80 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



There are about 100 sections of land in the north part 

 of the county which are in a great measure unfit for cul- 

 tivation, one half entirely so, without great expense of 

 draining. The land is a continued succession of sand 

 ridges and marshes — those ridges in the North West 

 part, low and narrow, conforming with the bend of the 

 Lake Shore, and originaly covered with a valuable 

 growth of pine & cedar, which has been nearly all stript 

 off to build up Chicago. 



In the North East the sand hills are very abrupt & 

 have yet some good pine timber, though very dificult to 

 obtain. 



As we recede from the Lake Shore, the sand ridges 

 grow broader & intervals less marshy until they finaly 

 unite with the prairie, as we see north of Turkey Creek 

 and along the hickory creek road. 



After leaving the pine, the greater part of the timber is 

 scrubby black oak, with here and there a little white oak 

 — on Deep River South east of Liverpool there is some 

 excellent white oak timber on the Calamic, towards the 

 Illinois line, there are a few hundred acres of tolerable 

 good prairie, and also in Town. 35, Range 8 North of 

 Turkey Creek ; and with this exception, there is no prairie 

 other than marsh prairie until we get south of that creek. 



Then upon a line running South in Range 8, between 

 the Crown Point timber & school grove, we should pass 

 over continuous prairie where an unbroken furrow when 

 I came here could have been plowed more than 15 miles 

 to the Kankakee marsh ; which embraces all the South 

 part of the county and contains about 75 sections ; though 

 not that much of marsh, for there are many islands & 

 large tracts of swamp timber that is very valuable, 

 though it can only be obtained in the winter. There are 

 also many spots of excellant dry land that might be culti- 

 vated if they could be got at. Indeed the time may come 

 when the entire marsh may be put under cultivation ; for 

 it is a fact that the government of Holland are now en- 

 gaged in pumping by steam, the water out of a Lake that 



