PIKE COUNTY. 629 



upon any others, the fertility of soils depends, and the proportions here 

 given are sufficient to make the soils derived from these shales and clays 

 of the very highest degree of excellence. They explain the great fertil- 

 ity of these upland soils of the county when found in a state of nature, 

 as is attested by the luxuriant growth of all the better sorts of timber 

 that are to be looked for in this region. Under skillful tillage, also, they 

 yield excellent results ; but the modes of treatment in common use are 

 so ill-adapted to their constitution that much of the land, when cleared, 

 is counted unproductive and rated low. 



At various points in the county, but still more conspicuously just be- 

 yond its northern boundary, a stratum of conglomerate occurs between 

 twenty-five feet and fifty feet above the Buena Vista stone. It has not 

 been distinctly seen in place within the limits of Pike county, but it is 

 quite certain to be recognized by the pebbly waste of its outcrop. The 

 most southerly point at which it has been met is on the farm of Thomas 

 Walden, in the southern portion of Pebble township. This point, then, 

 marks the extreme extension of that heavy bed of conglomerate which 

 makes so conspicuous an element in the geology of the counties north- 

 ward, as shown by Prof. Andrews in the report of 1869. As is the case 

 in all of these Sub-Carboniferous and Coal-Measure conglomerates in 

 Ohio, nearly every pebble is quartz. The weight of one of the largest 

 from this horizon was found to be six ounces, even after a considerable 

 fragment had been broken off. 



No opportunities have been found, especially on the west side of the 

 Scioto, for studying the remainder of the series with the same care that 

 has been given to the lowermost two hundred and fifty feet. There are 

 at least three hundred feet of higher beds contained in the knobs, that 

 have already been described as making so striking a feature of the county, 

 on the west bank of the river, in the central portions of the county. 

 But these elevations are for the most part wooded ; no water-courses flow 

 from them; no quarries have been opened in them; and the opportuni- 

 ties for seeing their real structures are of the poorest. There are much 

 better exposures of the upper Waverly on the east side of the river ; but, 

 as will be presently shown, the series is so different there that the facts 

 obtained from the latter section would not bold true in the one now un- 

 der consideration. 



A few statements can, however, be made in regard to these three hun- 

 dred feet that will prove of service to those who are interested in com- 

 paring the varying elements of the Waverly group in different sections 

 of the State. 



(1.) With the exception of the Waverly shales and the Waverly black 



