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taries are so steep and the ravines are so narrow and sharp as to prevent 

 cultivation and they are in most places forested. The frequent occurrence 

 of large trees, one hundred to two hundred years old, in the bottom of the 

 ravines, indicates that the present rate of downward corrasion is very 

 slow, and that possibly the dissection of the region in the drift area was 

 mostly accomplished during the period of ice melting and the succeeding 

 period of bare ground, before the surface was covered with vegetation. 



Culture. — The alluvial lands iu the valleys are chiefly occupied by corn 

 fields. The broken upland areas between the ravines are inconvenient for 

 farming but many of the small fields produce good corn, oats and hay, 

 especially hay. The only way by which cuts, fills, and bridges can be 

 avoided in road building is to run the roads on the narrow divides between 

 the heads of ravines. Coal mines are numerous. Along the front of the 

 Wabash bluffs shale and coal are accessible near the surface and four 

 large brick and tile factories have been established. The new industries 

 bave multiplied the population of West Terre Haute by five in ten years. 

 and have caused three considerable villages to spring up from nothing in 

 the same time. 



State Normal School, 

 Terre Haute, Ind. 



