420 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



ard and the Belmore Ridges ; yet less than half a mile east of the village 

 the former ridge emerges with its characteristic form and gravelly com- 

 position, and so continues easterly, being quite conspicuous for three or 

 four miles east of Ayersville. Beyond that point it is apt to sink away, 

 becoming almost lost in the flatness of the Black Swamp ; but even in 

 the flat places the gravelly character of the surface soil reveals the loca- 

 tion of the true ridge. After intervals of disappearance it rises again 

 as plain as before. Such low intervals occur especially through sections 

 19, 29, and 33, in Pleasant township. In the N. E. J section 3, Palmer, 

 Putnam county, Mr. John Burkhardt lives on a little knoll or short ridge, 

 which, surrounded by the usual characters of the Black Swamp, is an 

 evident proof of the location of the inner margin of the Blanchard Ridge. 

 Mac. Maguire, near Burkhardt, is on a similar ridge. These are similar 

 to those about Medary Swamp. The ridge cannot be traced continuously 

 through sections 33 and 3, but may be occasionally seen. It is also spread 

 laterally. Job's farm, section 1, Palmer, and Cyrus Markley's, section 6, 

 Liberty, are on this ridge, which here is known as the "Leipsic Ridge," 

 from its passing through a village of that name further east. This ridge 

 runs mainly or entirely south of the Medary Swamp. It emerges from 

 the entanglement of that swamp toward the east with a marked and 

 unusual development on section 15, Liberty. It there seems to be half 

 a mile over, and maintains that size to Leipsic. It is more clayey than 

 the Belmore Ridge, as before described, between the swamp and Leipsic, 

 being little more than a shoulder in the general surface, sloping north- 

 east into the low land of the swamp. The soil of this ridge at Leipsic 

 is not much different from that south of the ridge, yet in some places it 

 is very gravelly, and has red spots along the north side. Thence to Mc- 

 Comb this ridge has more the characters of a shoulder, with a slope only 

 to the north ; but at that place, and east of it, it is a complete ridge, and 

 more gravelly, descending both to the north and south. Its outline is 

 rolling, and it rises sometimes twenty feet. Before reaching Van Buren it 

 spreads irregularly, or splits into two, which run independently a short 

 distance, or sometimes are connected by spurs. The whole width is 

 usually forty or fifty rods, and in some places a rolling surface prevails 

 for some distance south of the true ridge. Sometimes cobble-stones and 

 bowlders may be seen on it. Prom Van Buren to Postoria this ridge is 

 well defined, and has all the usual features, including a descent both 

 north and south. It is, however, apt to become broad and branched, or 

 double. At Fostoria, approaching from the west, it can be seen to sep- 

 arate into three parallel ridges, all included within the space of half a 

 mile. It is very commonly a real hard-pan, showing no more gravel 



