PLATE X. 



FILLMORE COUNTY, 1884. N. H. WINCHELL. 



The rolling character of surface which prevails in Houston and Wiuona counties 

 becomes ameliorated and finally disappears entirely in Fillmore county. The south- 

 western one-third portion of this county is characterized by extensive and uniform 

 prairies. The general surface is everywhere a loam which seems to be the continua- 

 tion of that of counties further east, but it becomes more and more affected toward 

 the west by the underlying sheet of northern drift, and that drift also appears more 

 and more abundantly exposed in all excavations that penetrate the loam, and along 

 the valleys of the streams. 



Root river, with its fan-like tributaries, drains nearly the whole county, descend- 

 ing from an average level of about 1,300 feet at the west to about 700 feet at the 

 northeast. At the west it runs on a drift-and-loam surface, with no rock exposure. 

 At the northeast it meanders through a wide, rock-bound, alluvial valley over two 

 miles wide, which lies 565 feet below the tops of the bluffs. It descends over the 

 strike of the Lower Devonian, the Silurian and about 375 feet into the St. Croix 

 sandstones and shales. The Upper Silurian is in some places, as at Spring Valley, 

 shut out by an overlap of the Devonian upon the Lower Silurian. Unconformably 

 overlying all the Paleozoic rocks is a little Cretaceous, which exists in the western 

 part of the county, probably belonging to the Dakota and the Fort Benton groups. 



The drift has been found to consist, along the west side of the county, of two 

 layers of till, separated by a bed of peat, the upper till being sometimes nearly fifty 

 feet thick. The peat contains branches of trees, apparently of cedar. At Preston, 

 besides the flood plain the river has a high terrace plain consisting of loess-loam, 

 undistinguishable from the loam that covers that portion of the county. This 

 appears also at Lanesboro and at Whalen, while at Eushford it only exists in 

 fragmentary remnants seen in the valleys of the tributary streams. There are 

 two terrace levels besides the flood plain. The. highest terrace plain at Eushford is 

 from seventy to eighty feet above the second, and about 130 feet above the river. 



In Fillmore county formerly was made a large quantity of quicklime from the 

 Galena (Trenton) limestone. The county is well supplied with fuel by the native 

 forest, and, having a good soil of varied capabilities and a diversified surface, it ranks 

 amongst the first in its agricultural attractions. 



Spring Valley, and the railroad cuts eastward from Spring Valley, and the bluffs 

 about Wykoff and Chatfield, are favorable fossil localities. N. H. w. 



