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Avith smaller tracts of sandstone, and perhaps in a few cases with hnaestone. The 

 great " pine region" of Wisconsin lies mostly in this part of the State ; and 

 although there are some tracts covered with hard wood, it may in general be 

 characterized as a country of pine ridges and cranberry marshes. It is but little 

 settled, or occupied, except for the purposes of the lumber trade. Whether it 

 possesses any material value as an agricultural district remains to be ascertained 

 by future explorations. In this division of the State we find the most elevated 

 land, constituting the southern margin of the great basin of Lake Superior. 

 About the sources of the Montreal river this " divide" has an elevation of about 

 eleven hundred and fifty feet above the level of Lake Michigan ; and towards 

 the west it gradually descends, until at the western boundary of the State it is 

 only about five hundred feet above the same level. This whole region may be 

 considered an elevated plateau. It is remarkable for the very great number of 

 small lakes, varying from a few rods to several miles in diameter, scattered pro- 

 fusely over the whole surface. These lakes constitute the "head springs" of the 

 numerous streams that run northward into Lake Superior, or in an opposite di- 

 rection to the Mississippi. So much water in shallow basins, subject to rapid 

 evaporation during the summer, must have a very decided efiect upon the cli- 

 mate, rendering it more suitable for the purposes of the farmer, than it would 

 be otherwise. 



The Sandstone district occupies the country immediately south of the Primary, 

 and varies in width from ten to sixty miles. Its general form is that of a cres- 

 cent with its horns on the Menomonee and St. Croix, while its greatest breadth 

 is in the region of the Wisconsin river, near the middle of the State. The 

 Sandstone is the oldest of the fossil-bearing rocks, called Pottsdam Sandstone,* 

 and shows itself in high clift's and isolated rocks. In places where the sand, re- 

 sulting from the disintegration of this rock, constitutes its chief element, the soil 

 is not very inviting to the farmer and settler. It is warm, mellow, easily worked, 

 and is doubtless well adapted to the culture of some kinds of crops. It is highly 

 probable, however, that it will be found wanting in durability. It will here be 

 more necessary for farmers to adopt the system best suited to the soil ; and by a 

 judicious rotation of crops, and application of manures, to keep up its fertility. 

 If a Buel could restore a sandy waste to a fertile and highly productive farm^ 

 surely it cannot be difficult to maintain the sandy soils of Wisconsin in their 

 present state of productiveness. But as we approach the southern margin of the 

 sandstone district we find in the cliti's, altei'nating layers of soft limestone, which 

 by its decay simultaneously viith the sandstone, produces a soil of the very best 



* The identity of tliis rock witli the Pottsdam sandstone of New York is jirovecl 

 beyond a doubt, by the discovery of a characteristic fossil (Scolithus linearis, of Hall, 

 Pal. of N. Y. vol. 1, p. 2,) one mile north of Lyons, in Sauk county. 



