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Kaskaskia River. — The conditions within the bottom forests of 

 the Kaskaskia or Okaw River were studied from Evansville up 

 through Randolph, St. Clair, and Washington counties. The condi- 

 tions are similar to those* of the same type farther up the river in 

 Clinton and Fayette counties, so the following description may be 

 considered typical for the entire Okaw Forest. 



The width of the flood-plain varies considerably, and the largest 

 areas are found generally in the concave side of the stream-meanders 

 or at the mouths of tributaries. Former stream-channels and cut-offs 

 form depressions in the general level, and these depressions are wet 

 throughout most of the year, and at a little higher elevation also there 

 are poorly drained secondary bottoms. Floods cover the whole area 

 to a considerable depth several times a year, but the numbers and 

 times of these inundations vary from year to year, making agriculture 

 on the cleared portions very uncertain. 



The forest here varies from that on the bottoms already described 

 chiefly in the absence of sweet gum. It was originally a fine stand 

 of the various bottomland white oaks, hickories, elm, cottonwood, 

 maple, ash, sycamore, pin and shingle oaks, with scattered boxelder, 

 buckeye, honey locust, and mulberry. It has been very heavily culled 

 of the larger trees and the more valuable species, so that second-growth 

 pin and shingle oaks are the predominant trees that grow over consider- 

 able areas, in more or less pure stands, on the lands farthest from the 

 stream channel. The other hardwoods are mainly represented by 

 poor specimens, large, crooked, or doty trees, scattered among a fair 

 amount of young growth of all the species mentioned. Good stands 

 of almost virgin forest are found in very scattered and small areas 

 here and there throughout the bottoms. 



Big Muddy River. — The Big Muddy River and its tributaries flow 

 through a considerable area of bottomland in Franklin, Williamson, 

 and Jackson counties. Pin oak predominates, forming about a third 

 of the entire forest, while sweet gum is very scarce. Sycamore, elm, 

 and silver maple grow along the water's edge, while the better-drained 

 river banks and the edges of terraces or "second bottoms" are covered 

 with a mixture in which hickory predominates, mixed with bur and 

 white oak, elm, red oak, and sometimes black gum. On the wet 

 ground back from the banks and in the second bottoms, pin oak forms 

 eighty per cent of the stand, and is associated with swamp white and 

 overcup oaks. Hickory, elm, and ash are scattered throughout practi- 

 cally all of these various formations. The forest has been heavily 



*De8cribed by Wesley Bradfield In a manuscript on Typical Forest Regions in 

 Illinois. 



