CHAPTER IV. 



LAWRENCE AND RICHLAXD COUNTIES. 



Lawrence county embraces an area of about three hundred and sixty- 

 two square miles, and is bounded on the north by Crawford county, on 

 the east by the Wabash river, on the south by Wabash county and on 

 the west by Bichland. The principal water courses in the county, besides 

 the Wabash river which forms its eastern boundary, are the Embarras 

 river, which traverses the uorth-east portion of the county, with its 

 affluents Brushy Fork and Indian creek, which drain the northern and 

 central portions of the county, and Baccoon creek and the eastern fork 

 of the Bonpass, which drain the southern part. East of Lawrenceville, 

 andlyingbetween the Embarras and Wabash rivers, there is an extensive 

 marsh from two to four miles in width and about ten miles in length, 

 called Purgatory swamp. Surrounding this on the east and north, 

 there is a considerable area of bottom prairie, the upper or northern 

 portion being known as Allison's prairie, and the lower portion as the 

 Busselville prairie. In addition to this there are some small prairies in 

 the southern, and also in the north-western portion of the county, but 

 the greater portion of its area was originally covered with a heavy 

 growth of timber. The surface is generally rolling, but nowhere so 

 broken that the land cannot be cultivated even along the bluffs of the 

 streams. The elevation of the country above the water courses is 

 nowhere very great, and on what may be termed the upland ranges 

 from fifty to about a hundred feet. 



Loess and Drift. — In the vicinity of the Wabash river we find beds of 

 brown clay and buff or yellowish marly sands ranging from ten to twenty 

 feet or more in thickness which probably represent the age of the loess. 

 These are underlaid by brown or gravelly clays containing small bowl- 

 ders ranging in size from an inch or two to a foot or more in diameter. 

 On the uplands away from the river bluffs there are usually from fifteen 

 to twenty feet of these gravelly clays above the bed rock, and usually 

 in sinking wells, especially in the northern portion of the county, an 

 adequate supply of water can only be obtained by going from ten to 

 forty feet or more below the drift clays into the underlaying shales or 



