290 
fifty feet above the present bottoms. They are hever covered by overflow 
from the river at the present time. 
The whole region about Lafayette is deeply buried under glacial de- 
posits, the depth of these deposits being usually very great (at least 150 
feet), though in limited areas they may be quite thin or lacking. Only 
rarely, however, do the underlying Paleozoic limestones reach the surface. 
One such outcrop I have seen on the upland near Montmorenci where 
the Lake Erie and Western Railroad crosses Indian Creek. Outside of 
these rare and insignificant cases, the whole country is underlaid by a 
very coarse glacial gravel. Overlying this is usually a layer of loess 
varying in thickness from an inch to several feet. From this loess are 
derived the representative soil types of the region. 
The drainage of the region is in general good. The streams are few 
and in periods of protracted drought frequently dry up entirely in their 
upper courses. Most of the rainfall, however, is carried off by under- 
ground drainage, the underlying gravel allowing the ready percolation of 
water. Locally, as in upland swales and depressions and at the base of 
the river bluffs, where the seepage of underground water takes place, the 
ground is, except in seasons of drought, more or less completely saturated 
with water resulting in the formation of Swamps. At the present time 
most of these naturally wet areas, especially on the upland, have been 
artificially drained and the land utilized for growing crops. The bottom 
lands are at present well drained, the cultivation of the soil breaking it 
up into a loose condition which allows the water to flow off readily beneath 
the surface. 
On the upland the dominant soil is a fine-grained, silty loam, varying 
in color from light brown to almost black, the color depending upon the 
amount of organic matter present, which is usually considerable. Of this 
soil the Bueau of Soils recognizes two categories which are termed re- 
specively Marshall silt loam and Miami silt loam. Both are nearly 
alike in mineral content, being characterized by relatively high per cent- 
age of silt and clay and extremely low per centage of sandy constituents, 
but differ in their organic content, the Miami being as a rule much 
poorer in this respect than the Marshall. The table shows the mechanical 
composition of the soils, the data being taken from the Bureau of Soils 
report. 
