654 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



we learn the following surprising facts: The creek at the point above 

 named, and at a comparatively recent date, left the broad valley which it 

 had been working out for itself through unnumbered thousands of years, 

 and turned sharply to the southward, flowing now in a narrow channel 

 often not more than two hundred feet in width at the base, bottomed 

 with rock, and bounded by precipitous cliffs not less than three hundred 

 feet in height. After following a south-east course for three miles, it 

 turns again to the north-east, and regains its old valley two miles west of 

 the south line of Chillicothe. 



The new channel, then, is about five miles in length, has an average 

 width at base of about three hundred feet, is entirely free from Drift de- 

 posits, and is bedded and bounded by rock. As has been already said, 

 the old channel is unmistakably distinct. The turnpike above named 

 follows the old valley to the crossing of the North Fork of Paint Creek, 

 and from that point the last named stream occupies the old valley alone 

 for three miles, when the main stream returns from its detour to its 

 former bounds. In other words, the former junction of the North Pork 

 and the main creek was at the point where the turnpike now crosses the 

 North Fork. 



To the questions, when and how was this important change in the 

 drainage of the county effected, it is easy to return a probable answer. 



The old valley of Paint Creek, from Bainbridge to the crossing of the 

 North Fork, above named, has a general course of 40° north of east. The 

 valley of the North Fork, on the other hand, has a general direction of 

 25° south of east. Tbey meet, therefore, at an angle of about 65°. The 

 valley of the North Fork, bearing to the south-east, was in the general 

 line of advance of the glaciers tbat covered this portion of Ohio, as is 

 amply proved by the direction of the stria? and grooves which are still 

 left upon the surfaces of the harder rocks over which these glaciers 

 slowly traveled. The valley must then have been occupied by one of 

 the southernmost prolongations of the continental glacier under which 

 all of the northern portions of the State were buried. On the other 

 hand, the north-easterly direction of the valley of main Paint Creek ren- 

 ders it impossible that it could have been thus occupied. When now 

 the rigors of the long winter of the Glacial Drift began to be relaxed, 

 and the swollen drainage of the country sought once more its former out- 

 lets, Paint Creek, both from its freedom from glacier occupation and from 

 its more southern location, would first become filled with water. The 

 ice-wall of the North Fork glacier must, however, have shut out the 

 stream from its old channel, and, as a consequence, the waters would 

 have set back from the western bank of the North Fork in a lake, the 



