The American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. 29: January, 1836 (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Excerpt from The American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. 29: January, 1836

Sandstone, in all its varieties, being the prevailing rock in the coal deposits, the general surface of the region presents great simi larity in its features, especially in those portions that lie within fifty or sixty miles of the Ohio river; these regions exhibit long sloping ridg es, running parallel with the river, and are often faced with mural pre cipices of sandstone to the height of one hundred feet above the base of the hills. In other places, there are Cone-shaped, isolated hills, especially where creeks make their debouchure, havingin the course of ages worn-down the sides of the hill, both above and below into beautiful slopes. This is frequently seen in the heads of creeks, that take their rise in a loose rich loamy soil. The tops are then crowned with sandstone, covered with trees, while the sides are clothed with the richest productions of the forest, growing in a loose black soil, formed of decomposed leaves and the remains of the rocks which have wasted slowly away before the wmtry frosts and the summer rains. In any part of this region the View from the highest hills, presents one vast plain filled with hollows, and afford ing no spot much, if any more elevated, than the one on which the spectator stands, - bringing forcibly to the mind, the reflection, that this now hilly and broken region was once, at some' remote period, a level, and nearly horizontal plain. Scattered through this hilly and broken region, tracts of tolerably level land, are found embracing many miles of square surface. In sinking wells in such places, it is not uncommon to find, at the depth of thirty or forty feet, frag ments of the trunks and branches'of. Trees, with water_worn pebbles.

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