CHAPTER XYL 



MONEOE COUNTY. 



V 



The county of Monroe comprises an irregular-shaped triangular area 

 on the south-western borders of the State, embracing about three hun- 

 dred and eighty square miles. It is bounded on the north and east by 

 St. Clair and Eaudolph counties and the Kaskaskia river, and on the 

 south and west by Eaudolph county and the Mississippi river. 



It presents considerable diversity of surface, the region adjacent to 

 the river bluffs being quite hilly and broken, while the eastern portion 

 of the county is comparatively level, and affords a considerable area of 

 excellent farming lands. In that part of the county underlaid by the 

 St. Louis limestone, comprising most of the central and south-western 

 portions of the uplands, " sink-holes " are so numerous as to render the 

 land nearly valuless for agricultural purposes. These " sink-holes " are 

 funnel-shaped depressions in the drift clays overlaying the bed-rock, 

 leading down to a crevice or cavern in the limestone below, through 

 which the water that falls upon the surface finds an outlet into the ad- 

 jacent streams. They are often fifty feet or more in depth, with an 

 open crevice at the bottom leading into a yawning chasm or cavern be- 

 neath the surface. Occasionally the crevice at the bottom becomes 

 filled up with the clayey sediment that washes into it, and small ponds 

 of water are thus formed, some of which, in the vicinity of Waterloo, 

 cover an area of several acres, and are filled with fish. 



The principal streams in Monroe county are Fountain creek, which 

 rises in the highlands south of Waterloo, and runs in a north- westerly 

 course until it enters the American bottom, and from thence south- 

 westerly, emptying into the Mississippi near Harrison ville; Horse creek, 

 which intersects the southern portion of the county ; and Prairie du 

 Long creek, which waters the eastern portion, both emptying into the 

 Kaskaskia river. 



This county was originally heavily timbered, there being but three or 

 four small prairies in its eastern portion, the largest of which are Xe\v 

 Design prairie, Prairie du Long, and Prairie du Eond, none of which 

 exceed an area of three or four square miles in extent. The timber 



