Ohio

OHIO, popularly known as the "Buckeye State," is a north central State of the United States of America, lying between latitudes 38° 27' and 40 57' N. and between longitudes 8o° 34' and 84° 49' W. of Greenwich. It is bounded north by Michi gan and Lake Erie, east by Pennsylvania and by the Ohio river, which separates it from West Virginia, south by the Ohio river which separates it from West Virginia and Kentucky and west by Indiana. The State is nearly square in shape, its extremes from north to south and from east to west being about 210 m. and 220 m. respectively. The total area is 41,040 sq.m. of which 30o sq.m. exclusive of its Lake Erie jurisdiction, are water surface.

Physical Features.

The State lies on the borderland between the Prairie plains and the Allegheny plateau. The disturbances among the underlying rocks of Ohio have been slight, and origi nally the surface was a plain only slightly undulating; stream dissection changed the region to one of numberless hills and valleys; glacial drift then filled up the valleys over large broken areas, forming the remarkably level till plains of north-western Ohio; but at the same time other areas were broken by the uneven distribution of the drift, and south-eastern Ohio, which was unglaciated, retains its rugged hilly character, gradually merg ing with the typical plateau country farther south-east. The average elevation of the State above the sea is about 85o ft. but extremes vary from 425 ft. at the confluence of the Great Miami and Ohio rivers in the south-west corner, to 1,55o ft. on the summit of Rogues hill about 1 m. east of Bellefontaine in the west central part.

The main water-parting is formed by a range of hills which are composed chiefly of drift and extend west south-west across the State from Trumbull county in the north-east to Darke county, or about the middle of the west border. North of this water-parting the rivers flow into Lake Erie ; south of it into the Ohio river. Passing the village of Cuyahoga Falls the Cuya hoga river descends more than 200 ft. in three miles; a part of its course is between walls of sandstone 1 oo ft. or more in height, and near its mouth, at Cleveland, its bed has been cut down through 6o ft. of drift. In the middle north part of the State the Black, Vermilion and Huron rivers have their sources in swamps on the water-parting and flow directly to the lake through narrow valleys. The till plains of north-western Ohio are drained

chiefly by the Maumee and Sandusky rivers, with their tributaries.

In the south-west the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers have uniform falls through basins that are decidedly rolling and that contain the extremes of elevation for the entire State. The central and south middle part is drained by the Scioto river and its tributaries. Its basin is about 4o m. wide and only moder ately rolling, but toward the mouth of the river the basin becomes narrow and is shut in by high hills. In the eastern part of Ohio the Muskingum river and its tributaries drain an area of about 7,75o sq.m. or nearly one-fifth of the entire State. The Ohio flows for 436 m. through a narrow valley on the southern border of the State, and Lake Erie forms the northern boundary for a distance of 23o miles. At the west end of the lake are Sandusky and Maumee bays, each with a good natural harbour. There are several small lakes on the water-parting, especially in the vicinity of Akron and Canton.

Fauna and

Flora.—Opossums, skunks and raccoons are plentiful in some parts of the State; and rabbits and squirrels are still numerous. Most of the song-birds and birds of prey of the temperate zone are plentiful. Whitefish, bass, trout and pickerel are important as food from the waters of Lake Erie, and the land streams and lakes are stocked with game fish.

Ohio is known as the "Buckeye State" from the prevalence of the buckeye chestnut (Aescules glabra). The State was originally covered with a dense forest mostly of hardwood timber, and although the merchantable portion of this has been practically all cut away, there are still undergrowths of young timber and a great variety of trees. The white oak is the most common, but there are 13 other varieties of oak, six of hickory, five of ash, five of poplar, five of pine, three of elm, three of birch, two of locust and two of cherry. Beech, black walnut, butternut, chest nut, catalpa, hemlock and tamarack trees are also common. Wild flowers are well represented. Of native ferns there are many.