92 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



a beautiful cherry color, rivaling in appearance and richness of color- 

 ing the far-famed Philadelphia cherry- colored brick. If the experiment 

 then being tried proves a success, another branch of manufacturing in- 

 dustry will be added to the many already possessed by this energetic 

 little city. 



Mineral wealth. Of this the county possesses very little. Although 

 covered to so large an extent by the real lead-bearing rocks, no bodies 

 of mineral have ever been found in the county. Traces of lead are 

 found in many of the worked exposures, and bits of float mineral are 

 often picked up in the gravel beds ; but these are simply matters of cu- 

 riosity, and denote no workable bodies of the lead ore. The modes of 

 occurrence of the galena or lead ore over the lead basin are very pecu- 

 liar. A few well known centres of deposit exist. A radius of a few 

 miles around these seems to be productive. All outside, even where the 

 conditions would seem to be favorable, is unproductive. 



Bog iron ore exists about many of the springs, but for economical 

 purposes the deposit is worthless. Copper, in its pure state, is often 

 met with. No deposit of the metal exists. It is all float material, 

 found in connection with the drift, and comes originally from the Lake 

 Superior copper deposits. A crevice in the Galena rocks at Cherry 

 Valley had a considerable quantity of float copper deposited in it. It 

 has all been removed. A railroad laborer found, in a gravel bed in the 

 southeastern part of the county, a boulder or nugget weighing fourteen 

 pounds. He sold it to a tinner, who shipped it to Chicago, and it found 

 its way into the general copper trade. Hon. Auson S. Miller, of Eock- 

 ford, has in his cabinet of minerals a handsome specimen of several 

 pounds weight, found in digging a well some thirty feet below the sur- 

 face. But all these are rather matters of interesting speculation, tvnd 

 are not of much economical value to the county. 



Peat. No peat beds of value were noticed in the examinations of 

 this county. The land is too well drained to afford favorable conditions 

 for the growth of this useful material. In the region of Sugar river, 

 in the sloughs, swales and marshes there existing to a limited extent, 

 and about the rise of some of the small streams south of Eock river, 

 some small beds of imperfect peat and black muck doubtless do exist ; 

 but they will never be of value as a fuel, and are only adapted for use 

 as a fertilizer of the soil. 



Fruit. Apples and pears of -the hardy varieties succeed well, and 

 more than enough for home consumption is raised. The garden fruits 

 produce large crops. The somewhat sandy nature of the soil is well 

 adapted to the strawberry. We saw, when there, patches of ground 

 blushing red with this delicious fruit. The crop of leaves was not 

 heavy, but the berries lay thick in tempting bunches over the ground. 



