History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

The bedded rocks of the Cincinnati section are as follows:

Lebanon beds,	293 feet	{ Hill quarry beds,	125 feet
Cincinnati beds proper,	425 feet —	{ Eden shales,	250 feet
Mt. Pleasant beds,	50 feet	{ River quarry,	50 feet
	—–
Total,	768 feet

The Mt. Pleasant beds are so named because, at the Ohio River bed at this point, they are the lowest of the exposed beds, and underlie the lowest beds at Cincinnati by 50 feet. The Cincinnati beds have their inferior limit at low water of the Ohio, and for an upper boundary the highest stratum found in the Cincinnati hills. Their greatest elevation, above low water-mark, is 450 feet. The Eden, or middle shale, is so named because of its prominence in Eden Park hills. It has no economical value, indeed its relation to economical interests are mainly in the way of disadvantages to be overcome, because of its instable character. Of the 250 feet not more than one foot in ten is limestone, the remainder being shales, clay, or soapstones. These shales have scarcely tenacity enough to hold their place in steep descents, still less, when they have been removed from their original beds, can they be made to cohere, and they form treacherous foundations for buildings erected, or for roadways constructed upon them.

The strata of river quarry-beds are comparatively but little exposed. A moderate amount of building-stone of superior quality is taken from the Covington quarries. But little can be burned into lime, but the concretions constitute a hydraulic lime of great energy.

The Lebanon beds, in contrast to the Mt. Pleasant beds, are the highest of the Cincinnati group, and the location determine their name.

The drift formations are divided into—

1. Drift deposits of the highlands and slopes.

2. Drift deposits of the lowlands and valley drift-beds.

The upland drift has no uniformity in the order of formations aside from the monotonous deposits of yellow clay, which, when filled with water, becomes quicksand. But little clean gravel occurs in the upland, and bowlders also are unfrequent. The drift clays come largely from the waste of blue limestone effected by glacial attrition, while the natural soil has the same origin, except the work of disintegration has been done by the slow action of the atmosphere.