USA > Ohio > A history of the state of Ohio, natural and civil > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
29
GEOLOGY.
reader. The works of man too, are often found in such prai- ries, at a great depth in the earth. Such natural meadows, being for the most part, destitute of trees, have induced super- ficial persons, (who never reflect, and who are too indolent to examine into the real facts in the case,) to conclude, that fires had been employed by the aboriginals to produce that effect! The formation of these diluvian plains is entirely different from that of the country around them; as much so beneath the surface as above it. In tracts of country, denuded of trees by fire, briars and bushes, forthwith, appear in their stead. In fact, the growth of grass and flowering plants, which cover these delightful plains, is abundantly able to pre- vent the taking root, of almost any forest tree. The falling of a walnut, an acorn, or the seed of any other tree, is hardly sufficient to disturb the possession of the present occupants of these ancient domains. The plum sometimes gets a foot hold in them: and the delicious sweet prairie grape is sure to take advantage of the circumstance, and climb up to, and cover the tops of the plum bushes with its vines, its leaves and its clusters of purple fruit in due season.
Besides, had fires destroyed the trees on Pickaway Plains, charcoal would have been discovered there, which is not the case, although the land, has been cultivated with the plow, during from fifteen to twenty years past.
Charcoal is as indistructible, almost, as the diamond itself, where it is not exposed to the action of the atmosphere. On a surface so large, as that occupied by the plains, it is hardly possible, if they had been denuded of their woods by fire, that no charcoal should have been found. With me, this argument is entirely a conclusive one.
The botany of these natural meadows is rich, and would afford matter enough for a volume. A Torrey, a Nuttall, a Mitchill, a Mulenburgh, a Barton, an Elliott, or evena Linnæus · might here usefully employ himself for years, without exhaust- ing his subject, or gathering all the harvest which these vast fields present. It appears to me, that our botanists have neg- lected our prairies: but let us hope, that the day is not far c*
30
HISTORY OF OHIO.
distant, when some future Linnæus will appear in them. If the field is vast, and the laborers are few, the harvest of fame will be the richer.
Among the flowering plants, growing in them, the helianthus offers, perhaps, the greatest number of varieties.
From a careful examination of our prairies, wet and dry, we are satisfied that the dry ones are the most ancient, of the two-that fires produce neither of them-that in their na- tural state, a luxuriant vegetation is raising their present sur- face, every year; that the dry ones are extremely valuable for cultivation, and that the wet ones will, at no very distant day, furnish us with an abundance of fuel, in a country but thinly timbered, indeed almost destitute of wood, and without fossil coal, so common in our hilly region. If, as it is known to be the fact, our hilly region be well supplied with ironstone, and other useful minerals, together with salt water, nature has supplied the same region with inexhaustible mines of coal for their manufacture. If the level parts of this State, where the dry prairies abound, contain large tracts of rich land, the time is at hand, when they will be covered with well cultivated farms, where the rich harvests will wave, and where naturalized grasses will afford food for large flocks of domestic animals.
These remarks on our Prairies, were written, originally, more than twenty years since, and apply especially to that pe- riod of time. The reader will see, how our then predictions, have since been verified, within the intermediate space of time. They are now, well cultivated fields, cloathed with tame grasses, and grains. Our herds of domesticated animals fced and fatten, where, so recently only wild animals, and still wilder men, roamed over the surface of these diluvial plains. In the conclusion of this article we may say, that this state contains the most and the best peat, of any state in the Union.
31
GEOLOGY.
RELIQUIAE DILUVIANAE.
