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It is to the forest bottom-laiuls on the Illinois side northwest of 

 Quincy that we wish to call especial attention, since it was upon 

 them that most of our work with the Fish Commission was 

 done. Unlike the Lone Tree Prairie region, they are cut up 

 by channels into numerous separate bodies ol land, upon some 

 of which the water rises in spring, and leaves, as it subsides, num- 

 bers of lakes and ponds, some permanent, others transient. Op- 

 posite LaGrange some of the.se tracts an? permanently de- 

 tached from the main-land and form a group of large forest- 

 covered islands. Including the channels between these islands, the 

 river here has the unusual width of nearly three miles. Between 

 the islands and the blulf is a fertile bottom-land, now protected 

 from inundation by the Indian Grave levee. From this, the widest 

 part, the Illinois bottoms become gradually narrower towards 

 Quincy, just as those of the Missouri side do towards LaGrange, 

 and terminate in a point known locally as the tow-head. All of 

 the lower part is without levee protection and is separated from 

 the neighboring bluff by Quincy Bay, a narrow inlet which opens 

 to* the river at the tow-head, and extends thence northward close 

 along the bluff for about three miles. 



• .THE KIVER. 



As has been said, the river averages about one mile in width. 

 AVhile the general course between LaGrange and Quincy is nearly 

 direct, the low-water channel makes several bends. It runs along 

 the face of the bluff at LaGrange, then turns southeast, at length 

 reaching the Illinois side close to the south end of the LaGrange 

 group of islands, and strikes the Illinois bottom-land about three 

 miles north of Quincy, cutting down the banks vertically, under- 

 mining and carrying aAvay the trees, and threatening even to cut 

 across to the bay. It then turns towards the Missouri side again 

 and reaches it two miles below. Thence it is deflected towards 

 Illinois, and passing close along the south end of the tow-head, 

 follows the bluff along the lower part of Quincy. It flows at the 

 rate of three miles an hour. These bends in the low- water chan- 

 nel are not specially noticeable to the landsman at high water, 

 since the river then fills its whole bed. In the latter part of 

 summer, during most seasons, the water subsides to such an extent 

 that a good deal of the extensive sand-bar which has accumulated 

 in each bend becomes exposed, and the river is confined to its 

 low-water channel. One such bar occurs in the bend west of the 

 lower end of the Illinois bottom-land and another on the Missouri 

 side opposite the point at which the current strikes the same bot- 

 tom-land above- In the river proper no serious work was attempted, 

 because of the protracted high -water due to heavy falls of rain in 

 early summer. This was going down when we reached Quincy, in 

 the latter part of July, and the sand-bars in the bends began to 

 appear soon after; but in August heavy rains in the northwest 

 caused a rise which again covered them. This condition of the 



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