CHAPTER VIII. 



McIIENRY AND LAKE COUNTIES. 



These two counties are situated contiguously to each other, in the northeast 

 corner of the State, and are bounded, respectively, as follows : McHenry 

 county is bounded, on the north, by the State of Wisconsin ; on the east, by 

 Lake county ; on the south, by Cook, Kane, and DeKalb counties ; and on the 

 west, by Boone county. Lake county, lying to the east of McHenry, has for 

 its remaining boundaries on the north, east, and south, respectively, the State 

 of Wisconsin, Lake Michigan, and Cook county. The superficial area of the 

 whole district is about ten hundred and six square miles, of which area, the 

 greater portion, six hundred and twelve square miles, is within the limits of 

 McHenry county, and the remainder, three hundred and ninety-four square 

 miles, in Lake county. 



The principal streams by which this region is watered are, in the order of 

 their importance, as follows : the Fox river, which, entering this district from 

 the north, and passing through several expansions or lakes, traverses it in a 

 general north and south direction ; the DesPlaines, also rising in the State of 

 Wisconsin, and pursuing a generally parallel course; the Kishwaukee, rising 

 in the central and western portions of McHenry county, in two or three 

 branches, and flowing westward into Boone county ; and the Nippersink, a tri- 

 butary of the Fox, also rising in McHenry county, and traversing several of 

 its northern townships. Besides these streams and their .lesser tributaries, 

 there are one or two small water-courses discharging directly into Lake Michi- 

 gan, and a slough, or succession of sloughs, in the southeast corner of Lake 

 county, are drained by the northern branch of the Chicago river, which, in this 

 county, can hardly be called a stream, except during the wet seasons. That 

 portion of the district, however, which drains its waters into the lake, and may 

 properly be said to belong to the basin of the St. Lawrence, is very inconsidera- 

 ble, a mere strip along the coast, hardly averaging three or four miles in width. 



The surface configuration of this district is somewhat varied, embracing not 

 only the upland rolling prairie and woodland, the prevailing character of the 

 surface in this part of the State, but also extensive wet prairies or sloughs, in 

 certain localities, and tracts of alternate sand ridge and marsh of the most re- 



