150 GEOLOGY OP ILLINOIS. 



the prairie. Near Hillsboro the growth is principally black oak with 

 some white oak, hickory, sassafras and hazel. 



Near Walshville and Lake Pork the country is gently undulating, 

 with a growth principally of plum, black walnut, honey locust, wild 

 cherry and grape vines. Wild vines loaded with grapes were observed 

 nearly everywhere in the woods, proving the soil to be naturally well 

 adapted to the grape. . 



Post oak flats occur near West Fork as far up as T. 10 N. 



Sugar trees are occasionally found along the Middle and West Porks, 

 and some extensive groves are found on the bottoms of main Shoal 

 creek. 



The following comprises a list of such trees and shrubs as were 

 observed occurring in this county : crab apple, ash, prickly ash, red 

 birch, bladder nut, buckeye, box elder, button bush, bitter sweet, black- 

 berry, coralberry, choke cherry, common cherry, coffee tree, comus, (2 

 species), cottonwood, Clematis Yirginiana, elder, grape, (4 or 5 species,) 

 gooseberry, black haw, hackberry, honey locust, hop tree, hazel, shell- 

 bark and thick shellbark hickory, pig nut hickory, black hickory and 

 common hickory, iron wood, linden, white maple, sugar tree, red mul- 

 berry, pa-paw, persimmon, plum, black, red, white, post, laurel, pin, 

 chestnut, blackjack, bur and swamp white oak, red and American elm, 

 red bud, raspberry, rose, red root, poison oak, sassafras, service berry 

 sarsaparilla, sumach, trumpet creeper, Virginia creeper, willow, (sev- 

 eral species,) and black and white walnut. 



G eolo gical Formations. 



Washings in the road at Walshville show 8 feet of brownish buff clay 

 with but few pebbles. Along the various streams are occasional expo- 

 sures of sand and pebbles with some beds of brownish-yellow clay. 

 Pive miles north-east of Litchfield, 45 feet of drift is exposed, the lower 

 part a compact bed of dark clay, with some sand and pebbles. In 

 sec. 8, T. 8 ~H., E. 3 W., the following description was given me of the 

 various clays passed through in well digging : 



1. — Soil. 2. — Yellow clay or hardpan ; at 24 feet reached a 3 foot bed 

 of sand, then soft moist clay. 



Seventy-five yards from this another well was dug, showing in the 

 upper part brownish-yellow clay at 20 feet, and at 38 feet was a 2 foot 

 bed of sand, and at 42 feet, specimens of wood. 



On the head waters of Eamsey there are many springs slightly 

 chalbyeate, and some containing sulphate of iron, issuing from beds of 

 drift sand and pebbles. 



