeed, the rock is sometimes encountered in ditching in low, 

 flat ground, where no change in the general level is observable. The 

 rock is exposed in this manner on the land of N. W. Ogan, section 35, 

 Pleasant township; also, S. W. J section 36, on the land of D. Strow, in 

 the same township ; also, in sections 8, 17, and 16, Sugar Creek township, 

 land of Jacob Rhodes. 



The Drift in Putnam county, as in Hancock, seems to be thicker north 

 of the Blanchard than south of it. The frequent exposure of the rock 

 along the streams flowing northward in the southern portion of the 

 county indicates that their channels are eroded as deeply in the Drift 

 deposit as the inequalities in the rocky surface will permit. The aver- 

 age height of their banks will not exceed twenty feet; and twenty-five 

 feet will probably exceed rather than fall short of the average thickness 

 of the Drift. North of the Blanchard the average depth in the Drift of 

 thirty wells reported by the County Surveyor, L. E. Holtz, of Ottawa, 

 many of which did not strike the rock, is sixty-four feet. He gives but 

 two south of the Blanchard, both of which are twenty-two feet, one being 

 artesian. 



The materials of the Drift are rarely assorted or stratified, the great 

 mass of it being a typical glacial hard-pan. Bowlders of all sizes are 

 disseminated promiscuously through it. It is generally quite impervious 

 to water, and sometimes artesian wells rise from the bed of sand and 

 gravel which usually intervenes between it and the rock. Although 

 the mass is unassorted, the ridges and knolls which occur in the north- 

 eastern part of the county, as well as the Van Wert Ridge, which crosses 

 the south-eastern corner, passing through Webster, Pendleton, Columbus 

 Grove, and Vaughansville, consist largely of assorted materials, usually 

 of gravel and sand, in oblique stratification. Bowlders are very rarely 

 seen in the county, except in the drainage valleys, where they have been 

 washed out of the Drift. On the S. E. J section 21, Jackson township, a 

 large Corniferous bowlder lies in the channel of the river, having a 



