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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
preceptible dip sets in to the east, and it soon disappears be¬ 
neath the deepest valleys. This section not only brings out 
the fact than we are crossing an elevation, or a north and south 
anticlinal axis, but shows us just where the summit is. 
To settle, however, a question involving general principles 
by a few local observations was not safe, and to place it beyond 
doubt, a knowledge of the geological position of the rocks across 
this strip of land, was essential further to the north. The 
center of this strip from the southern state line to the middle 
of Wood county, I explored several years ago at my own ex¬ 
pense, when I first brought to light the fact of a bed of kaolin 
at Grand Kapids, and also others not far from Stevens Point, 
that are found along the flanks of granite ridges. For infor¬ 
mation on this part I can draw on my old notes. And more¬ 
over by your kind permission I visited the east side of our 
state last spring as far north as the upper peninsula of Michi¬ 
gan, and this fall, the western side as far north as lake Superior, 
and I am now prepared to state the facts obtained in those sev¬ 
eral visits. 
On the east side of the line running north from the lead dis¬ 
trict and close to it, I find heavy deposits of drift extending 
from Illinois on the south to the upper peninsula of Michigan 
on the north. The strata do not rise so fast to the north along 
the eastern side of the state as through the center ; for we find 
the blue limestone as far north as Green Bay. 
On the west side of the state, that is to the west of the Mis- 
sissipi, I find the same drift phenomena close to the river, and 
extending north the entire length of the state. On the west 
side of the state, as well as on the east the rise of the strata 
toward the north is little or nothing compared to the rise of 
the strata along the center. 
But let us put these facts and figures together and see what 
the result will be; or rather before we do this let us get a clear 
idea of the strata and their geological order. Taking the 
azoic formation as a basis, we invariably find the Potsdam 
sandstone, a layer of rock about 450 or 500 feet thick, resting 
on it; the lower magnesian limestone about 300 feet thick rest 
