4 GEOLOGICAL EEPORT. 



This table land presents a surface sufficiently undulating 

 to be well drained, and still level enough for argricultural 

 purposes. 



The South- Western Branch from Franklin, rises gradually 

 onto the north-eastern slope of this table land, up the divide be- 

 tween the waters of the Bourbeuse and the Meramec, until it 

 reaches an elevation of 780 feet above St. Louis, before crossing 

 the valley of the Gasconade. Beyond this valley it rises again 

 to the most elevated part of the line in Webster county. Thence 

 through to Green, Lawrence and Newton, it descends the gentle 

 western slope to the State boundary, where the road will be 

 440 feet above the St. Louis Register,* and the highest point on 

 the line of the road at Marshfield is 1092 feet above the Reg- 

 ister, and about 1500 above the Gulf of Mexico. At Buck 

 prairie it is 1020 feet above the Register, and 780 at Little 

 prairie, east of the Gasconade. 



CLIMATE. 



This table land, as above stated, has an elevation of some 

 twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the ocean. It has a rolling 

 surface, and gentle slopes of some four or five feet to the mile, 

 towards the valleys of the Osage, the Mississippi, the Arkansas, 

 and the Neosho or Grand river, and no high mountains or arid 

 plains to disturb the equable and agreeable temperature, which 

 usually prevails at this altitude, under the thirty-seventh par- 

 allel of north latitude. There are no swamp or overflowed 

 lands from which noxious exhalations can arise to affect any 

 considerable portion of this country. 



The climate, as these facts indicate and our meteorological 

 observations clearly prove, is most agreeable and salubrious ;f 

 the summers are long, temperate and dry, the winters short 

 and mild. No climate, in short, is better fitted to secure health 

 and a luxurious growth of the staple products of the temperate 

 zone. 



* This Register is about 400 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. 

 t The Census Report of 1850 shows this to be one of the most healthy 

 regions in the United States. 



