A PRELIMINARY REPORT OX THE NORTH TWO 



TIERS OF SECTIONS IN NILES TOWNSHIP, 



COOK COUNTY. ILLINOIS. 



Warren G. Waterman, Northwestern University. 



The north point of Niles Township, with the adjoining 

 portion of the city of Evanston, begins at the north end of 

 the Calumet and Tolleston beaches at the point where 

 they disappear in Lake Michigan, crosses the Glenwood 

 Beach and extends for a mile west of the Chicago river on 

 the morainic upland. The eastern edge of the township, 

 as shown on the accompanying map, is located in the 

 former depression now occupied by the drainage canal, 

 which was probably originally a swale or swamp prairie. 

 From this swale, a swamp forest extended toward the 

 west and its eastern edge can still be traced in a general 

 southwesterly direction. 



The north end of this forest has been included in the 

 part of Evanston known as Lincolnwood, where many of 

 the forest trees have been preserved in yards and along the 

 streets, while a few patches preserve the original trees, 

 though cleared or undergrowth and more or less pastured. 

 One square between Colfax. Grant, Ewing, and Bennett 

 streets, indicated by the darkest shading on the map, is 

 either in practically the original condition or has been un- 

 touched for years. 



Another patch between Church and Dempster streets of 

 approximately 50 acres is in similarly primitive condition 

 T^ith a partly cut over tract of the same size adjoining it 

 on the west. 



The chief tree components of this forest are white elm 

 (Uhnus amcricana), swamp white oak (Quercus hicolor), 

 bur-oak (Quercus macrocarpa), red oak (Quercus ruhra), 

 basswood (Tilia americanajy soft maple (Acer sacchari- 

 num), with occasional specimens of hard maple (Acer 

 saccliarum ) , shagbark hickory (Canja ovata). and butter- 

 nut (JugJans cinerea). The trees reach an average max- 



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