OHAPTEE XIII 



CHEISTIAN COUNTY. 



This county is located near the center of the State, is regular in out- 

 line excepting the northern boundary, is twenty-one miles in width from 

 east to west, and thirty- two in greatest length from north to south, and 

 is bounded on the north by Macon and Sangamon, on the east by Macon 

 and Shelby, on the south by Shelby and Montgomery, and on the west 

 by Montgomery and Sangamon counties. Its superficial area is about 

 nineteen and a half townships or seven hundred and two square miles. 



General Features, Soil, Timber, etc. 



On the north it is drained by the Sangamon river, and the central, 

 southern and western parts of the county are watered by the- South 

 Fork of Sangamon and its tributaries, Bear, Locust Fork, Prairie Fork 

 and Flat creeks. The smaller streams sometimes are nearly dry, but 

 the two main forks of Sangamon generally flow the year round. The 

 South Fork is rather a sluggish stream, with muddy banks, but occa- 

 sionally, as at Taylorville, the water is clear and fresh, indicative of 

 latent springs. 



The topographical features of this county do not vary much in differ- 

 ent localities. The prairies in the southeast are rolling, often rising 

 into mounds. In every other part of the county they are flat or very 

 gently undulating. Rear the streams the slopes are often very gentle. 

 In the southern half of the county we very rarely find a bluff twenty- 

 live feet high, and in passing down the South Fork no broken nor hilly 

 land is seen until we get below Taylorville. Four miles north-west of 

 Taylorville the country is rather hilly, the hills about sixty feet high, 

 but not often too steep to admit of cultivation. A few miles further 

 down, there is a gradual descent from the prairie to the river, the bluffs 

 of which are about twenty feet high. In the northeast the slopes are 

 often so gentle as to render it impossible to trace a line between the 

 upland and lowland. 