The relicts of the Deluge, though common in all parts of this state, yet, we will now confine ourselves, for the present, to those belonging to the coal region of it. In the vicinity of the Ohio river in the counties of Gallia, Lawrence and Meigs, also in the counties of Muskingum and Morgan, on the waters of the Muskingum river, these relicts are numerous and very in- teresting. Near Gallipolis, imbedded in sandstone, are not a few trees of different kinds; such as the sugar maple, and one such tree was found, that had been perforated, to all appearance, by the the common red headed wood pecker. A fragment of this tree, with the hole, for the bird's nest in it, was, many years since, brought to Chillicothe, and presented to Governor Edward Tiffin. Several trees, were discovered in the sand rock, about three miles above Gallipolis, imbed- ded in the rock which there stood, in a perpendicular mass. Among these trees, we discovered a black walnut, with its roots projecting beyond the rock in which the trunk lay im- bedded. A black oak, was near it, projecting in the same man- ner. The mass of rock, appeared to be, eighty feet thick, where it was bare, uninjured and entire. In this mass on looking up at it, from its base, barks, leaves and branches of trees, ap- peared at different altitudes, all lying in the rock, as they were deposited with the sand, now become a hard sandstone. In a ravine, where the sandstone had been washed away, by a riv- ulet, a whole tree was found, by a man, with an axe, which he attempted, by a blow, to fasten in the tree, on which he had seated himself to rest awhile, after a fatiguing walk. The axe, struck out sparks of fire, rebounded and appraised him, that this tree, was no longer wood, but a hard sandstone. We saw, among the trees of Gallia county thus petrified, white birch, sycamore, walnut, oak, and others not recollected.
Near Zanesville, indeed, in the very town, where a canal was cut through the sand-rock, some twenty years since, there was found among other things a considerable number of tropical plants, such as the trunks, leaves, branches and roots of the
32
HISTORY OF OHIO.
bamboo; the leaves, large, full, fresh, uninjured and entire, of cocoa-nut-bearing palm; the impressions of the tea leaf, of the cassia plant; of ferns, a great many; of the leaves and flowers of the bread-fruit tree, fully expanded, fresh and entire, and perfectly uninjured, in appearance, as if they were in full bloom. The bark, also, of the bread-fruit tree, much flattened and compressed, we discovered in shale. Our Ohio fossil date tree, is large, and has wide spreading branches. Such an one, exists on the north side of the bed lying in the bed of the Mox- ahala creek, not for below the stage road, nine miles, west of Zanesville, on the road to Lancaster, Ohio. The sand- stone, in which these tropical plants are imbedded, contains considerable mica, and, resembles exactly, the sandstone, in which Mons. Brogniart found tropical plants, in France. The iron-stone, at Zanesville, is sometimes composed almost wholly of the roots, trunks and leaves of the bamboo. The sandstone contains the same tree and its parts. Small trees are often much flattened by pressure. The shale sometimes, contains barks of trees, between different layers of shale; the bark is now fossil coal; and these layers, alternate with each other, shale and coal.
FISHES, are said to have been found, though we saw but one fish, found at Zanesville, and that one was a pike. Fossil fishes are more frequently found, in sandstone, and we had one, several years, in our possession, it was a red horse, a species of perch, still living in our waters. That fish, perfect and entire, fell out of a mass of sandstone, which was split with wedges, by some stone masons, who were building a wall of a cellar, at Burlington, on the Ohio river. It was a year since, in Letton's museum, at Cincinnati. The shells of oysters, sometimes, unchanged, are found, in beds of sand, an ancient diluvian deposite, at Cincinnati. J. Dorfeuille's museum con- tains these shells. A few remarks, on the tropical plants, at Zanesville, seem to be called for before we leave this town and its environs. At this day, the bamboo, cassia, bread-fruit tree, cocoa-nut-bearing palm, &c. &c. are considered as tropical plants, and grow only in such a climate, or in one, that is not
33
GEOLOGY.
very cold. That fact being admitted, two questions naturally present themselves, to the mind :- Have these plants changed their nature? Or, has our climate become colder, than it was formerly? Tropical plants, that are annuals, without changing their nature essentially, have been carried farther and farther north, until they have become naturalized, to a northern cli- mate. This remark applies, perhaps, to the palma-christi, and several other annuals. But, the bamboo, date, cocoa-nut bearing palm &c. found at Zanesville, are not annuals. Has our climate become colder ? Some countries have become warmer, than they once were. We suspect, indeed, we know from the writers of the Augustan age, that Italy, France, Ger- many and Britain, have become warmer, than they were, eigh- teen hundred years since. Horace, in the days of Augustus, introduces, us to Soracte, a mountain near Rome, covered with snow, and gives us a picture of winter, and here that picture is.
" Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum, " Soracte ; nec jam sustineant onus "Silvæ laborantes; geluque, " Flumina, constiterint acuto? " Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco, " Large reponens."
What a picture of the winter at Rome, in the days of Augus- tus ! It would now best suit the meridian of Quebec. Who now sees such snows breaking down the trees, unable to sus- tain their load, at Rome? Who now sees the Tiber one solid bed of ice, so that its current is congealed by frost ? Who now, in the Eternal city, needs such large piles of wood on the hearth in winter ?
