2 [ 2 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. XI, No. 1, 
much more time than post-glacial time. Second, they do not act 
like the Big Darby and other streams in the neighborhood. As a 
general thing a stream here swings from one side to the other and 
undercuts the bluffs; but not so with this one. The third fact is, 
that the present streams are out of harmony with the size of the 
valley. These facts suggest that the present streams may have 
had little part in the formation of the valley, but are only the 
result of the present local rainfall. Did this region then at some 
previous period have a larger rainfall? And has the rainfall 
become less and so reduced the size of the stream? In answer to 
these questions it should be pointed out that other streams in the 
vicinity should show the same phenomenon. No such lack of har- 
mony in size is found in any of the nearby streams. Thus we are 
forced to the conclusion that the valley was formed by other 
means than that of the present streams or the same enlarged by 
heavier precipitation. 
Since the theory that the valley has been made by its present 
occupants seems to be untenable another hypothesis is proposed 
for its origin, namely, that it has been formed by the ice. At first 
this explanation looked very plausible but when one recalls that 
the surrounding country is a till plain from fifty to sixty feet 
higher than the valley floor one wonders why the ice in this par- 
ticular course cut a deep channel and left the surrounding till 
plain smooth. We are unable to give a satisfactqry answer to 
this question. Further, if the ice carved the valley it seems at 
least probable that the Darby would have used the ready-made 
channel. 
There are several points which seem to indicate that the valley 
is really a stream valley even if the present streams did not pro- 
duce it. These points may be summarized as follows; (1) The 
valley floor is nearly level across from one side to the other as all 
stream-made valleys are and not U-shaped like ice-made valleys. 
(2) The valley slopes are well graded and rounded at the top into 
the upland plain on either side which would not be the case in an 
ice-made valley. (3) A more certain proof that it is a stream- 
made valley is that its floor is composed of fine silt with no admix- 
ture of rocks. If it were an ice-made valley the floor of the valley 
would be of characteristic drift. Thus it appears that it is not 
made by ice but by a stream and that the streams found in it at 
present are not responsible for its formation. 
There is a small stream entering this valley near its northern 
entrance to the Darby which possibly might have been responsible 
for this valley. This stream comes in from the west and cuts 
across the northern end of the valley and flows into the Darby 
through the valley’s entrance into the same. But investigation 
shows that this stream is entirely too small to have been responsi- 
ble for such a valley. A stream to have cut this valley must have 
