Mesozoic and Cenozoic Geology and Paleontology. vay) 
of water from the north, the adjacent land was not overflowed, and the 
height of the water in the valley was marked by river terraces. In 
- eastern Ohio, however, only those rivers which have their sources in 
the central and northern part of the State, have river terraces, as the 
Scioto, Hocking, and Muskingum rivers; while the smaller tributaries 
of the Ohio, such as Raccoon, Shade, Little Muskingum, and Duck 
creek, have not a vestige of the evidences of the drift from their sources 
to the Ohio. Some counties are absolutely driftless areas, while others, 
like Athens and Washington, show that the water passed down 
the Hocking and Muskingum valleys, but overspread no other 
part of the country. The same phenomena may be observed in Indi- 
ana and Illinois. The water did not cross the great valley of the Ohio 
until it reached the western part of Kentucky, for the States of Ken- 
tucky and Virginia, south and east of the State of Ohio, are absolutely 
driftless areas. 
It is an important fact, that throughout the drift area of Ohio, in all: 
well authenticated cases of excavation, below the drift, where there are 
no evidences of denudation, at the particular places, there has been 
found an ancient soil of vegetable mould resting upon the disintegrated 
stratified rocks in place. The beech, sycamore, hickory and cedar 
have been found where they grew prior to the existence of the drift 
period. And beneath this ancient soil, no one has discovered striated 
or furrowed rocks, such as the glacialists have claimed as an evidence 
of their theory, and which are not uncommon where the ancient soil 
does not exist. Wherever a ridge is found having an easterly and 
westerly direction, the north side and the plains to the north are 
covered with this ancient soil, reposing on the stratified rocks, beneath 
the whole mass of the drift. But on the ridges the soil is usually 
absent, and the rocks are not unfrequently scratched and covered 
with drift resting upon the abraded surfaces. 
A very good illustration of the ancient soil beneath the drift may 
be seen at the railroad cut north of the tunnel on East Walnut Hills, 
in the city of Cincinnati. This soil has a thickness in one place of 
four feet, and consists of a compact mass of very dark, rich, decayed 
vegetable matter full of roots which are lignitiferous, and still retain 
the hard woody fibers in a moderately good state of preservation. It 
reposes on the rocks of the Hudson River Group, and is covered by the 
sand and gravel of the drift, twenty feet or more in thickness. 
The excavation exposed it upon each side, for a distance of about 
100 feet, but the masonry will entirely cover it and hide it from view 
this season. 
