Whiteside County, Illinois - Chapter 28, 1877

Chapter 28

Bill of Rights - Descent of Property - Exemption Law - Limitation Law - Organization of Corpor- ' ations - Fence Law - Estray Law - Lost Goods, Money, Etc - Weights and Measures - Marketing Products - Game Law - F"ish Law 5°'

Supplement To History

No history can be complete without a notice of the geography and geology of the region in which the events transpire. The occupation of a people, the growth and prosperity of a community, the development of institutions all depend in no small degree on the soil, climate and mineral resources of the country. A country possessing neither coal, nor water-power, will be very unlikely to become a center of manufacturing industry. A land possessing a sterile soil will not attract a colony of farmers. We may safely predict without fear of being charged with a claim to the gift of prophecy that the Desert of Sahara Avill never be the seat of empire. The movement of armies, the location of fortresses, the direction of great lines of travel, are all more or less influenced by the position of mountain chains, rivers and plains, and not infrequently these form the dividing line between different nationalities.

Geology describes the structure of our globe, the material of which it is composed, the manner of its arrangement, and the causes which have operated to give it its present form. It also embraces a description of the minerals found and of the organic remains entombed in the various strata. In the language of geology not only hard material such as sandstone and limestone are called rocks, but also clay, loose sand and gravel; hence the word rock must not be understood to imply hardness or density of any certain degree. The surface of our globe is composed of a great variety of material, but by far the largest part of it in Whiteside County is referable to one of three types, viz: sandstone, limestone and clay, and indeed nearly all of the rocks of the globe, however different their appearance, may be arranged under these three heads. The limestones are often called calcareous rocks, the sandstones or those containing much sandy or silieious matter arenaceous rocks, and those composed largely of clay, or alumina, argillaceous rocks.

Rocks are divided into tM-o great classes - stratified and unstratified. or those found in layers or beds and those which occur in masses with no appearance of beds. These layers or beds are called strata. The true unstratified rocks arc of volcanic origin, but in some cases immense masses of stratified rocks have been clianged by pressure and heat and have lost all traces of their original stratification. Rocks are fui'ther divided into fossiliferous - containing fo^sih remains of animals and plants imbedded in them and more or less perfectly preserved; unfossiliferous - containing no fossils. The rocks are grouped into -ages " periods' and '- epochs," distinguished from each other by the fossils which they contain, for the different strata differ very greatly one from another in the character of these " 3Iedals of Creation.' The following table gives the names of the ages, periods and epochs, and the most prominent characteristics of each, as given by Prof. J. D. Dana, in his Manual of Geology, second edition, p. U2. the nomenclature being in the main that of the New \ ork State Natural History and Geological Survey:

Geology

It will be seen from the above table that only a small part of the geological series is represented in this county, and that the members present do not follow one another closely in the order of time, but are separated by wide intervals - mighty chasms of which we have no record. In no part of the earth is the series complete. In some regions one part is fully developed, in others another. Thus in New York the oldest formations up to the carboniferous are well represented; in Florida only the last or newest strata appear; in Illinois but small tracts are found of anything newer than the carboniferous. Why should this be? At present deposits are going on only along the coasts of the continents and some islands, and especially at the mouths of rivers and in the basins of lakes. It is now known that in the depths of the ocean only a very thin deposit is forming, and that of a very peculiar character, such in fact as the rocks of the globe show very little resemblance to. Sandstones are in all cases as far as we know found in shallow water, bays, or on coasts where the sea deepens very slowly. Limestones of the common type seem to be restricted to a depth not exceeding 100 feet, while the work of calcareous sponges is probably never actively prosecuted at depths of 1000 feet. Clays were probably in general comparatively deep water formations; that is, formed at depths of 200 to 500 feet.

The lowest and oldest rocks exposed in Whiteside County belong to the Trenton Period. It consists of 1st, the Trenton Epoch; 2d. the Utica Epoch; and 3d, the Cincinnati, formerly called the Hudson River. Epoch. The Trenton limestone is the equivalent of the Galena beds of the Illinois Geological survey, and is slightly developed in the extreme northern part of Genesee and .Jordan Townships. There are some exposures of it, we are informed, but it possesses little interest for us. The Cincinnati Group appears at the base of the Rock River bluffs at Sterling, in the bed of the river, and in the banks of some ravines and streams. Its most noted exposure is on the premises of Dr. L. S. Pennington, section 32, Jordan, about four miles north of Sterling. Here about twelve feet of soil and clay cover these beds, followed by some three feet of soft, much broken, thin bedded rock. Below these the beds are thicker, but generally not exceeding a few inches - six to nine - and make splendid flagging, it being possible to procure sheets of any size that can be handled. Passing through about twelve feet of these beds we come upon a stratum of dark colored, very cellular, hard and heavy limestone, partially crystalline in structure, and the cavities lined with small, amber colored crystals, probably a colored calcite. This is about one foot thick. There is also a layer containing multitudes of small cavities, the inside of which are an iron rust red or ferrous color, while the rock itself is a light buff. Below these is a blue shaly rock, the Cincinnati shales, rich in fossils, being almost entirely made up of strophomena, orthis, ehjBtetes, &c. The upper beds in some of the strata abound in sea-weeds or fucoids, but contain no other fossils. These fucoids seem to be of one species, but our examination was very superficial and there may be several species represented. The Trenton Limestone is not known to be exposed except in the northeast part of Jordan. It is said to contain few fossils. We visited none of its outcrops. There is a quarry on section 3, Hopkins, also owned by Dr. Pennington, in the Cincinnati rocks. The shales are of course of no value, as they soon crumble into a shapeless mass when exposed to the action of the atmosphere.

