COU XT V. 87 



feet thick. The blurts here present a bold and picturesque front. 

 Clambering vines festoon their face. A crown of timber sits along 

 their brow. A narrow strip of greensward runs along their base, on 

 which the shadows of some graceful elms delight to lie. The river, 

 broad and many-voiced, goes careering by. There are few more refresh- 

 ing spots than this, of a hot summer day, when the fierce sun is beating 

 down on cliff and terrace, dusty road, and murmuring river. 



Some half a dozen miles below this, and not far from the Ogle county 

 line, is an exposure in the timber, about six feet deep. Thus the valley 

 of Kock river, for two thirds of its extent in Winuebago county, is hol- 

 lowed out of the Galena limestone. 



The Galena division of the Xorthwestern Kailroad enters the county 

 near the village of Pecatouica, on the west, and leaves it at the village 

 of Cherry Valley, on the east line. In all its cuts and excavations it 

 shows the lead-bearing rocks. It passes nearly over the center of that 

 part of the county colored to represent them. At Cherry Valley a heavy 

 quarry of these cream-colored limestones has been worked, out of which 

 the massive stone for the railroad bridge and piers at this place were 

 taken. Out of a crevice in this quarry several nuggets of pure copper 

 were taken, the larger of which were sold to the tinners, or found their 

 way into eastern museums. Between Kockford and Winnebago station 

 there exist several light exposures, where excavations are made through 

 the low hills. 



Two miles and a half below Cherry Valley, down the Kishwaukee, is 

 a lime kiln, where we found a man asleep, and all our hammering in 

 the quarry did not wake him. A good lime is here burned out of the 

 Galena. A mile further down, at Triiik's quarry, an exposure of fifteen 

 or twenty feet is laid bare, and many cords of stone have been taken 

 away. In the bottom of this quarry we found a curious genius, boring 

 away with a horse-power drill for a deposit of copper, on the faith of 

 the witch hazel and some pieces of float copper, found, according to 

 neighborhood tradition, in the quarry years ago. The Kishwankees, 

 before and after their confluence, cut into the Galena for their whole dis- 

 tance in the county, and all their hills and banks show its unworked 

 and weather-stained outcrops. 



One of the heaviest outcrops in the county is a little east of the sta- 

 tion of Harlem, on the railroad leading from Eockford to Caledonia. 

 The cut passes through a rocky hill, several hundred yards in length 

 and alxmt eighty feet in depth, at the comb of the elevation. A side 

 track passes through the great ditch, on which cars are switched and 

 lett to be loaded. Derricks on either side lift the massive stones, and 

 gently lower them on the cars. The strata here are massive and solid. 

 They furnish splendid material for heavy railroad masonry, and many 



