SHELBY COUNTY. 451 



of seventy-five or eighty feet from the bottom of the reservoir to the 

 mouth of the Loramie. The eastern part of the county is drained by 

 other tributaries of the Miami. The Towana, formed by the junction 

 of the Leather wood and Mosquito creeks, is. an excellent mill stream, 

 and drains the principal part of the county east of the Miami River. 

 From the appearance of this stream in the dry months of July and Au- 

 gust, I conclude it is largely fed by springs, as the volume of water was 

 kept up to a good stage when many other streams had failed. There are 

 some copious springs in the county, but they do not form such a feature 

 as they do in some other counties situated at a lower level. As might 

 be expected, the high land west of the Miami has fewer and less copious 

 springs than are found in less elevated localities in the county. In con- 

 clusion of this subject, the drainage of the county by natural channels 

 is ample. 



The Sail.— T!he character of the soil out of the river and creek bottoms 

 depends upon the nature of the underlying drift. The drift will be 

 spoken of more particularly further on. The soil in the river bot- 

 toms is composed largely of partially decompose vegetable matter. 

 There is nothing peculiar about this class of soils in this county, ex- 

 cept that on some of the tributaries of the Miami, as Plum Creek, 

 there is an unusual body of it compared with the size of the creek. 

 The explanation of this seems to be that in the upper course of this 

 stream especially, the fall in the bed of the creek is often very slight, 

 and the drainage was very imperfect. Before the country was cleared 

 the wateT was still more impeded by rubbish and undergrowth, and 

 it stood on the ground for at least a portion of the year. Large accu- 

 mulations of vegetable mould took place, which the size of the streams, 

 • as seen to-day, do not seem adequate to produce. This mould is not allu- 

 vium, but the result of vegetable growth on the spot. It has not been 

 washed thither by the water, but the vegetation which made it grew up 

 in the swamps which existed along this sluggish water-course. The 

 upland soil in the county is naturally divided into two classes, one called 

 black soil, composed of the clay of the drift, mixed with a greater or less 

 proportion of vegetable mould; the othf-r is a light-colored, "thin" soil, 

 with little vegetable matter. The dark-colored soil is related in origin 

 to that of the creek bottoms or fiats, just referred to. Wherever the water 

 formed swampy districts, there accumulated vegetable matter. Some of 

 these places were yet swampy at the first settlement of the county, and 

 were shunned as unhealthy localities ; but others, often extensive, were 

 no longer swampy, but from channels being worn through them or out 

 of them, wegre dry, and invited, not in vain, the early settler. The face 



