CHAPTER LVI. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF PICKAWAY COUNTY. 



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This county lies wholly within the Scioto yalley, and is bounded by 

 Franklin county on the north, Fairfield and Hocking counties on the 

 east, Ross county on the south, and Fayette and Madison on the west 

 The principal affluents of the Scioto within this county are on the east— 

 Scipio Creek and Little Walnut Creek ; and on the west, Darby Creek 

 and Deer Creek. The last mentioned empties into the Scioto in Rosa 

 county. Deer and Derby creeks are streams of considerable size, which 

 rise in the north-west, beyond the limits of the county, and flow through 

 it to meet the Scioto. 



SURFACE GEOLOGY. 



The general surface of this county is comparatively level, and consti- 

 tutes a part of the broad area of the smooth and unbroken country which 

 stretches away to the north and west through a large number of coun- 

 ties. The valley of the Scioto, which in southern Ross, and in. Pike and 

 Scioto counties, is gradually diminished in width as it approaches the 

 Ohio River, becomes in Pickaway county wide enough to include nearly 

 all the county. No high, rough hills border the river ; but in the dis- 

 tance, especially on the east, we find a somewwat elevated horizon, as the 

 lowlands gradually pass by beautiful undulations into the highlands, 

 which divide the waters of the Scioto from those of the Hocking. It is 

 among these gentle hills that we find the finest scenery of the county. 



The whole county is covered with Drift, and every where can we find, 

 in gravel or bowlders, evidences of an agency which has brought for- 

 eign materials and scattered them over the surface. The bowlders are 

 composed of granites, diorites, quartzites, etc., which have come from 

 regions north of the lakes. Occasionally a limestone bowlder is seen, 

 and much of the Drift gravel is composed of the same material. The 

 whole surface of the county presents the appearance of having been once 

 the bed of a shallow sea, for the gravel and sand show ripple marks and 

 other modifications, such as water only could produce. The bowlders 

 were, as I think, dropped from floating ice. They are seen almost every 

 where, but perhaps more along the eastern edge of the county, especially 



