TY; 



LEE COUNTY. 



A large part of the township of Viola, and parts of the townships of 

 Reynolds. Bradford and Lee Center, are taken up by the Iiilet or Upper 

 Green river swamps. This body of low land is about ten miles long, 

 and from two to five miles wide. It is mostly covered with a dense 

 prairie grass, among whose roots is concealed, in the wet seasons of the 

 year, a thin sheet of water. Towards its center the water is deeper, 

 and patches of cat-tails and rushes abound. On the south, the country 

 slopes up gradually to the water's bed between this stream aud Bureau 

 creek : on the north, to the dividing ridge between Green and Rock 

 rivers. The southern slope is sandy prairie ; the northern is a rich, pro- 

 ductive one. The soil in the swamp is a black, miry muck, carpeted 

 with a prairie sod strong enough to bear the fowler's tread. The dryer 

 portions of these swamps afford unlimited quantities of coarse prairie 

 hay, much used in wintering stock. They also afford grazing for large 

 droves of cattle in the summer season. 



The Winuebago swamps are even larger than the Inlet swamps, and 

 have about them several new features. Hills of almost indurated sand 

 rise in chains and clusters and groups from the midst of some of the 

 swamps. These sand mounds and sand dunes were originally heaped 

 up by the winds from materials brought from neighboring sand ridges, 

 or at least partially formed in this way. Some of them are forty or 

 fifty feet high, and are covered with scattering but stunted trees. The 

 .-'loughs and swamps wind through them in many places, dark bands of 

 green vegetation and glancing patches of water amid sand deserts and 

 oak barrens. The intervening swamps are fringed with a band of thick 

 growing swamp grass, on a iniry, mucky soil ; then comes an inner 

 fringe of dense, cane-like rushes and cat-tails, growing so thick and tall 

 that it is almost impossible to penetrate it ; then comes stretches of 

 clear water, with hard sand bottoms, over which one can wade easily 

 without miring. Xo habitations are near these watery jungles. A 

 spirit of desolation seems to brood over them. The tall, purple-caned 

 reeds bend their light feathery tops in the wind; triangular-shaped 

 rushes cut the bare legs of the wader with their sickle edges. Innu- 

 merable water fowls congregate here in the spring and fall months, and 

 the evening and morning hours witness a babel of bird voices, nowhere 

 else to be heard to an equal extent in the State ; aud when the advent- 

 urous duck hunter discharges his gun, the roar of myriads of wings, 

 and an uprising cloud of the whole web-footed tribe, disclose the fact 

 that even these desolate spots have their uses. 



Of course this description of the Winnebago swamps applies to only 

 a part of them. The rest are similar to the Inlet swamps, being more 

 grassy and less wild. Some of these statements may not seem like the 

 utterances of practical science. They are true, nevertheless. I have 



