732 THE ILLINOIS GLACIAL LOBE. 



EDGAR COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Edgar Count v is situated near the middle of the east boundary of the 

 State and has an area of 630 square miles, with Paris as the county seat. 

 It is crossed by no large streams, the drainage being entirely through small 

 creeks. Those in the eastern part drain eastward to the Wabash, those in 

 the western part are tributary to the Embarras, while the drainage of the 

 southern portion is divided between the tributaries of the Embarras and 

 small streams leading directly to the Wabash. 



The northern part of the county is occupied by the Champaign 

 morainic system, while the southern portion is crossed by the Shelbyville 

 morainic system. Between these morainic systems there is a very fiat area 

 dotted with occasional low knolls or ridges of drift. South of the limits 

 of the Wisconsin drift there is a low plain which touches the borders of 

 this county and which is markedly more eroded than the more elevated 

 plain north of the outer moraine, a feature which testifies to its longer 

 exposure to agencies of erosion. 



The drift of the moraines and the plain between them consists largely 

 of a soft blue till, though portions of the outer moraine have a gravelly 

 constitution. The plain outside the outer moraine is underlain by a harder 

 till than that forming the body of the moraine. It is also capped by a silt 

 which is correlated with the loess, but the moraine and district to the north 

 are nearly free from silt capping. 



.The thickness of the drift along each of the moraines is 100 feet or 

 more, but on the plain between the moraines rock is in places entered at 50 

 feet or less, the drift being much thinner than in counties to the west. The 

 rock surface appears to be generally higher in Edgar County than in neigh- 

 boring counties on the west. 



Wells are generally obtained in this county at depths of 20 to 40 feet 

 and, so far as ascertained, very few exceed 60 feet. Those which enter 

 rock usually find water within a few feet. The majority, however, obtain 

 their supply above the rock. 



INDIVIDUAL WELLS. 



The public water supply at Paris is obtained from a well 60 feet deep, 

 which terminates in gravel below till. The private wells in the city and 



