contact with the waters of the Kankakee, its velocity was 

 checked and the gravel was laid down at its mouth, on the 

 west bank, where the current remained the swiftest. This 

 gravel bed extends from the Michigan road up the river a dis- 

 tance of three or four miles, and is about one-half mile in 

 breadth. It forms the eastern slope or border of Portage Prai- 

 rie. This bed of gravel has been sounded in a number of places 

 and found to be from forty to fifty feet in depth, and all smooth, 

 rounded, water-worn gravel, placing at our city's gates an inex- 

 haustible supply of the finest gravel for highway purposes. 

 The value of such a bed of gravel may be estimated when you 

 are informed that the Three-I railroad is absolutely without 

 gravel from South Bend to Streator, 111. The Dowagiac river, 

 hurling its great volume of water against the current of the 

 Kankakee, also had the effect of slowing the current of the 

 Kankakee, and caused it to deposit its heavier material, which 

 we find stored away in the' form of acres of river gravel, just 

 east of Mishawaka, which the Lake Shore Railroad Company 

 is utilizing for road-bed purposes. The east side of the Dowa- 

 giac river at its mouth was much more obstructed than the west 

 side, consequently the gravel, and coarser material was slowly 

 laid down above, and only the finer material was carried to its 

 mouth, where it was laid down as sand in great quantities, form- 

 ing Lowell Heights, as shown by the deep excavations north 

 and east of the Singer factory and elsewhere along the face of 

 the bluff. If a careful examination of the sands is made, large 

 quantities of small pieces of coal will be found, indicating that 

 the Saginaw glacier had cut deep into the surface and uncov- 

 ered, in places, the coal fields of Michigan and mingled their 

 contents with the drift. 



The Kankakee river, from its source to its mouth, took a 

 southwesterly course. When the waters left the old channel, 

 they took an almost due northerly course, forming a great bend 

 in the river, with its sharp convexity to the south, which gave 

 our city its name, — South Bend. 



The two rivers, since changing their course, have eroded 

 their valleys from fifty to seventy-five feet into the old river 