Are the snows along the Ister five ells in depth? Virgil tells us they were so deep, in his time: That the largest deer, . could hardly push the snow aside with their breasts, so that their horns, scarcely showed themselves above the snow's, sur- face. What a horrid picture does he give us, of the winters, where Vienna now raises its imperial spires? The people 5
. V
34
HISTORY OF OHIO.
there no longer, are compelled to live under ground, in the win- ter months, and be obliged to burn whole trees at once to keep the people from freezing.
Europe, has certainly been growing warmer, not colder, during the last eighteen hundred years, and we have no proof that our climate, in Ohio, has been growing colder, during that period. If these plants have not changed their nature, nor our climate become colder, within the last eighteen centuries, at least; were not these plants floated here, by the ocean from tropical countries, in some remote period of time? The very appearance of these plants, on a first view, answers such a question. Had they been floated here from any great dis- tance, would their leaves, and especially their delicate blos- soms, been uninjured, fresh, expanded fully and entire, as they were when in full bloom? Certainly not. Between the time of their being in full bloom, in life, vigor and beauty, and that awful moment, in which they were overwhelmed, buried and imbedded, fixed fast and turned to stone, iron and shale, where they now repose, and for unknown ages past have re- posed; scarcely one day could have intervened; perhaps only a few hours elapsed.
We state facts. And, besides, whole trees, turned into stone with every root, limb, and the trunk; with the earth, where it grew turned up, showing that the tree had been only pros- trated, not removed, otherwise than thrown down by violence; such a tree, a hemlock, still remains, at Chitteningo, New York, unless travelers have carried it away for specimens. That tree grew in exactly such a formation as ours in Ohio, and must be referred to the same period of time with ours, and must have been overwhelmed by the same catastrophe, which overwhelmed, our palms, dates, bamboos, and other tro- pical plants. Imagination can hardly grasp, the horrors of that dreadful catastrophe, which scooped out those vast beds of seas, bays and lakes, all around the northern end of our globe, filling the vast space, between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, with the ruins of the northern portion of our planet ;- covering our once tropical region, with the ru-
35
GEOLOGY.
ins of the old world. Well might he, who wrote our only short history of the deluge, declare, that "the foundations of the great deep were broken up." We throw out a suggestion, for the consideration and reflection of our readers.
If we suppose quite the largest portion of our globe to be water, and we have no reasons to come to any other conclu- sion (if we except to opinions, without proof, and even contra- ry to all evidence) and, that the eastern and western contin- ents and their islandic appendages, lie in the waters of the ocean, like two icebergs in the sea, it is easy enough to under- stand, that whenever, and by whatever means, the centre of gravity is lost which now keeps these continents exactly where they are, a revolution of these continents will take place al- most instantly. By this catastrophe, the earth would be swept of all its land animals, who would all perish, except such as happened to be on the earth where the two new poles would be formed, at the moment when the event happened.
If all the rivers and all the currents in the ocean also, run in the same direction, not only every sea, and every ocean, but every river, every brook, and every rill, and even every show- er of either rain, snow or hail-nay every dew would hasten on another grand catastrophe of this globe. But the rivers do not all run in the same, but opposite directions. The Red River of Hudson's Bay runs northwardly, the Mississippi and its branches southwardly. The waters of the northern lakes move northeastwardly-and the current in the ocean along our Atlantic coast runs in the same direction. The streams issuing from the bases of the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, run in opposite directions. Wherever mountain streams are shorter in their courses on one side of a mountain, than on the other side, their descent is greater than the rivers on the op- posite side of their common sources; and the shorter rivers bear ' along in their currents an equal weight of matter with the longer and larger rivers. This is true, probably, of all the rivers in the world, but where it is not so, a current in an adja- cent ocean makes up the deficiency. We have been long since
813079
36
HISTORY OF OHIO.
surprised that no author had noticed this exhibition of wisdom, in the formation of mountains and rivers.
We will not say, that formerly, catastrophes of the globe have been effected, by the running of rivers, which carried along in their currents such a weight of matter, as, by that means to change the centre of gravity in the earth, and pro- duce any one of the awful catastrophes, which have several times overwhelmed our world, with temporary ruin and desola- tion. All we say, is, that by exactly such means, it might have been effected, almost in a moment, and that all the effects of such a revolution, are visible, all over the world. Every portion of the earth, by such means, might have been, at some day, a tropical region, and productive of tropical plants.
