136 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



T. 4 N., E. 1 W., east of the river, is mostly flat with a gradually rising 

 low mound in the south part. Near Carson, Flat and Richland creeks 

 the country is gently undulating, with low hills near the streams, pass- . 

 ing from rich land with pin oak, laurel oak, comus and willow near 

 the prairie, to land with elm, ash, pig-nut and common hickory, hazel 

 and plum ; thence to open post oak flats. Near Hickory creek the 

 country is somewhat broken into short white oak ridges blending into 

 post oak and white oak flats. Near the creek the, hills are not over fifty 

 feet high. East of Yandalia to the prairie the country undulates very 

 gently, having mostly a gray soil with sometimes an abundant growth 

 of hickory, varied by richer land with black oak, white oak, shell bark 

 hickory, laurel oak and flats with post oak and black oak. Passing 

 thence along au undulating prairie down the gentle slopes of Sugar 

 creek to Big creek and Loudon City, there are broken white oak hills 

 spreading out into flats with post oak, black oak, blackjack and black 

 hickory. On Bock and Wolf creeks the hills are sometimes sixty feet 

 high, and on the bottoms as well as those of Sugar creek sugar trees 

 are very abundant. The bottoms of Big and Wolf creeks are tolerably 

 wide and fiat and sustain a growth of red birch, sycamore, bur oak, 

 coffee tree, ash, red mulberry, hickory, comus coral berry and amorpha 

 fruticosa. Beck's creek is rather a sluggish stream with wide and often 

 wet pin oak bottoms ; thence to the higher lands there are loug slopes 

 reaching to the flat post oak ridges. The neighboring prairies have a 

 margin of pin oak, laurel oak and swamp white oak. Ramsey is a clear 

 stream with a sandy bed ; its bottoms are wide and high enough for 

 good farming lands. On its bottoms may be found linden, buckeye, 

 white walnut, bladder nut, hornbeam, hackberry, sugar tree, with iron 

 wood, service berry and Spanish oak (?) on the hill sides. Lower down 

 the stream the hills are low, but above the railroad they are more 

 abrupt. From Vandalia westwardly to the county line the country is 

 mostly flat with occasionally small prairies, a few low drift mounds, 

 some ponds and some good timbered land with white oak, black oak 

 and hickory, and occasionally poorer land with post oak, and richer 

 land with sassafras, elm and ash. Hurricane creek is rather a sluggish 

 stream ; its bottoms are rich and often wet, varying in width, some- 

 times being a half mile wide and increasing near the Kaskaskia river. 

 On its bottoms I observed sassafras trees one and a half feet in diame- 

 ter and rose bushes twenty feet high, and the trees generally are very 

 tall. Other trees observed on its bottoms were bur oak, hackberry, 

 red bud, ash, elm, shell bark and pig nut hickory, hazel, wild allspice 

 and grape vines. East of Fairview the growth on Hurricane bottoms 

 consist mostly of pin oak and swamp white oak. The trees are larger 

 and taller near the Kaskaskia river; one hickory growing on a hill side 



