PREFACE. 



This work was not written because there are not 

 books enoug-h. We believe there are too many, but 

 because no one has hitherto attempted to collect and 

 arrang-e what is known concerning- the Natural Histo- 

 ry of this g-reat county. We have waited, hoping- to 

 see someone, who was receiving- a g-ood salary, or one 

 who had the time and means to enable him to take it 

 up, come forward and g-ive the world a w^orthy presen- 

 tation of the subject, but we have waited in vain. 



Up to the present time, the incorrect, and too of- 

 ten misleading- articles in State Geolog-ical Report. 

 The Catalog-ue of Plants by Prof. R. Williams, of 

 Streator, published in Bald\vin's History of La Salle 

 Count}^; the notes on the Geolog-y and Natural History 

 in same, pp. 486 to 541 of w^ork, inclusive, 1877; Prof. 

 H. L- Boltwood's Catalog-ue of the plants of La Salle 

 County, published in Ottawa Republican, 1883-4; W. 

 W. Calkin's Land ^nd Fresh Water Shells of La Salle 

 County, 1874; Judg-e Caton's article on the flow of Ar- 

 tesian w^ells, published in The Past and Present of 

 La Salle County, 1877; Mr. C. F. Johnson's Catalogue 

 of Plants of La Salle County, applying- more particu- 

 larly to Marseilles and vicinity, published privately 

 about 1892, and fug-itive notes by the author and others 

 in the county papers, and the late Dr. Edwin Evans, 

 "The Vermillion River Coal Fields," Streator, 1885, 

 comprise the literature of the subject. 



