26 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



woolen mill. Along the southwest part of the county there is some al- 

 luvial bottom land, made up of deep, black Mississippi mud bottoms and 

 sand prairies; but these are not extensive. Some of the smaller streams 

 have narrow and fertile alluvial bottoms. These are walled in, in most 

 cases, with bluff ranges, more or less precipitous and rocky. The trend 

 of the bluff line along the Mississippi river winds and bends with the 

 general course of that stream. These bluffs are high, and gently rounded 

 along the northwestern part of the county, but assume a more pictur- 

 esque and castellated appearance as they enter Carroll county on the 

 south. 



It is almost impossible to give a correct description of the surface of 

 JoDaviess county, without a minute reference to almost every township 

 in it. In general terms, there are all varieties of surface found in the 

 northern part of the State. Level prairie, rolling and undulating prai- 

 rie and oak openings, uneven, hilly, rocky and bluffy timbered and 

 farm land tracts, may all be found in almost any portion of the county. 

 The eastern and north-eastern townships are generally prairie; soil rich, 

 warm, and deep : some of it regular level Illinois prairie land; some of 

 it, towards the center and south of the county, undulating, uneven, 

 partly covered with scattering and scrubby timber. The southern tier 

 of townships is uneven, sometimes hilly, sometimes rocky, with some 

 prairie in Berreman, Pleasant Valley, and Hanover. The western and 

 north-western townships are generally timbered, hilly, rocky, and even 

 bluffy. The central townships are generally uneven and partly timbered. 



The prairies of JoDaviess county are not excelled in fertility by 

 any upland prairie in the State. The soil of the rough, uneven and 

 hilly land, when cleared of its timber and underbrush, and laid*opeii to 

 the genial influences of good cultivation, is quick and fertile, being com- 

 posed of a clayey, somewhat marly base. Numerous farms, some of 

 them quite large, opened in the rough lands in every part of the county, 

 attest the truth of this statement, and amply repay their owners for the 

 labor of putting them under cultivation. Some of these reddish clayey 

 soils might not look fertile to the husbandman used to the blacker prai- 

 rie soils; but the large yield of cereal grains and grasses would soon 

 convince him that their producing powers were almost equal to the vege- 

 table molds and humus-charged soils of the leveler portions of the 

 State. Indian corn, of course, is not so heavy a staple crop here as in 

 other portions of the State farther south; still, good crops are raised 

 with reasonable certainty. 



Stock raising is also an important element of wealth in the county. 

 The range is good, and sheltered situations for the winter are abundant. 

 The citizens of the county, many of them, are largely engaged in this 

 very remunerative business. 



