Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univ).pdf/162

ducing or advocating a theory but attempting to insure the non-acceptance of any theory, howsoever plausible, that is not supported by conclusive proofs. Others have undertaken to show how much proof Ohio has furnished in support of a particular hypothesis; they cannot now object to my attempting to show how insignificant this proof really is.

At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, in 1891, much attention was paid to glacial geology, and one paper by Mr. Frank Leverett, of the Geological Survey, treated of the gravels in Loveland, Ohio, and of the finds of implements in them by Dr. C. L. Metz. Mr. Leverett was then about to return to Ohio and I resolved to accompany him to the Little Miami Valley with a view of making a brief preliminary study of the gravels and their contents. A week later Dr. Metz joined us at Loveland, and we proceeded at once to the great gravel pits just west of the village. Gravel was then being taken by the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company from the south side of the road, two hundred yards beyond the bridge, but the old pit is a little farther on and on the north side of the road, the excavation running into the high terrace from the track at an oblique angle. The excavation is upward of two hundred yards long, and is from two hundred to three hundred feet wide, and has an average depth of perhaps twenty-five feet. The west wall had not been worked recently, and was reduced by erosion to a steep slope covered with vegetation. The curved wall of the east side was thirty or more feet high and very steep, affording an excellent exposure of the gravels; these consisted of very coarse material laid down in heavy irregular beds. At least one-fourth of the mass consisted of sub-angular or but imperfectly rounded slabs and flattish masses of limestone, which lay flat or with a slight inclination toward the river. The larger slabs, which were often as much as two feet or more across, projected like steps or shelves from the wall. The remainder of the deposit consisted of smaller rounded masses and bits of limestone; of masses, bowlders and pebbles of granitic rock constituting perhaps one-