31 



•t 



In our western part of the State, we have singular dividing ridges. 

 One south of the Wisconsin River, from the Portage to the Mississippi 

 River, 120 miles in length, and which must have in its bowels somewhere 

 near the Portage, as much water as would make a stream, one hundred 

 yards wide and three feet deep, with a current of three or four miles an 

 hour. This body of water must run in a thousand little subterranean 

 streams, because they break out in all levels, from the base of the hill, to 

 within thirty or forty feet of the the top of the ridge, say four hundred 

 feet between the levels of the highest and lowest springs. A similar 

 ridofe runs off northeast from Prairie du Chien, dividing the waters of 

 the Mississippi and the Wisconsin Rivers. This ridge runs, probably, 

 one hundred and fifty miles, before it is lost in the general level of the 

 country, and must send out as much, if not more, water, in the form 

 of springs, than the former. Of the truth of this, no one can have a 

 reasonable doubt, if he will look at the map, and note the number and 

 size of the streams which flow from each side of these respective ridges^ 

 and reflect that these streams are not supplied from swamps, or lakes, 

 but entirely from springs, which must, and do, issue from the ridges. 



Where the reservoirs of these waters are, we know not. The summits 

 of our ridges are higher than the surface of the great lakes, and all the 

 smaller lakes have visible outlets, of sufficient capacity, to discharge 

 their surplus waters. And it is evident, also, that these subterranean 

 streams, probably some of them rivers, must rise and fall in their under- 

 ground courses. For, at the Portage, the land is several hundred feet 

 lower than the level of thousands of springs, to the south and west of 

 that break in the ridge ; and in no place are these ridges wide enough 

 to absorb the rains, and supply the reservoirs within them. 



These subterranean streams diverge from the course of the main 

 ridges, because along the sides, and at the base of every spur thereof, 

 springs abound equal to those along the main ridge. The upper or 

 highest veins of water on these hio;h rida^es, have been found within 

 thirty-five or forty feet of their top ; usually, though not always, in the 

 rock. Near Cassville, springs are found in the clay, at from twenty to 

 thirty feet in depth, on the highest portions of the ridge. 



In the more level portions of the State, springs are found in much 

 less abundance than in our hilly portion. But Nature, or rather 

 Nature's God, must have provided those more level portions with sub- 

 terranean waters, though they do not show themselves, for the want of 



