416 GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL WISCONSIN. 



office plats is from 300 to 600 feet, the river pursues a general south- 

 erly course through towns 29, 28, 27, 26, 26 and 24, of range 7 east, 

 and towns 2i and 23, of range 8 east, in the southern part of Portage 

 county. In this part of its course the Wisconsin flows through a 

 densely timbered country, and has, except where it makes rapids, or 

 passes through rock gorges, a narrow bottom land, which varies in 

 width, is usually raised but a few feet above water level, and is wider 

 on one side than on the other. Above this bottom, terraces can often 

 be made out, with surfaces in some cases one or two miles in width. 

 Above, again, the country surface rises steadily to the dividing ridges 

 on each side, never showing the bluff edges so characteristic of the 

 lower reaches of the river. Heavy rapids and falls are made at "Wau- 

 sau (Big Bull Falls), Mosinee (Little Bull Falls), Stevens Point, and 

 on section 8, town 23, range 8 (Conant's Rapids). All but the last 

 named of these are increased in height by artificial dams. Two miles 

 below the foot of Conant's Rapids, just after receiving the Plover river 

 on the east, the "Wisconsin turns a right angle to the west, and enters 

 upon the sparsely timbered sand plains through which it flows for a 

 hundred miles. At the bend the river is quiet, with high banks of 

 sand and a few low outcrops of gneiss at the water's edge. From the 

 bend the course is westward for about nine miles; then, after curving 

 southward again, the long series of rapids soon begins which, with 

 intervening stretches of still water, extend about 15 miles along the 

 river to the last rapid at Point Bass, in southern Wood county. East 

 of the river line, between the city of Grand Rapids and Point Bass, 

 the country, rises gradually, reaching altitudes of 100 feet above the 

 river at points ten or fifteen miles distant. On the west the surface 

 is an almost level plain, descending gradually as the river is receded 

 from. At Point Bass the gneissic rocks disappear beneath the sand- 

 stones which for some miles have formed the upper portions of the 

 river banks, and now become in turn the bed rock; and the first 

 division of the river's course ends. The main tributaries which it 

 has received down to this point are, on the left bank — the Big Eau 

 Claire, three miles below Wausau ; the Little Eau Claire, on the north 

 side of Sec. 3, T. 25, R. 7 E., just south of the north line of Portage 

 county; and the Big Plover, on Sec. 9, T. 28, R. 6 E., just at the 

 foot of Conant's Rapids; on the right bank — the Placota, or Big Rib, 

 about two miles below Wausau ; the She-she-ga-ma-isk, or Big Eau 

 Pleine, on Sec. 19, T. 26, R. 7 E., Marathon county; and the Little 

 Eau Pleine, on Sec. 9, T. 25, R. 7, in Portage county. All of these 

 streams are of considerable size, and drain large areas. They all 

 make much southing in their courses, so that their lengths are much 