Man and his works, have been found in many places, in the Valley of the Mississippi, in a fossil state. According to in- formation received eighteen or twenty years since, from the Honorable Thomas Todd, then a Judge of the United States Court, a human skeleton, buried in an ancient stone mound, two hundred feet below the surface of a hill, was discovered in Kentucky. The owner of the land, dug through the hill at its base, for the purpose of uniting two small creeks, whose united waters were sufficient to turn the machinery of a mill. In perforating the earth, between the two creeks, an ancient stone mound, consisting of many cart loads, was met with, and on removing the stones, an entire human skeleton was found at the mound's base. Judge Todd saw the place, the stones and the human bones, but my memorandum of the con- versation with my learned and revered friend, does not state the place, where the discovery was made. The death of the Judge, prevented my visiting the spot in question. We re- spectfully request his family, if they know where it is, to inform us. To his worthy sons, Robert S. Todd and Charles S. Todd, Esquires-we apply for an answer to this request.
In a natural mound of earth, near the high road, some fourth of a mile, north of Circleville, seven human skeletons, were found, about eighteen years since. These skeletons, lay among earth and pebbles, evidently brought there and left
37
GEOLOGY.
by water-the sea. They lay in every inclination with the horizon, and were deposited by the deluge, where they were found.
At Louisville, Kentucky, when digging the canal there, on the surface of a flat rock, many feet below the surface of the earth, above the rock, the works of man, were found. Fires had been made on the rocks and men had dwelt there. Since these fires had ceased to burn there, several feet of earth had accumulated on the surface of the rocks, and trees, of the larg- est size, had been growing on that earth, during several cen- turies.
SLATE AND LIMESTONE REGIONS.
West of the geological line, before mentioned, the minerals are very different from those of the hilly region, which we have been considering. Several of the counties, lying along this line, west of it, are underlaid, with clay slate, such as we have noticed near lake Erie. Such a slate underlays the western parts of Pickaway and Franklin counties. It pre- dominates all over Madison county; mostly so in Fayette county, and in Union county also ;- as well as in the eastern parts of Clark, and Clinton counties.
Where that blue slate underlays the surface, and comes to, or near it, the slate dissolves into a blue clay, and produces swampy lands. We refer our reader to the Licking summit; and, indeed, to nearly all our summits, north of our hilly re- gion, or west of it, where he will find such clay, and such swamps. Hence, the origin of most of our ponds, swamps and wet lands, all over this state. They exist nearly all the way across this state, from the Pennsylvania line, to that of Indiana, on the summit level, between the Saint Lawrence and Mississippi valleys.
LIMESTONE.
Ours is a subspecies-the compact limestone, and is a very valuable mineral. It usually occurs, in extensive, solid, com-
D
38
HISTORY OF OHIO.
pact masses, whose fracture is dull, splintery and sometimes though, rarely conchoidal. It is opaque, at the edges; its more common color is bluish or grey; it is seldom a pure car- bonate, but contains from two, to ten per cent. of silex. Some of these limestones, are so impure, that they melt, rather than burn into lime. Our limestone is of a recent formation, gen- erally, and may be called, shell limestone. It is either found in hills, with rounded summits, or under a level country. Its strata are often thin, lying between strata of clay slate and is composed almost wholly of sea shells. This limestone of- ten presents fissures and rents, holes and cave3.
In Kentucky, are caves of vast extent, and one of them, has been explored twenty-one miles, under ground, called the mammoth cave, in the vicinity of Green river. We have but a few caverns, in our limestone region, and they are of no great extent.
In Highland county, are some caverns, near the Sinking spring, and a few sharks' teeth were found in it, several years since. The most valuable bed of limestone, now known to exist, in this state, is situated five miles above Columbus, on the main branch of the Scioto river, the property of Mr. S. G. Renick. Large blocks are constantly taken from it, of any desirable size, for pillars, and for fronts of houses. It is a durable and beautiful building stone, and bears a tolerable good polish. In Renick's marble quarry is stone sufficient, to last many centuries, for the Scioto country.
Our limestone, furnishes an excellent lime, for building. Its calicination is now effected by wood, but the heat should not be great.
