46 PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY. 



the State of Missouri, the upper branches of which pass 

 through Ringgold county from north to south, and together 

 with those of the West Fork of Grand river, * drain a consid- 

 erable region. 



The highest ridge of land between the two great rivers (not 

 the Great Watershed as before explained), also passes through 

 it in the same direction. Here the Drift Deposit reaches its 

 maximum thickness on an east and west line across the 

 State, and the valleys are eroded in some instances to a 

 depth of two hundred feet below the general level of the 

 adjacent prairie, apparently through this deposit alone, and 

 not even then exposing its base except in a single instance, 

 which occurs near the south line of Ringgold county. There 

 all the valleys of these streams have the general features 

 before described as characteristic of drift valleys. These 

 characteristics are well marked in Ringgold county, because 

 the valleys there are so much deeper than drift valleys 

 average throughout the State. 



The county is nearly all prairie, and as the traveler is 

 passing across it, he is hardly aware of the existence of the 

 valleys until he is just upon their borders. Then he sees the 

 stream winding through a narrow, scarcely defined flood- 

 plain, usually having a narrow, often interrupted belt of 

 forest trees along its banks, which were quite invisible at a 

 distance in consequence of the depth of the valley. 



One-Hundred-and-Two river is represented in Taylor county 

 by its East and West Forks, the valleys of which have the 

 same general character as those just described, only they are 

 not so deep. The East Fork has an exposure of Upper coal- 

 measure limestone upon its banks at Bedford, but it is not 

 sufficient to modify the general drift character of the valley. 

 Nothing but drift appears in the valley of the West Fork so 



*The meagre nomenclature of the pioneers hasgiveu rise to much subsequent incon- 

 venience, lor, instead, of giving a separate name to each stream, they often applied the 

 name of the main stream to each one of its principal tributaries with the addition of 

 North, South, East, West or Middle, as the case mignt be. Thus we have the North 

 and South Chariton, East, West, and Middle Nodaway, East and West Nishnabotauy, 

 etc., etc. 



