BUTLER COUNTY. 403 
these noble tracts can not much longer endure, they seem somewhat 
stubborn and sterile. 
There are no native soils on the uplands of the county, but the beds of - 
drift grow thinn r xs we pass to the southward, and occasionally they 
disappear for limited areas from the slopes of the hills. The soil that is 
there formed from the waste of the shales and limestones of the Cincin- 
nati series is of unusual excellence. The famous blue-grass land of Ken- 
tucky, it will be remembered, is derived from this same system. 
The fact that the boundary of the drift is being rapidly neared as we 
approach the southern line of the county explains certain points in the 
topography of the four south-western townships. They are much rougher 
and more broken than the remaining areas. This arises from the failure 
of the drift to cover the irregularities here as it has elsewhere done. 
There is certainly no reason to suppose that the contour of the rocky floor 
is more irregular in one district than in another. What Butler county 
owes to the drift can be well seen by comparing Liberty and Union town- 
ships of the south-eastern corner with Reilly and Morgan townships of 
the south-west. 
The views furnished by the uplands, especially as we approach the 
Great Miami Valley from either side, are, many of them, very wide and 
attractive. Several can be named that are not to be surpassed in quiet, 
pastoral beauty by any thing within the limits of the State. 
From Snively’s Hill, near Jacksonburgh, a wide and beautiful expanse 
of country is shown, of the main valley on the east and south, and of the 
valley of Seven Mile Creek on the west. 
A still more commanding outlook is furnished on the farm of Randolph 
Meeker, Ksq., near Pisgah. It comprises nearly one-fourth part, and that 
the richest corner, of Butler county. 
Such elements as these are not to be omitted in making out the cata- 
logue of attractions that a country possesses for human occupation. 
~The water supply of Butler county can not be said to be good. The 
geological formation from which the county is built is universally and 
necessarily poor in this respect. The rain-fall can not penetrate the 
fine-grained clays of the Cincinnati series, and is consequently turned 
outwards in surface drainage. Wherever the rock is heavily covered 
with drift beds the supply is improved, both in quality and quantity; 
but in the thinly covered uplands reliance can not be safely placed on 
wells. There is no excuse, however, for a defective supply for either man 
or beast in a district which has so generous a rain-fall as Southern Ohio 
enjoys. Itis only necessary to save the roof-water in properly-constructed 
and properly-guarded cisterns. 
