ARTICLE V.—A Study of the Mammals of Champaign County, 
Illinois. By FRANK ELMER Woop. 
TOPOGRAPHY AND MAMMALIAN HABITATS AND ASSOCIATIONS. 
Champaign county lies in the east-central part of the State of 
Illinois. It is rectangular in shape, extending thirty-six miles 
north and south and about twenty-eight miles east and west, its 
area being almost exactly 1000 square miles. Urbana, the county 
seat and the seat of the University of Illinois, is near the center of 
the county. The geographical location of the university observa- 
tory is 40° 6’ 20” north latitude and 88° 13’ 28” west longitude. 
The general topography of the county is that characteristic of 
the prairie region of the Mississippi Valley. It is essentially a level 
or gently rolling plain very moderately diversified by moraine 
ridges and shallow river valleys. The highest elevation recorded 
for the county is 830 feet above sea-level and the lowest is 610— 
giving an extreme variation of 220 feet in the thousand square 
miles of territory. 
The county lies entirely within the limits of the glacial de- 
posits of the Wisconsin epoch. Two morainic systems of the 
Wisconsin drift cross the county. The outer crest of the Bloom- 
ington moraine crosses the northeast corner. The ridge is two 
to five miles broad, and rises to an average of about 50 feet 
above the plain to the southwest. While the ridge is well defined 
in places, for a large part within the county it is represented only 
by low knolls and winding ridges. Between these are broad 
shallow basins and sags that are often difficult to drain. The 
Champaign moraine crosses the county from northwest to south- 
east a little south of the center. At its entrance into the county on 
the western border the system consists of a single ridge, but near 
Champaign divides into three distinct ridges which continue, sepa- 
rately, in easterly, southeasterly, and southerly directions across 
the county. 
The depth of the glacial deposit southwest of the Champaign 
moraine is 100 feet or less. North of this it is considerably more, 
and Leverett estimates the average depth for the county as about 
501 
