PLATE XV. 



STEELE COUNTY, 1884, M. W. HARRINGTON, AND WASECA COUNTY, 1884. 



WARREN UPHAM. 



Steele County. 



This county continues the features of Freeborn county toward the north, with 

 a gradual slope toward the north. The Straight river, at about two miles north of 

 Owatonna, tirst encounters bedrock. This belongs to the Trenton. The surface, 

 except for the bluffs that accompany the streams and the moderate, rolling morainic 

 belts that cross the county, is essentially a flat prairie, but originally had consider- 

 able small timber and brush. One of these rolling belts extends north and south 

 across the eastern part of the county, varying from a mile and a half to six miles in 

 width. The other belt skirts along the western edge of the county, partly lying in 

 Waseca county, and has an average width of about six miles. The tract between 

 these belts is drained by the Straight river and its tributaries, as in Freeborn county, 

 most of its ultimate sources being in lakes and springs located amongst the morainic 

 hills. These streams frequently meander through swampy tracts before they unite 

 in Straight river. 



The highest portion of the county is in the rolling tract in Blooming Prairie, 

 near the Free'born county line, at about 1,350 feet above tide, and Straight river 

 leaves it with an elevation of about 1,050 feet. 



There is a belt of larger timber from two to four miles in width accompanying 

 Straight river, especially in the northern part of the county. 



The deep well drilled at Owatonna in 1878 had a depth of 387 feet, and passed 

 ninety-seven feet into the St. Peter sandstone without having an artesian overflow. 

 Under the drift, having a thickness of thirty-four feet, was found a white sandstone 

 fifty-nine feet in thickness, belonging io the Cretaceous. N. H. w. 



Waseca County, 



Having a morainic belt along its eastern border, but which turns toward the north- 

 west through Woodville, Blooming Grove and losco, spreads out westwardly in a 

 tract of monotonous, nearly level, prairie. Some streams, however, diversify this 

 prairie, flowing westward to the Minnesota river. Along these streams more or less 

 timber is found. Finally, toward the northwest, the surface is very largely timbered. 

 The most uniformly flat prairie region is found in Byron, Vivian, Freedom and 

 Wilton townships, which were probably covered by a glacial lake during a part of 

 the retreat of ice-sheet (see Blue Earth and Faribault counties). The valley of the 

 Le Sueur river is broad and shallow, not exceeding forty feet, and usually less than 



