May, 1912.] A Study of Buckeye Lake and Vicinity. 5 r 7 
A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON A PHYSIOGRAPHIC STUDY 
OF BUCKEYE LAKE AND VICINITY. 
Freda Detmers. 
For the past three years, beginning with the spring of 1909, I 
have been engaged in a study of the plant geography of Buckeye 
Lake. An understanding of the physiography and of the physio- 
graphic history of any region is essential to a comprehension of 
the development of the flora of that region; therefore as the 
physiographic study is so closely correlated with the botanical, the 
two were carried on at the same time. 
A careful inspection of the topography, and an examination of 
the literature on the physiography of Buckeye Lake and its 
vicinity soon developed three topics of especial interest. These 
were: I, the existence or nonexistence of Lake Licking, a post or 
interglacial lake occupying the plains to the south and southwest 
of Newark, including Buckeye Lake; II, the physiographic history 
of Buckeye Lake and III, the location and extent of the Newark 
river valley, a preglacial valley, from Newark westward to the 
Franklin county line. 
These three problems are discussed in this paper in the same 
order as presented above. 
I. The existence or nonexistence of Lake Licking, a large 
post glacial lake south and southwest of Newark. 
In the report on the geological survey of Licking county, by 
M. C. Read, 1 2 3 the statement is made that to the south and south- 
west of Newark a lake of considerable size covered the surface 
“in the latter part of the glacial epoch.” The statement gives 
opportunity for a very wide interpretation as to the possible or 
probable age of this lake and it makes no reference at all to its 
longevity. As the region in question is covered by the Illinoian, 
the early and the late Wisconsin drift-sheets, 2, 3 the lake may 
have been post glacial, that is: formed by the recession of the Late 
Wisconsin ice, or interglacial and formed by the advance or retreat 
of the Early Wisconsin or retreat of the Illinoian and still fall 
within the “latter part” of the entire glacial epoch. 
In another paragraph of the same report Mr. Read 4 says: 
“The larger channels are now filled with water- washed pebbles 
resting ordinarily upon the old rocky bed, but in places upon the 
remains of the original drift clay, by a succession of terraces and 
corresponding water plains. South and southwest of Newark 
these water plains expand covering a large area. ” From this 
1. Read M. C. Geology of Licking County, O. Geol. Survey 3: 348-361, 1878. 
2. Leverett, Frank. Mon. 41: U. S. G. S. 
3. Chamberlain, T. C.. and Salisbury, R. D. Geology. Earth History. 2: 3: 1906. 
4. Read M. C. Geology of Licking County, O. Geol. Survey 3: 1878. 
