CHAPTER LVII. 



REPORT ON THE GEOLOGY OF PIKE COUNTY. 



I. SITUATION AND TOPOGRAPHY. 



Pike county is bounded on the north by Ross, on the east by Jackson, 

 on the south by Scioto and Adams, and on the west by Highland and 

 Adams counties. The Scioto River traverses it from north to south, en- 

 tering it at the north-eastern corner, bearing from that point south-west 

 to the center of the county, and thence due south to the county line. 

 This broad and deep valley constitutes by far the most important feature 

 of the topography of the county. The east and west divisions which it 

 makes of the county are somewhat unequal in area, the latter being the 

 larger. Each of these divisions is again divided into a north and south 

 portion. Sunfish Creek, which rises in the extreme western portion of 

 the county, flows through the central region of this part of the county, 

 until within five miles of the Scioto, very nearly east. It is deflected at 

 this point at a right angle, and after flowing five miles to the southward 

 bends as abruptly to the east again. But the slighter valley of Noname 

 Creek continues from the first point named, the east and west furrow 

 begun by the Sunfish valley, across the entire western half of the county. 

 The valley of the Sunfish is deep and narrow. On the eastern side of the 

 river, and exactly opposite the mouth of Noname, the valley of Beaver Creek 

 reaches the river after having traversed the whole eastern portion of the 

 county, through which it has flowed in a westerly direction. These two 

 valleys of Sunfish and Beaver creeks, it will thus be perceived, make as 

 natural a highway from west to east, across the entire breadth of the 

 county, as the Scioto valley does through the county from north to south. 

 In the extreme north-western and south-eastern corners of the county, 

 near Cynthiana and California respectively, there are conspicuous ex- 

 amples of surface erosion that do not belong to either of the systems thus 

 far named, but which are connected with the drainage systems of adjoin- 

 ing counties. Neither case, in fact, is explicable by existing agencies of 

 erosion. The California valley, which is very broad and deep, is occu- 

 pied by an insignificant stream that flows with a sluggish current upon 



