399 
Tor Fuatwoops REGION OF OWEN AND MONROE 
CouNTIES, INDIANA. 
CLYDE A. MALOTT. 
EXTENT AND TOPOGRAPHY. 
Lying between Ellettsville, Monroe County, and Spencer, Owen County, 
Ind., is a strip of territory some six miles long and averaging about two 
miles wide, which has been the object of considerable curiosity and study. 
It is a low level basin nearly surrounded by higher land, yet having several 
openings in the surrounding periphery of hills. 
The surface of the region is mainly an ash-colored soil of a fine tex- 
ture, containing very little sand. It is in reality a silt region at the 
surface, and its outline is clearly discernible at the margin of the basin. 
This silt region, or its outline, is the principal means of determining the 
margin of the region, as indicated by the map. It coincides for the most 
part with the foot of the hills surrounding the basin. Here and there 
in the basin a hill rises out of the silt region somewhat as an island out 
of the water, and frequently a hill-like peninsula protrudes out into the 
region, rising high above the ash-colored silt margin. 
The silt margin lying about the foot of the hills is rather uniform 
in height, averaging close to the 760-foot contour line, excepting at the 
northeast margin, where it extends much higher. This region of the Flat- 
woods area is also exceptional in regard to the periphery. Elsewhere, 
except at the openings, the hilis surrounding the area rise rather suddenly 
above the basin; but here the margin is scarcely discernibie, as the slope 
is very gradual and seems rather to fade out instead of being abrupt. 
This phnomenon is one of considerable importance and will be discussed 
later. 
Lying in the long axis of the region is McCGormicks Creek. This 
stream drains about nine-tenths of Flatwoods. Its head is about seven 
hundred fifty feet above sea level, one and one-half miles west of Elletts- 
ville. The first few miles of its course is over the flat plain of the basin, 
Which gvies it but little fall. After leaving Section 36, T. 10 N. R. 3 W.. the 
