44 RURAL MICHIGAN 



Arbor. There is a descent of 120 feet to Battle 

 Creek, and an additional descent of 50 feet to 

 Kalamazoo. Tliis may serve to illustrate some ele- 

 mental facts in the settlement of the oldest agri- 

 cultural counties of the Lower Peninsula. 



Settlement moved northwesterly from the head of 

 Lake Erie and its connecting waters as early as due 

 westerly. Settlement reached Genesee County some 

 six years after the founding of Pontiac to the south- 

 east. Clinton County was reached nearly as soon, 

 while Louis Campau took up land on the site of 

 Grand Eapids in 1831. With reference to the soil 

 in this area, there is lake clay west of Lake St. 

 Clair, bowlder clay, outwash plains and moraine for- 

 mations in Livingston County, bowlder clay again in 

 central Ingham County with other soil types al- 

 ready noted surrounding it. ]\Ioraines and bowlder 

 clay belts largely cover Eaton County, while moraines 

 predominate in Barry County, with some outwash 

 plains in the west and south. Finally, in Allegan 

 County on the Lake Michigan shore, a mixture of 

 soil types occurs. A similar condition obtains in 

 Ottawa County to the northward, with a small por- 

 tion of it represented as bowlder clay. Moraines are 

 an important feature of the soil surface of Kent 

 Coimty, with lake-bed sand adjoining Grand River, 

 bowlder clay southeast and northeast of Grand 

 Eapids, and outwash plains north and south of it. 

 Zones of bowlder clay and of sand pass through 

 Ionia, Clinton and Shiawassee counties, interspersed 

 with morainic formations, which continue i]ito 



