CHAPTER VII. 



DEKALB, KANE AND DUPAGE COUNTIES. 



These three counties, the description of which is included in the present 

 chapter, are situated contiguously to each other, in the northeastern portion of 

 the State, and together comprise a rather irregularly shaped area of about fif- 

 teen hundred square miles. Their respective boundaries and areas are as fol- 

 lows: 



DeKalb county is bounded on the north by Boone and McHenry counties, 

 on the east by Kane and Kendall counties, on the south by LaSalle county, and 

 on the west by Lee and Ogle counties. It comprises an area of eighteen town- 

 ships, or about six hundred and forty square miles. The remaining boundaries 

 of Kane county are, McHenry county on the north, Cook and DuPage coun- 

 ties on the east, and Kendall county on the south. Of DuPage, Cook county 

 on the north and east, and Will county on the south. The areas of these two 

 counties are, respectively, about five hundred and twenty-eight and three hun- 

 dred and thirty square miles. 



The principal water courses in this territory are, first : the Fox river, which 

 traverses the whole length of Kane county, near its eastern border ; the Kish- 

 waukee or Sycamore river, which, rising in the western part of Kane, runs 

 through the northern portion of DeKalb county, and the DuPage. which, 

 with its two forks, drains nearly the whole of DuPage county. These, with 

 their tributaries, and a few minor streams, furnish an abundant supply of 

 water in all parts of this district. Springs are not generally numerous, except- 

 ing in the immediate vicinity of the water courses. 



The predominating character of the surface of the country, in this district, 

 is that of an upland rolling prairie, with, however, numerous groves, or timber 

 islands, and extensive wooded tracts along the principal streams. The propor- 

 tion of wooded land to prairie may perhaps be as small as one to three or four, 

 but the checking of the prairie fires which formerly swept over this region, 

 and the greater attention which has of late years been given to arboriculture, 

 have probably made up for the deficit caused by the cutting down of the tim- 

 ber for fuel and other purposes, and it may perhaps be safely said that the 

 amount of surface actually occupied by growing woods, excepting in a few locali- 



