DRIFT DIVISION. 
191 
Dr. Hildreth, have described the drift deposits of Ohio.* The geological reports of Ohio 
contain frequent notices of boulders and drift.f They are generally from the north, but in 
some instances from other directions. Dr. Locke mentions white granular limestone con¬ 
taining tremolite4 at Dayton ; and Mr. Whittlesey, masses of grey limestone at Northampton 
and Boston in Portage county, which resembles in its mineral characters and fossil remains 
the limestone of Sandusky, and the islands of that region fifty miles west of their present 
position, which is the nearest known point of their outcrop on the surface of the earth. 
Mr. Owen has described the drift as of great extent and thickness in the northern part of 
Indiana.^ Prof. Shepard has described some of the boulders of the northern part of Illinois, 
as composed of granite, granitic gneiss and trap, and arranged in belts.|| Dr. Houghton and 
his assistants! have described those of Michigan. Nearly all the boulders of these western 
States have their origin in a northwardly direction, and the primary boulders have been trans¬ 
ported from beyond the Great lakes on the north. 
It has been stated that vast quantities of boulders of primitive rocks are strewed over the 
great valley of the Missouri and Mississippi, from the Yellowstone almost to the Gulf of 
Mexico.** Without wishing to contradict this statement, I may be permitted to remark, that 
although I have traversed the country from the Missouri to near the Gulf of Mexico exten¬ 
sively, both in the States and the Indian country west of them, I have seen scarcely a boul¬ 
der of the primitive rocks south of the Lower Missouri, except some of no great size and at 
no great distance south of the primitive range in Missouri. On the upper part of the Missouri, 
and on the prairies and water-sheds of its northern tributaries, as well as those of the whole 
Upper Mississippi and of Red river of the North, they are numerous, more abundant, and of 
greater size as we proceed nearer to the primary granitic tableau, which ranges eastwardly 
across the St. Peters, Crow river, Mississippi, to Lake Superior, and thence on to the St. 
Lawrence. 
The following notices of boulders have never been published, but are taken from my manu¬ 
script report to the Secretary of War, of a geological reconnoisance made from Green bay to 
the Coteau de Prairie in 1835, in company with Mr. G. W. Featherstonhaugh. As they tend to 
show the direction of transport in that remote region, and will perhaps aid in solving the pro¬ 
blem of the drift, they are inserted. The m. andj). refer to the manuscript report and page. 
* American Journal of Science, Vol. 13, p. 39; Vol. 14, p. 291; Vol. 23, pp. 300; Vol. 29, pp. 11, 12, 17. 
t Geological Report of Ohio for 1838, pp. 16, 17; Id. for 1839, pp. 64, 78, 79, 122, 123, 230, 236. 
t Bigsby has described such limestone north of the Lakes. (Vide American Journal of Science.) 
ij Geological Report of Indiana for 1837, pp. 19, 20. 
II American Journal of Science, Vol. 24, pp. 141, 142. 
% Geological Reports of Michigan. 
** Gatlin. American Journal of Science, Vol. 38, p. 143. 
