10 BOTANY OF IvA SAL,L,E COUNTY. 



The St. Peter's Sandstone is -a soft friable rock, 

 some areas composed of almost pure quartz, in other 

 places containing 1 considerable extraneous matter. Its 

 weathering 1 , and it gives way to the action of air 

 and water very rapidly, gives rise to beds of white, 

 almost pure sand. 



The Trenton limestone is less obdurate than the 

 calciferous and has contributed considerable calcareous 

 matters to the soils where it is exposed, 



The coal measures are made up of limestones, shales, 

 clays and sandstones, the latter often carrying- much 

 pyrite-bisulphide of iron. The same is true of some of 

 the clays also and some of them contain a considerable 

 quantity of gypsum crystalsthe Selenite of the min- 

 eralogist. These carboniferous clays form a most in- 

 tractible soil and require years of exposure to prepare 

 them for sustaining 1 vegetation of any kind. 



We may thus expect to find a great variety of soils 

 in the county for the debris of each of the formations 

 mentioned above is mixed in an infinite variety of pro- 

 portions with each of the others as well as with the 

 waste of the drift clays, loams and sands, and these 

 occur in situations where they are saturated with 

 water the year round, where only moderately moisten- 

 ed and where they retain but Jittle water. Besides 

 all this mixture and the consequent variety of soils 

 there are some limited deposits of peat, adding 1 another 

 and a very diverse element to the already extensive 

 list. 



Climate. The climate is a decidedly continental 

 one, that is it is noted for its rapid and extensive 

 changes. The thermometer in summer often rises 

 above 90 deg 1 . and sometimes to 100 deg 1 . or more and 

 in winter often sinks to 25 or 30 deg 1 . and even lower. 