The Niagara limestone is well exposed on sections 5. 8, 7, 13, Ustick, in the Mississippi bluffs, and through this township, Garden Plain and Albany to the Marais de Ogee; in Fulton on sections 21, 27 and 28; in Newton on sections 22 and 25; in Mt. Pleasant on section 7; in Union Grove on section 12; in

Clyde on section 13: in Genesee on section 34, at Lyndon and below Erie, on Rock River. It also underlies in all probability the whole south eastern part of the County; in Ustick. at Robertson's and Martindale's quarries, section 13. and at other points in these townships, and also at Sterling in the banks of Rock River, and on section 17, Portland, on the farm of Chas. Atwood. It consists of two members: 1st. a thin-bedded, dark-colored, coarse-grained, impure limestone, exposed at Albany, at the steamboat landing, and abounding in the heads of crinoids of several species; 2d, a thick-bedded, buff-colored, finegrained, hard, cellular limestone, in parts abounding in corals, pentameri and remains of crinoids, but much of it is entirely made up of undistinguishable fragments of shells and corals, closely resembling the coral reef rock of the Pacific Islands now in process of formation. There are many local differences. In some places the strata arc A'ery cherty or flinty, as in Newton, a half mile south of Center school-house; very white, as at a point two miles southeast of Center school-house; thin-bedded and much broken, as in Mt. Pleasant; soft and yellow, as in places on section 5, Ustick, and at Albany. On sec. 12, Union (xrove. and sec. 7, Mt. Pleasant, there is a band of shalyrock that may be capable of being manufactured into water-lime, but the stratum is too thin to be valuable. These rocks generally occupy a nearly horizontal position, the beds being of a neai'ly uniform thickness, and differing over considerable areas in color, structure and composition but slightly. It will be seen in our synopsis of the strata given above that the Niagara Period is composed of three members - epochs - the Medina, Clinton and Niagara; but these have not been satisfactorily made out in the Mississippi Valley. In New York, the Medina is a peculiar sandstone, the Clinton, sandstone and shales, and the Niagara a thick, darkcolored limestone, well developed at Lockport, Niagara Falls and other points. The distinctioji between these strata does not seem to exist in our territory, and there is some reason to believe that between the Trenton Period and the Niagara there was a time when the surface of our County was dry land. But it may be that the conditions which gave origin to the differences noted in the strata of New York did not exist here, and that the work of forming strata went on continuously, or it may be that the record has not been as carefully studied as it should be, and that more rigorous examination may reveal some facts not yet noted that will enable us to mark out the limits of each epoch here.

It will be observed that the Grcological map accompanying Warner & Beers' map of Illinois does not correspond in the limits assigned to certain strata with the map accompanying A'^olume VI of the Illinois State Geological Report, nor does the latter exactly correspond with the treatise on the Geology of the County contained in Volume V of the Report. These discrepancies indicate a want of knowledge on the subject not at all creditable to the teachers of Whiteside. Moreover, we can learn of no extensive collection of the rocks and fossils of the County. We hope sonic one will make an effort in this direction.

The Niagara in the bluffs of the Mississippi presents itself in a multitude f)f picturesque forms, forming bold mural cliffs, frowning precipices, massive Cyclopean walls, lofty towers, huge pylons, rugged buttresses, grand arches, long stretches of lichen covered, nionldering ruins, and along the Rock River at Sterling, over-hanging cliff's of no great altitude - twenty-five to thirty feet. Frequently some of the strata are much softer than others, and the gradual disintegration of these soft beds gives the face of the bluff' a most fantastic aspect. Bv the joint action of water and frost some of the joints have been much enlarged, and in one case, we ai*e informed that a considerable sized cave has been formed. In another case a fissure several inches in width has been filled with Htalactitic matter, forming a rock, beautifully banded with brown and white and of a delicate Htructure, forming most elegant cabinet specin)en,s.

