318 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANKAKEE 



the geographies of that time, is now one of the fairest portions of 

 the world's great garden and granery. 



In the central part of onr own great state I have seen the rich 

 black soil from three to ten feet in depth — a wealth of Mother 

 Earth calculated to sustain an enormous population for centuries to 

 come, with hut comparatively little need of recompense to be paid 

 back on account of exhausting its fertility, and years ago the settlers 

 of riraiid Prairie had a glorious view s})read out before them in the 

 undulating plain almost as level as the bosom of a peaceful sea, the 

 rank grass growing from five to even six or eight feet in height. 



Much of the prairie lying west of us in our own State and the 

 State of Iowa is of a nature we denominate "rolling," the undula- 

 tions being commonly of a gentle nature and admirably adapted for 

 drainage. 



The" streams watering these regions have their rise in slight de- 

 pressions of the land, flowing over Ijeds more clearly marked as they 

 proceed upon their way. The general land elevation of the central 

 Mississippi valley ranges from four hundred feet in the vicinity of 

 Cairo, to upwards of twelve hundred feet in the states of Missouri 

 and Iowa. The general elevation along the line of the Illinois Cen- 

 tral Railroad in this state being from six hundred and fifty to seven 

 hundred and fifty, and the elevation of Lake Michigan above tide 

 water five hundred and seventy-eight feet. 



A marked peculitu-ity of our prairie soil is its exceeding finely 

 comminuted nature. To this circumstance many of our eminent 

 geologists attribute its treeless character, while others explain the 

 fact by the theory that, at no long time since in the earth's history, 

 this entire region was covered by a vast system of interior lakes, of 

 which those yet remaining upon our northern borders are a sort of 

 type, and when we consider that beyond a doubt the former level of 

 the great lakes must have been one hundred and fifty feet above 

 their present surface, we realize more fully the vast extent of terri- 

 tory they must have covered. These evidences of a former high 

 level of a wonderful inland sea are at once numerous and conclusive; 

 the chiefest of which are the terraces lying adjacent to the southern 

 shore of Lake Erie. They lie above the present level of the lake 

 from fifty to one hundred feet, and passing around the western shore 

 they are again found in the State of Michigan along the borders of 

 Lake Huron, and they are again discoverable upon the island of 

 Mackinac. They were doubtless formed by the waters remaining at 

 nearly constant level for ages in duration, until the immense flood 

 wore its way through some comparatively thin wall of partition when 

 they sank to a lower level. The last great change in this direction 

 was ages in the i)ast, when the pent uj) waters burst the bonds that 

 had hitherto restrained them, and the river and falls of Niagara were 

 the result. This change, according to prominent geologists, reduced 

 the former lake levels about forty feet, a distance, you will perceive. 



