376 I. C. White — Bowlders at high altitudes. 



the junction of streams, and consequently at the mouth of Elk 

 River, on the great Kanawha, in the vicinity of Charleston. Vast 

 numbers of them extend to near 250 feet above this river 

 (800 feet above tide), and scattering ones are found up to 390 

 feet or 945 feet above tide. Here, along with the hard rocks of 

 local origin, we find great numbers that have come from the Blue 

 Ridge in Virginia and North Carolina, nearly 200 miles distant. 



The effect of local causes in both forming and preserving 

 these deposits is well illustrated along the great Kanawha, for 

 with a single exception (near the mouth of Paint Creek), no 

 other deposit of bowlders exists between Charleston and the 

 mouth of Gauley river, a distance of 40 miles. At this latter 

 point, however, the quantity of rubbish thrown down seems to 

 have been so great that a considerable thickness of rounded 

 bowlders still exists on a comparatively steep slope up to 150 

 feet above the river; but here the ascent becomes almost pre- 

 cipitous and the deposit disappears. 



On Elk River, two miles above Charleston, an example may be 

 observed very similar to the famous one of Teazes valley, though 

 on a much smaller scale. Here a stream, known as Two-mile, 

 enters Elk, and on following up the same for a distance of two 

 miles, we find one of its branches heading in a narrow valley 

 up against a creek which flows in the opposite direction and 

 enters Elk about five miles above Charleston. The divide 

 between the two streams is almost imperceptible, and it is cov- 

 ered with a deposit of clay and rounded bowlders at an eleva- 

 tion of 175 feet above the level of the Elk, thus proving that 

 an arm of the same passed through this valley during the epoch 

 of submergence. From Major Campbell, of Charleston, to 

 whom I am indebted for the elevation of this old water-way, I 

 learn that another abandoned valley precisely similar to the one 

 at the head of Two-mile, may be seen about ten miles farther 

 up Elk River. 



It is a remarkable fact that along the Ohio valley, between 

 Point Pleasant and Rochester, with a single exception, trans- 

 ported bowlders have never been reported above the level of 

 the third terrace, or say an extreme elevation of 100-125 feet 

 above low-water. I have myself examined the hill-slopes at 

 probably 200 different points between the mouth of the big 

 Kanawha and the Beaver 250 miles above, and with the single 

 exception noted, not one water- worn bowlder has been observed 

 above the uppermost of the broad river bottoms. We cannot 

 doubt that they once existed far up these river hills, since, at 

 Pittsburgh, above, and Charleston, below, they occur several 

 hundred feet higher than along the intermediate Ohio. It is 

 very probable that their absence is due to the very steep hill 

 slopes that exist throughout the region in question, thus permit- 



