CHAPTER XLV. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF ALLEN COUNTY. 



BY N. H. WINCHELL. 



SITUATION AND AREA. 



Allen county lies south of Putnam, is bounded east by Hancock and 

 Hardin, south by Auglaize, and west by Van Wert. It is separated from 

 the Michigan boundary line by three intervening counties, and from the 

 Indiana line by one. Its area is nine square miles more than eleven 

 towns Qf thirty-six square miles each. 



NATURAL DRAINAGE. 



The streams which drain the county are small, and flow west and 

 south-west in the eastern half of the county, but turn toward the north 

 in the western half. This is true not only of Sugar Creek, the Ottawa 

 (known also as Hog Creek), and the Little Ottawa, which form such 

 angles within the county, but also of the Auglaize, which rises in the 

 south-east corner of the county, leaves it in a south-westerly, then re- 

 enters and crosses it in the western part in a northerly direction. 



SURFACE FEATURES AND SOIL. " 



The western half of the county is flat, and presents the common fea- 

 tures of the Black Swamp. The banks left by the erosion of the streams 

 are from ten to fifteen feet in height above the summer stage of the 

 water. The Auglaize below Cramersville (section 3, Marion) has fre- 

 quent exposures of the rock. Also, in the township of Amanda, near 

 the county line, the rock forms the bed of the river. In general, how- 

 ever, the bed of the river is on the Drift materials. The same is true of 

 the Ottawa. The soil of this portion of the county is usually a close, 

 heavy clay. There are places, however, wjjSewe considerable alluvium is 

 spread over the surface of the Drift, incident to the overflow of the 

 streams. Occasionally, as in the Van Wert Ridge, which passes through 



