308 21ie American Geologist. November, 1896 
ward so that the drainage is in the opposite direction or 
toward lake Erie. About two miles to the south of the vil- 
lage a sharper rise begins and the surface rapidly reaches an 
elevation 200 feet higher forming a long, low, east-west ridge 
on the northern edge of the high land where lies the water- 
shed of the state. Along this flows Buck creek from the 
northwestern portion of Ashland Co. until it finds a passage 
down the slope to the plain below on its way to the lake after 
joining the Vermillion river. 
The district around New London is therefore a sloping 
hollow toward the north calculated to hold up the water com- 
ing from the retreating ice-sheet until some lower overflow- 
place was uncovered. A short-lived pond may therefore have 
existed in the county during part of the interval required for 
the recession of the ice from New London to the lake shore, 
but the high level 400 feet above lake Erie, forbids our belief 
in its long continuance. 
The structure of the ground is in accord witli this view. 
It consists of irregular strata of sand, and flne clay, some- 
times a quicksand, overlying ever}^ where the tough blue- 
boulder clay with small stones. These beds are riot extensive 
or regular. In conversation with a well-driller who had had 
a large experience among them I learned that, he had found a 
bed of sand perfectly dry at one place, to which by the way 
he had been guided by a water-witch with his hazel rod, and 
fifty feet from it, at a spot chosen by his own unaided intellect 
and at the same depth he had obtained abundance of water. 
Such variations were, he said, common over all the district. 
This structure indicates plainly the deposits of the torrents 
of water and the still pools which characterize the flow from' 
the front of a glacier in a flat countr3^ In one place gravel 
is dropped, in another sand, and in a third even ftner material 
such as clay may be accumulated. The indications at the 
spot where Mr. Chapin's well was dug point to an area of 
comparatively still water varied from time to time with slight 
currents which brought in the thin streaks of sand mterlam- 
inated with the clay. In other places especially to the west- 
ward gravel is much more abundant, the clay being often 
absent. 
