CHAPTER LVIIL 
REPORT ON THE GHOLOGY OF PORTAGE COUNTY. 
BY J. S. NEWBERRY. 
SURFACE FEATURES AND DEPOSITS. 
Portage county lies entirely on the watershed which separates the 
streams that flow into Lake Erie from the tributaries of the Ohio. Its 
central portion rises to an altitude of six hundred and eighty-five feet 
above the Lake, while the valleys by which its surface is diversified de- 
-scend about three hundred feet lower. The highest point of the county 
is near the line of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, between 
Rootstown and Atwater, while the lowest is in the valley of the Mahon- 
ing, below Garrettsville. 
When first entered by the whites, the county was covered with an un- 
broken sheet of primeval forest, consisting, on the lower and more level 
‘portions, of beech and maple; of oak, chestnut, etc., on the higher and 
drier lands. 
Though underlain by rocks of diverse character, the surface is mainly 
formed by a sheet of clay, which has given a peculiar character to the 
agricultural pursuits of the inhabitants, and has made this a portion of 
the great dairy district of the Western Reserve. 
In some localities on the northern and western slope of the watershed, 
but near its summit, are heavy beds of gravel, forming swells of the sur- 
face, or even rounded hills of considerable altitude. Typical examples of 
these may be seen in Randolph, Rootstown, Suffield, Franklin, and Brim- 
field, and near Harlville, on the lines of the two railroads which pass 
‘through the county. In the basins inclosed by these gravel hills and 
ridges lie most of the lakes and peat bogs of the county. These gravel 
hills constitute an interesting feature in the surface deposits, and will be 
found described in the first chapter of Vol. II, under the head of Kames. 
I have ascribed them to the action of waves on the Drift deposit of the 
