The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. XII, No. 7, 
5*8 
statement I infer that the “water plains”, according to Mr. Read 
form the present surface of the region and were the bed of the 
former lake, presumably post -Wisconsin, which must have existed 
until very recent times; and that the present and recently drained 
swamps of this region were remnants of the lake. 
In June, 1S94, W. G. Tight 5 published an article in which several 
pages are devoted to the topography and present drainage of Lick- 
ing county. In this article he says: “The South Fork of the 
Licking flows with a sluggish current over a broad alluvial plain 
which is covered with a black lacustrine deposit of several feet in 
thickness. This is especially true of that portion lying between 
the Licking Reservoir and Newark. We have suggested the name 
Lake Licking for the bod}* of water in which these deposits were 
made and of which the original lake in the Reservoir was a part, 
occupying a large kettle hole in the drift when the main body of 
water was drained away. ” 
The above statement by Mr, Tight definitely refers Lake Lick- 
ing to post Wisconsin times; as these “lacustrine deposits” and 
Licking Reservoir, the present Buckeye Lake, are at the surface 
and must therefore lie on the drift. 
Black alluvial deposits indicate river beds or swamps rather 
than lakes. Moreover black soil does not prevail throughout 
this area, but is seen only in depressions, which have evidently 
been shallow kettles. 
The region to the south and southwest of Newark is charac- 
terized by a mature topography, as an inspection of the country 
or a study of the topographic sheets of the Thurston, Thornville, 
Granville and Newark quadrangles clearly show. The hills are 
low and rounded, with gentle slopes; the streams flow in broad 
open valleys, which together with the hills are deeply covered with 
a drift mantle to a maximum depth of 453 feet. The valleys are 
so deeply filled that the present highest elevations are but 200-214 
feet above the valley floors. This extensive leveling up has 
converted the low lands into a region with the topography of 
youth, characterized by low watersheds separated by broad 
plains and drained by numerous small, shallow, irregular streams, 
many of which are wet weather streams only ; and also by numerous 
surface depressions varying in size from small kettles a few square 
yards in extent to swamps covering several hundred acres. 
There is no well-defined either rock or morainal ridge of hills 
which could serve as the rim of a large lake. The surface cover, 
except in the kettles and beds of streams is unassorted glacial till, 
consisting of clay containing many small sharp angled stones, 
and with a srtiking absence of large boulders. I can nowhere find 
lake beaches, lake clays, sand or stream delta deposits. Glacial 
5. Tight, W. G. A contribution to the knowledge of the preglacial drainage of Ohio. Bull. 
Den. Univ. 8: 1. 38. 1894. 
