The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol.XII, No. 7. 
528 
deep pre-glacial channel from the north enters the county a little 
west of the Sandusky Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
extending southward to Newark and is now occupied by the 
northern branch of the Licking River. At Newark it divides, 
one branch turning directly to the east in the valley of Licking 
River, and one branch extending *north westerly, through what 
was evidently at one period a broad lake, and in which now the 
south branch of the Licking flows with a reversed current to join 
the main stream at Newark. ” 
The presence of this old valley has been corroborated by W. G. 
Tight 10 and Frank Leverett. * 11 
Mr. Leverett 12 sketches the position and extent of the old valley 
in the following paragraphs: 
“Tight has shown that the greater part of the Muskingum 
drainage system was formerly connected with the Scioto system 
by a broad valley leading from Dresden (a few miles above Zanes- 
ville) westward past Newark to the Licking reservoir and thence 
into the Scioto Basin near Circleville. The present southward 
course past Zanesville is there a much narrower valley than the 
old line leading westward to the Scioto Basin, and the rock floor 
is markedly higher along the present course of the Muskingum 
than along the old course. 
“At Hanover, an open valley sets in which extends westward 
to the vicinity of the Licking reservoir, where it is so filled with 
drift as to render its further course difficult to determine. A 
series of gas borings however, indicate that it passes southward 
about to Hadley Junction and then turns westward, passing near 
Canal Winchester and Groveport and coming to the Scioto River 
about midway between Columbus and Circleville, where it seems 
to have joined the old Kanawha system. ” 
I have quoted Mr. Leverett at length, for his location of the 
valley is in the main verified by the data I have been able to secure. 
The mantle of drift throughout this region is so thick that the 
beds in the streams lie in it, neither railroad cuts nor water wells 
cut through to the rock. The only data therefore which give the 
entire depth of drift must be obtained from gas wells, which 
fortunately are very numerous in this section. I obtained records 
from a large number of wells from Newark southwestward to a 
point on the Little Walnut about 2 Y 2 miles east of Lockville. 
* Northwesterly must be an error. The South Fork of the Licking flows from the southwest to 
the northeast across the plain, west and southwest of Newark. Northwesterly should undoubtedly 
read southwesterly. 
10. Tight, W. G. Drainage modifications in southeastern Ohio and adjacent parts of W. Va. 
and Ky. U. S. G. S. Prof. Paper. 13. 
11. Leverett, Frank. Glacial formations and drainage features of the Erie and Ohio 
Basins. Mon. 41: U. S. G. S. 155, 1902. 
12. Leverett, Frank. Glacial formations and drainage features of the Erie and Ohio Basins. 
Mon. 41: U. S. G. S. p. 155, 1902. 
