64 GKOIyOGY OF LA SAIvLE COUNTY. 



when clothed in the gforg-eous mantle and glittering- 

 jewelry of arctic crystal furnished them by the 

 Ice-king as when arrayed in emerald robes and decked 

 in the brilliant gems of Flora's priceless treasures. 



Canons. — These ravines are the canons of which 

 many of our readers have heard, but some have prob- 

 ably not seen. The first counting from the east 

 is located about two and one-half miles southwest 

 of Ottawa on the south side of the river, and is 

 crossed by the river road by a stone culvert of one 

 arch. It is about twenty-five rods long and has a cas- 

 cade, when the brook is running at the uppsr end. 



From this point west for more than two miles the 

 St. Peters is seen now^here but in the valley of Covell 

 creek, from the bridge to its mouth, the bluff being- 

 formed of Coal Measure strata, among which is a 

 heavy bed of sandstone, the Streator, we think, 

 through which three considerable ravines have been 

 cut, but scarcely meriting the name of canons. They 

 are simply V-shaped troug-hs or cuts through which 

 the waters descend from the higher lands to the river. 



As we go farther west the strata rise, and by the 

 time the South Ottawa, Deer Park line is reached, 

 is fort\^ to fifty feet above the surface, and a little to the 

 east of this line we find a canon, the wsdls of which 

 are not so high as those of the ravines farther west. 

 This canon is some sixty rods in leng^th and very 

 picturesque. We shall call it No. 2. 



Almost on th*^ township line we find No. 3, some- 

 w^hat larger than the preceding ones, its walls sixty to 

 sixty-five feet high. It is well worth a visit, but there 

 is no public road leading to it, nor to No. 2. About 

 sixty rods west of the town line, and piercing- the bluff 

 a little west of south of the salt well near Mr. 

 Delbridge's, and not more than forty rods off the river 



