1 
Drainage Changes near Granville, Ohio 163 
its cause. Raccoon creek rises in the west by northwest part of 
Licking county, flows southeast to Alexandria and then almost 
due east to its junction with the South Fork of the Licking at 
Newark. The old topography of the headwater area has been so 
completely masked and smoothed by a filling of glacial debris that 
interpretation of the preglacial history is difficult. This interpre- 
tation must depend largely on the evidence of the less obscured 
area downstream. Beginning near Alexandria the drift filling 
slopes sharply eastward and the great width of the valley is revealed 
for several miles, until near Granville where it suddenly narrows, 
passing between rock walls. The appearance of this valley sug- 
gests a large amphitheater opening eastward : to the west, a slop- 
ing drift surface; southeast and east, except at the gap noted, rock 
walls of the Waverly Series, The northern wall consists for appar- 
ently several miles of a drift divide separating this valley from a 
similar one constituting the headwater area of Brushy Fork. The 
length of this drift divide, considered in connection with the nar- 
row rock-walled outlet to the east, is strong evidence that a former 
stream headed north of the present divide and following the large 
valley already mentioned passed westward through Alexandria. 
For convenience this old drainage line may be called the Alexan- 
dria river. (Fig. i.) 
The narrowing in the Raccoon continues for about a quarter 
of a mile east where the junction with an “Old” north-south 
tributary valley^® permits a decided southward flaring. The east 
wall of this tributary valley reaches out as a spur into the valley 
of the Raccoon, producing its minimum width. The constriction 
is further emphasized by the presence of a glacially worn rock 
hill known as Sugar Loaf, lying in the valley slightly northwest 
of the spur. East of Sugar Loaf about a third of a mile is a similar 
but larger rock hill, “Mount Parnassus.” This physiography 
suggests that a divide shaped like a reversed S once existed at 
this point; the two isolated rock hills being the remaining frag- 
ments of the outermost curves of the S. These two points, it 
may^ be noted, correspond very nearly with the east-west limits 
of the village of Granville. _ (Fig. 2.) 
From this divide area eastward about three miles the valley 
■again widens, the greater width being principally due to the numer- 
E. R. Sheffel: Bull. Set. Lab., Denison Univ., voL xiii, p. 154, 1907. 