Count Rumford, has invented an oven for burning lime. It is a high cylinder, with the hearth at the side, and at some distance above the base. The fire burns, with a reflected, or inverted flame. The lime is taken out at the bottom, while fresh additions of limestone are made at the top, so as to keep the oven constantly heated. Limestone, either moistened or just dug. calcines easiest. If dry, it should be moistened when put into the kiln.
39
GEOLOGY.
MORTAR.
We have a few remarks, on making it. This is commonly a mixture of sand and slacked lime. When sand cannot be had, pulverised dry clay or brick-dust, will answer as well.
To the sand and slacked lime, if iron dust, or manganese be added, a cement may be made, which will harden under water. With such a cement, cisterns may be made, tan vats, and cel- lar walls, that will answer many useful purposes.
Compact lime, is often used, as a manure, and our shell lime, is the best for that purpose. Sometimes, the stone is only pulverised, sometimes it is burnt. Many of our marbles that are full of shells, are very beautifully variegated, with spots of different forms and colors. Sand and emery, putty and tin filings, with water, are employed in polishing this limestone. As yet, we have discovered but few beds, of this stone, which are used as marbles. Time and further research may discover to us, other marbles, at no distant day, in our limestone region. It is quite probable, that the best marbles lie deeper in the earth, than we have, as yet, sought for them.
Southwest of Springfield, on the road to Dayton, is a lime- stone cf peculiar appearance. Its structure and aspect re- semble, those in western New York, where gypsum and lime- stone abound. That ncar Springfield deserves examination, by some one, acquainted with those minerals of western New York. It is quite possible, that the limestone near Spring- field may answer a good purpose for backs of chimneys, and ought to be tried, by exposure to great heat, and, by then throwing it into water, while thus heated. That it is an ex- cellent limestone, for producing mortar, we doubt not, and by mixing with it a proper proportion of sand, it may produce a cement that will harden under water.
40
HISTORY OF OHIO.
ORGANIC REMAINS,
Found in the limestone formation, in the Miami country and above Columbus, on the Scioto river, in Renick's quarry. R. Buchanan furnished us with the names of them.
Zoophitæ.
FAMILY.
Calumopora-four species.
Cyathophyllum-three species.
Syringopora-one do Casinopora. Thestra.
Radiara.
Encrinies-many species.
Conchifera.
Spirifer-many species.
Terrabratula-many species.
Producta
do.
do.
Modiola-three species.
Mytilus.
Molusca.
Trochus.
Turbo.
Turritella.
Orthoceratites
Crustacca.
Calymena-several species
Isotelus do. do.
The organic remains found in Tennessee and Kentucky, and probably in Ohio, not mentioned above, viz :
FAMILIES.
Astræ,
SPECIES. Delphinata.
Pentremites,
Enomphalus.
Bellerophon,
Natica.
Nautilus,
Ampullaria.
Hamites,
Asaphus.
Ammonites.
Of Favosites, we have a great many along the Scioto valley.
41
GEOLOGY.
PRIMITIVE ROCKS.
These are discovered, as soon as we have ascended the sec- ond ridge, south of lake Erie, as we travel southwardly. They consist of granite, sienite, black mica, and indeed eve- ry variety of mica slate, gneiss, and all the primitive rocks of this continent. They occur in amorphous masses, abrad- ed, and smoothed, by friction, and show conclusively, that they are out of place, and are unconnected with any other rocks in, or near, where they now lie. They are generally, at an elevation of about seven hundred feet, above the present sur- face of the ocean. But where the earth has been worn away by some stream of water, near them, they have, in some in- stances, been undermined, and have fallen down, on a lower level. These boulders, are found in large masses, covering in some places, several acres, reposing on the north sides of hills, of a diluvial deposite. They are rarely found on the southern ends of hilis, unless removed thither, by some more re- cent revolution, than the one which deposited them originally in this country. These primitive rocks, we have seen all along the southern shores of the northern lakes, from the east end of lake Ontario, to the western side, of the southern end of lake Michigan. They are uniformly found at about the same height, unless removed by some force more recent, apparent- ly, than that, which, originally deposited them in this region. From east to west, they extend, at least eight hundred miles, in a right line. Their elevation is everywhere, nearly the same, above the present surface of the ocean, and they are most numerous, on the northern ends of hills, pointing a little east of north-about three points of the compass.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.