Buried Channels
The Ohio strata of rocks are usually persistent. There have been no orological convulsions to twist the strata from where they were originally deposited. The general dip to the south east is regular. Any departure from the established method is apt to cause consider- able conjecture. Borings for coal have revealed the fact that often it is absent or very thin. The cause of this is, in many cases, the presence of an ancient chan- nel, now buried under the silt of subsequent ages. When the water poured through these channels, just after the Carboniferous Age, it eroded through the coal measure and carried it away, just as our streams are doing to-day. In the course of time these chan- nels were filled with gravel and sand---by the setting back of the water in them and the stopping of their currents. All through southern Ohio there is ample evidence of these ancient water courses, showing that they are continuous and connected, forming a system of drainage. The Muskingum River runs in a great measure over such a buried channel. This has been discovered by building dams in the river. Our county has such a water course. The diagram on the map shows.its approximate course, without its tributaries. Many tracts of land where coal was supposed to exist have been found to be utterly destitute of that mineral. The miners at the Congo mine frequently find that the29
coal is absent. We are thus able to follow the devious windings of this ancient stream, that plowed its way through the strata, when old Mother Earth was some- what younger than now.30