Summary
June3. 1842.— The morning after my arrival at Cleveland, Dr. Kirtland, the zoologist, took me to Kockport, about four miles to the west, and afterwards to the ravine of a torrent called the Kooky River, about six miles farther, in the same direction, that I might examine in both places what are here called the Lake Ridges. Like the “ ridge road ” of Lake Ontario before described (Vol. I. p. 24.), they resemble ancient beaches, running parallel to the shores of Lake Erie, and being composed of sand and gravel.
At the point which I first visited, in the town of Rockport, Lake Erie is bounded by a perpendicular cliff (A, fiff 10.), about seventy-five feet high, at the base of which the water is so deep, that, in some places, it can only be approached in a boat. Horizontal beds of shale, with some layers of sandstone, appear cut off abruptly in the face of this cliff, all referable to the Hamilton group, No. 10. of Map PL II., or the lowest part of the Devonian series (F). Proceeding from the summit of the cliff inland, we find the surface of the country covered with clay (b) sloping gently, so that, in half a mile, there is a rise of about forty feet, and we then come to the bottom of the first or northernmost ridge (c), which is about fifteen feet high, rising at an angle of about 12°, both on its northern and southern slope.
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- Travels in North AmericaWith Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, pp. 85 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1845