268 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



South of the Illinois River the forest is limited almost 

 exclusively to the steep slopes of the river valleys. Such 

 areas include fringes along the Vermilion River for nearly 

 5 miles of its winding course and front the Illinois River 

 valley for 2 miles. In steepness of slope and in width this 

 strip varies much but it will average nearly 200 yards. In 

 the character of its soil it is even more uneven, exhibiting 

 both rock outcrops and clay slopes. While it is difficult 

 to estimate the extent of such an irregularly shaped area 

 it is probably not short of 300 acres, althougli along the 

 Vermilion River where the slope carries the Illinois Cen- 

 tral Railroad the cover is often little more than scrub. 

 The chief stand is a mixture of the oaks of the upland and 

 the species of the river bottom. The only place where the 

 adjacent upland oak forest remains is near the village of 

 Deer Park where there are still some 25 acres of pastured 

 forest with black and bur oak more abundant than the red 

 and white. 



Cedar Creek curves into Section 34 and although its flood 

 plain is here cleared its steeper slopes and tributaiy gullies 

 add 75 acres of culled and pastured oak forest. 



Rotable features of the forested areas of this township 

 are their scattered distribution and the fact that the soil 

 they occupy is for the most part quite untillable. 



Peru Township (Map V). 



Lying west of La Salle Township and on both sides of the 

 Illinois River, Peru Township shares the topographic fea- 

 tures of its neighbor. It is only 3 miles across, consisting 

 of the west half of Township 33N., Range IE. Its surface 

 consists of the usual upland prairie intersected from east 

 to west by the timber and bottom soils associated with the 

 Illinois River valley. The former soils occupy the slopes 

 and tributary ravines and approximate 3800 acres, the 

 largest area bordering Cedar Creek. The bottom lands, 

 forming the floor of the Illinois River Valley amount to 

 about 2000 acres. Of this entire area of 5800 acres, prob- 

 ably all originally in forest, trees remain on about 800 

 acres, and 90 per cent of the existing forests are upon the 

 upland soil. 



The timber soils in the northern portion furnish the 

 site for the town of Peru and have been almost entirely 

 cleared, the remnants consisting of a few acres (10) on the 



