back, so that the prairie was dry within a week, notwithstanding the bottom of the basin is eight feet below where the water was drained to the well-the water settling away through the soil at the bottom.

While the water was at its highest point at this time, the family upon the farm where the "flowing well" is situated, heard a loud report in the night, which seemed to come from the earth, during a thunder-storm. In the morning, it was found to have come from the "blowing out" of another hole, about three-quarters of a mile, in a north-westerly direction, from which the water was flowing in a stream as large as a hogshead. Around all the "blow holes," as they are called, the broken lime-stone is scattered for many feet, thrown out by the force of the water when it first burst out.

From this spot, for ten miles or more, towards the dividing ridge, the face of the country is indented in numerous places, with flowing prairies and "sink-holes," from a few rods to many acres in extent. Many of the "sink-holes" are mere bowl-shaped depressions of the surface, occasioned, probably during periods of high water, by the wasting away of the earth below, into the cavernous region, through some crevice in the compact lime-stone immediately beneath. I am led to this conclusion, from the fact, that in some places, wells have been dug into the compact lime-stone, that have furnished water until some dry season, when it has become low, and in blasting for more, they have broke through into the loose lime-stone, and lost what they had.

Others of the sink-holes have openings at the bottom, through which the water rises, in a wet season, whilst through the bottoms of others the surplus water from the surface of the country runs off. Advantage has been taken of some of these depressions to form the pond of a saw-mill near Bellevue, that runs from two to four months in the spring of the

year, carried by water that is accumulated from the draining of a large tract of country above, which, after supplying the mill, runs off through a "sink-hole."

I think, if it were not for the "sink-holes" to carry off the water, in many places the country would be full of ponds and swamps, rendering it unhealthy. The citizens of Bellevue have been compelled, this season, for the second time, to drain a pond caused by the overflowing of a "sink-hole."

About two miles, still south of Bellevue, there is an opening into the cavernous lime-stone, that can be traversed above two hundred feet, at the extremity of which runs a large stream of water, at more than 130 feet from the surface of the earth, and this season the cavern was filled to within from twenty to thirty feet of the surface.

A few miles still further south, is a sunken prairie, in the bottom of which stands a black-walnut tree, that holds a railcut eighteen inches through, among its branches, more than 20 feet from the ground, floated there when the water was at that height.

In connection with the above, I will mention a circumstance that took place a few years ago, in the region of the "sinkholes :"

A man, well known to myself, had a team of three yoke of cattle, plowing in the spring. When it commenced raining, he stopped his work, and turned his cattle loose in the field. The rain proved to be a long storm, lasting several days.When it held up, and the cattle were sought for, one of them was missing, supposed by the owner to have jumped the fence and strayed off, until, more than three weeks afterwards the ox was found in the lot, where he had settled down through the soil into a crevice of the rock below, with nothing but his head and shoulders out. He was taken out, and lived, with no other injury than the loss of hair from the buried part. Another

ox was lost three weeks, and found at the bottom of a "sinkhole" in the woods; the sides of which he had browsed clean.

I will further state, that when some parts of the country I have been describing, were first settled, they were very much infested with rattlesnakes, (although they are now rarely found,) which were sometimes found early in the spring, in large numbers, upon the surface of the earth, nearly in their torpid state, driven from the rocks below, by the rising of the water, before the sun was sufficiently powerful to warm them into active life.

I have written so much more than I intended when I commenced, that I will finish by adding that, notwithstanding the immense quantity of water in the country above, Cold Creek is never affected by the rising or falling of the water, six inchYours, respectfully,

es.

W.

CHAPTER X.

Sale of School-sections-Free-schools-Present condition-Obstacles retarding their progress.

By an act of the General Assembly of Ohio, the school-sections in the townships of Eden, Clinton, Seneca and Scipio, were appraised, several years since, at their actual value, and permanently leased for ninety-nine years, the interest of which was to be paid annually.

Since that time, they have been sold, together with the schoolsections in each of the other townships of the county, except those of Big Spring, Loudon, Liberty, and a portion of the section in Hopewell township. The school-section in Adams, at that time was owned by the Seneca tribe of Indians; but since their removal to the west, it has been appraised and sold.*

As there is a general interest manifested at the present day, with regard to the subject of popular education; and as the present condition of the common schools of this county, is not very dissimilar to that of most of the other counties of the state, we have appended a sketch of the origin and progress of the free-school system in Ohio.

The Ordinance of 1787, provided that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the

Each township that has disposed of its school-section, draws interest upon a certain proportion of the proceeds annually, which is applied for the payment of teachers in the several school districts throughout the township.

[For statistics, see Appendix.]

happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." In the previous Ordinance of 1785, regulating the sale of lands in the west, section number 16, of every township was reserved "for the maintenance of public schools within the said township." And the Constitution of Ohio, using the words of the Ordinance of 1787, says, "that schools and the means of instruction, shall be forever encouraged by legislative provision.”

In accordance with the feelings shown in these several clauses, the governors of Ohio always mentioned the subject of education with great respect, in their messages; but nothing was done to make it general. It was supposed that people would not willingly be taxed, to educate the children of their poor neighbors; not so much because they failed to perceive the necessity that exists for all to be educated, in order that the commonwealth may be safe and prosperous; but because a vast number, that lived in Ohio, still doubted whether Ohio would be their ultimate abiding-place. They came to the west to make money rather than to find a home, and did not care to help to educate those whose want of education they might never feel.

Such was the state of things, until about the year 1816, at which time several persons in Cincinnati, who knew the benefits of a free-school system, united, and commenced a correspondence with different portions of the state. Their ideas being warmly responded to, by the dwellers in the Ohio company's purchase, and the Western Reserve more particularly, committees of correspondence were appointed in the different sections, and various means were resorted to, to call the attention of the public to the subject; among the most efficient of which was the publication of an Education Almanac, at Cincinnati. This work was edited by Nathan Guilford, a lawyer