RIVER SYSTEMS AND GENERAL SURFACE SLOPES. 423 



in the northeastern part of Colombia county and the adjoining por- 

 tions of Green Lake, on the west edge of the high limestone belt 

 previously alluded to. Flowing at first southwest and then due west 

 nearly parallel to the Duck creek branch of the "Wisconsin, it ap- 

 proaches the latter stream at Portage. When within two miles 

 of the Wisconsin, separated from it and from Duck creek by only a 

 low, sandy plain, it turns abruptly northward, and, with a sluggish 

 current, continues on this course for twelve miles to the head of Lake 

 Buffalo in the southern part of Marquette county. For some dis- 

 tance below Portage the river has been shortened by cut-offs and 

 slackened by a system of dams and locks. It has already been said 

 that in the spring this portion of the Fox receives a large amount of 

 water from the Wisconsin, much of which reaches it through a 

 branch known as the Big Slough or Neenah creek, which, heading 

 within a mile of the Wisconsin, in the town of Lewiston, reaches the 

 Fox just south of the north line of Columbia county, in the town of 

 Fort Winnebago. At the head of Lake Buffalo the Fox begins a wide 

 curve which brings its direction finally around to due east. Lake 

 Buffalo is merely an expansion of the river, grown up with grass and 

 wild rice, excepi where the channel crosses it, and is thirteen and one- 

 half miles long and half a mile wide. It runs through a sand plain, 

 which is not many feet above its level. At the foot of the lake, near 

 the village of Montello, a dam has been built which raises the lake-level, 

 several feet. From the foot of Lake Buffalo the river for seven miles 

 has an irregular, easterly course, with a somewhat rapid current, to 

 the head of Lake Puckawa, which is eight and one-fourth miles in 

 length and from one to two wide, and is in part grown up with reeds 

 and wild rice. At the foot of the lake there are wide marshes 

 through which the river leaves on the north side, and, after making a 

 long, narrow bend to the west, begins its northeast stretch to Lake 

 Winnebago, keeping along the western edge of the northern exten- 

 sion of the same limestone ridge, to which we have already had occa- 

 sion so many times to refer, until after it leaves the district. From 

 Lake Puckawa to Berlin the river is wider and deeper, interrupted 

 by but few sandbars, and runs for a considerable portion of the dis- 

 tance between high banks. The main tributaries of the upper Fox 

 enter from tlie north, and head in the higli drift-covered region of 

 southwestern Waushara and northwestern Marquette, at elevations of 

 between 200 and 300 feet above their mouths. The principal ones 

 are the Montello, Mechan and White rivers, each one of which 

 branches many times towards its head. All of these are large, clear, 

 rapid streams, but, running in sand and drift bottoms, are not broken 



