340 COUNTY AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY. 



and thirty -two square miles, or two hundred and seventy-six 

 thousand four hundred and eighty acres. 



Drainage and Surface Characters. The county lies wholly 

 upon the Missouri river drainage slope, the greater part 

 of it being drained by the East and Middle Nodaways and 

 their branches, which pass through it in a southwesterly 

 direction. Some of the upper branches of Platte river drain 

 the southeast corner portion, while the west fork of the One 

 Hundred and Two river rises in, and its upper branches drain 

 the southern part. Its deepest and most characteristic valleys 

 are those of the two JSTodaways before mentioned, and the 

 scenery along each is always interesting and frequently 

 beautiful in its kind. 



If the county be divided directly through the middle, from 

 north to south, it will be found that the eastern half is almost 

 wholly prairie, there being interrupted belts of woodland 

 along the banks of the East Nodaway and there only, 

 besides a few clumps of trees upon the borders of the 

 other small streams. In the western half, however, there 

 are very considerable bodies of woodland along the valleys 

 of both the Nodaway s. The surface of the east is principally 

 gently undulating prairie, almost every acre of which is 

 excellent farming land. The western half is no less valua- 

 ble for the same purposes, but it contains a somewhat 

 greater, but still very small, proportion of land not easily 

 tillable on account of its greater unevenness. This, however, 

 is more than compensated for by the presence of stone and 

 coal in its valleys, neither of which are found in the eastern 

 half. 



Geology. All the strata exposed in Adams county belong 

 to the Upper coal-measure formation, and the exposures here 

 enumerated are the principal ones to be found within its 

 limits. A few feet in thickness of compact, bluish lime- 

 stone, in somewhat regular layers, is found exposed in the 

 right bank of William's creek, on section 6, township 73, 

 range 34. A similar exposure is also found on section 19 

 of the same township and range. Crossing to the Middle 



