CHAPTER XVI. 



MOULTRIE, MACON AND PIATT COUNTIES. 



Moultrie is bounded on the north by Piatt and Macon, on the east by 

 Douglas and Coles, on the south by Shelby, and on the west by Shelby 

 and Macon counties. It comprises an area of about 339 square miles, a 

 little more than one-fourth of which is timbered laud. It is drained by 

 the South and West forks of Kaskaskia river and their tributaries. 

 The timbered belt along the main streams varies from two to four miles 

 in width. The West fork of Kaskaskia is a sluggish stream with low 

 muddy banks and does not ruu in dry seasons. The South Fork is the 

 only stream with any lasting quantity of water ; it runs during ordinary 

 seasons, and below Sullivan has low saudy banks, but eastwardly they 

 are muddy. On the bars we found many pretty mollusks, including 

 Unto zigzag, U.dilatala, Alasmodonta truncata, Helania, Paludina, cydas, 



etc. 



Topography. — The prairies are either nearly flat or very gently undu- 

 lating. The timbered land, gradually sloping near the heads of creeks, 

 becomes more uneven near the main streams, but there is no extensive 

 tract of broken land. The bluffs on the South fork of Kaskaskia, near 

 the east county line, are sometimes forty feet high, but for four or five 

 miles down stream are not often over twenty feet in hight, and spread 

 out into white oak flats. Southwest of Sullivan the hills are sometimes 

 sixty or eighty feet high, but not very abrupt. 



Prairies. — There is an extensive tract of nearly flat prairie west of 

 the West fork of Kaskaskia; the. north-east quarter of the county is 

 nearly all a very gently undulating or flat prairie, still, in great part, 

 preserving its native state, and we here find tall grasses Liatris (two 

 species), Solidago, coreopsis, Monarda (horsemint), resin weed (two spe- 

 cies), Veronica Virginica, several species of aster, Vernonia Novebora- 

 censis, Dipter •acanthus ciliosus and Uryngium yucccefolium. 



The above imperfect list of species evidently indicates a transition 

 from a wild state. Occasionally swampy depressions are found, or 

 marshy ponds with Physa, etc., and such plants as Vernonia fasciculata, 

 Lythrum alatum, etc. On the dry, low elevations are occasional clumps 

 of hazel and low willow. 



