Wright.] 434 [Dec. 21, 



Miami joins the Ohio some miles above Cincinnati, while Mill Creek 

 joins it just below the city. The general height of the hills in that 

 vicinity above the river is from 400 to 500 feet. But the hills just 

 north of Cincinnati are separated from the general elevation farther 

 back by the depression referred to, in which Madisonville is situ- 

 ated. 



The depression is from one to two miles wide, and about five 

 miles long, from one stream to the other, and is occupied by a de- 

 posit of gravel, sand and loam, clearly enough belonging to the 

 glacial-terrace epoch. The surface of this is generally level, and 

 is about 200 feet above the low-water mark in the Ohio. On the 

 east side, on the Little Miami River, at Red Bank, the gravel is 

 rather coarse, ranging from one to three or four inches, interstrat- 

 ified with sand, and underlain, near the river-level, with fine clay. 

 There is here a thin covering of loess, or fine loam. On going 

 westward this loess deposit increases in thickness, being at Madi- 

 sonville, one mile west, about eight feet thick. Farther west it is 

 much deeper, and seems to take the place of the gravel entirely. 

 At several railroad cuttings, the compact glacial clay, technically 

 called "till," with scratched stones, appears underneath all. 



From this description it appears that this cross-valley, connect- 

 ing Mill Creek with the Little Miami back of Avondale, Walnut 

 Hills and the observatory, was once much deeper than now, and 

 has been filled in with deposits made when immense glacial floods 

 were pouring down these two streams from the north. The Little 

 Miami was a very important line of glacial drainage, as is shown 

 by the extensive gravel terraces all along its course, to which the 

 railroads resort for ballast. The coarser material was deposited 

 near the direct line of drainage, where the current was strong, while 

 back from the river towards Madisonville, there is an increase of 

 the fine deposit, or loess, which is practically a still-water forma- 

 tion. 



In making an excavation for a cistern, Dr. Metz penetrated the 

 loess just described eight feet before reaching the gravel, and 

 there, just below the surface of the gravel, the implement referred 

 to was found. There is no chance for it to have been covered by 

 any slide, for the plain is extensive and level topped, and there 

 had evidently been no previous disturbance of the gravel. 



Subsequently, in the spring of the present year (1887), Dr. Metz 

 found another palseolith in an excavation in a similar deposit in the 



