OHAPTEE V. 



WABASH AKD EDWAEDS^COHNTIES, 



Wabash and Edwards are two of the smallest counties in the State, 

 and laying contiguous to each other on its south-western borders, they 

 may very properly be described together. Their aggregate area is 

 about four hundred and twenty-five square miles, and their boundaries 

 are as follows : Wabash is bounded on the north by Lawrence and 

 Eichland counties, on the east and south by the Wabash river, and on 

 the west by the Bonpass creek. Edwards county is bounded on the 

 north by Bichland county, on the east by Bonpass creek, on the south 

 by White county, and on the west by Wayne. The only streams of any 

 importance are those forming in part their respective boundaries, the 

 Wabash river, by a south-westerly course, bounding Wabash county on 

 the east and south, and the Bonpass creek, with a course nearly due 

 south, forming the dividing line between thetn. The latter stream 

 winds its sluggish course through a broad alluvial valley showing no 

 outcrops of the underlaying rock formations except at rare intervals. 

 Along the Wabash, exposures of the rocky strata are more numerous, 

 but as the course of the river is nearly on the trend of the underlaying 

 formations, but a limited thickness of strata can be seen along the 

 bluffs of this stream. The surface of the uplands is generally quite 

 rolling, but there are some limited areas of rather flat timbered lands 

 above the level of the river bottoms, and forming what may properly 

 be termed terrace lauds. Both counties are heavily timbered, though 

 there are some small prairies within their limits. A complete list of 

 the trees and shrubs indigenous to Wabash county has been furnished 

 for this report by Dr. J. Schenck, of Mr. Carmel, which will be found 

 further on. It is peculiarly interesting because it shows the presence 

 here of some species hitherto supposed to belong exclusively to a more 

 southern latitude. 



The geological formations to be seen in this county belong to the 

 Quaternary and the upper Coal Measures. The former is more fully 

 developed along the bluffs of the Wabash than elsewhere, and consist 

 of the buff aud yellow marly sands and clays of the loess, and a mod- 

 erate thickness of the gravelly clays of the drift- formation. 