Limestone, as far as we know, is formed through the agency of organized beings, the polyps and the mollusks being the great producers of this material, which although existing in sea water is never deposited in beds from it except through the instrumentality of these insignificant builders, and in the form of coral or the shells of shell-fish.

Wherever mollusks like the oyster, clam, &c., live and flourish, vast deposits (tf their shells are accumulated, in time forming strata which seem to be almost exclusively made up of shells, generally of a single species. Where the shells remain on the spot where they were formed they are generally entire, and if the shells have decayed perfect casts, showing the internal structure, remain. In such places corals are seldom found, they preferring a surf-beaten shore to quiet waters. Where the shells have been rolled by the waves, they are nu)re or less broken and sometimes even ground to powder, not a fragment large enough for identification remaining. In these exposed places, where the sea rolls its waves continuously on the unprotected beach, and the temperature never falls below 68 ^ F., the coral grows most luxuriantly, forming vast reefs which grow upward to a point about half way between low and high water mark, as the polyps can live even when exposed to the rays of the sun for a couple of hours at a time. The corals do not grow thriftily in water over one hundred feet deep, and most reefs are formed in depths much less than this; consequently a coral formation cannot be over one hundred feet thick if the water has remained of the same depth during its formation. But such reefs are foixnd over 1,000 feet thick, and we can conceive of no other method by which they could have been built up except that the sea-bottom must have sunk about as fast as the reef grew upward. Had the subsidence been more rapid the polyps would have been drowned when the depth reached about 100 feet. Had it sunk more slowly they would have built above the waves and been scorched by the sun's rays. Corals also require clear water, mud-laden currents being fatal to these delicate children of the sea. Mollusks of many species, on the contrary, choose mud-banks as the place of their abode, and flourish in the turbid waters of rivers and estuaries; but some species require clear water and a sandy bottom, while some pass life attached to a rock or piece of wood, or to the shell of another mollusk, but any one species is always found surrounded by the same conditions.

From the foregoing statements it will be seen that we have a key to the physical condition under which a rock was formed. If it abounds in unbroken shells we may conclude that it was formed in still water of no great depth, for mollusks do not flourish at great depths, especially those living gregariously or in groups. We should therefore conclude that the Albany beds ^vere deposited in still water which became turbid, destroyed the crinoids, and furnished the earthy impurities contained in this rock. The upper beds were a great coral reef along whose extended line many species of zoophytes flourished. Among the species represented here Halysites catenulata, Halysites gracilis, Stromatopora of several species. Zaphrentis of four or more species, Chonophyllum, Chaetetes, Ptilodycta, iVulopora and other genera are very abundant, the rock being an aggregation of the remains of these frail architects. The Pentamerus beds, and of these there are two certainly, pei'haps three, were deposited in still water, sheltered bays or coves. In some cases what may be a bed abounding in shells in one place may be a coral reef in another, the coast at one point having been sheltered, at the other exposed, or a river having entered the sea at one place, while the waters were pure and clear at the other. As we examine the splendid exposures of the Niagara on sections 5. 8 and 7, in IJstick, we get a very good idea of the changes that passed over this region, and can trace the passage from one condition to another as well as if the change was taking place before our eyes. The material of which the rocks are made up were deposited along the shore, and as the Niagara forms the surface over much of this County, and to the north and west, while to the south-west it is covered by newer beds, we infer that the ocean lay to the south-west, and it may liave been both broad and deep. It may have been a vast congeries of islands in part as we now find to be the case over much of the great coral growing zone of the Pacific Ocean; but as far as the strata of Whiteside are concerned, it seems to have been a continuous belt, perhaps a great barrier reef, such as to-day walls in the north eastern coast of the Australian Continent. If the ancient Zoophytes Avere as sensitive as those of the present day they must have required a temperature like that of Southern Florida - a climate "in which there was no winter and which knew no lower temperature than 68 ^ F.; but we are not justified in deciding that this region rejoiced in so genial a climate, for the fossil corals differ in structure from those now living, and they may have been able to endure changes that would at once destroy the Zoophytes of the present day. In the vast quantity of sea-weeds preserved in the beds of Pennington's quarry, and quarries at Sterling, we have the best of evidence that vegetable as well as animal life was well, very well represented in these seas. The chert beds were no doubt, in part at least, the work of sponges; but as far as we know no remains of these organisms have yet been described from these strata, and while we suspect their presence we cannot confidently assert it.

In both Union Grove and Mt. Pleasant there are few fossils except at particular horizons. In both places we find a stratum varying in thickness from eighteen inches to two feet, almost wholly made up of a small shell not over a fourth of an inch long. The shells have generally disappeared and only casts remain, and the rock looks as open as a honey comb and has the appearance of being scarcely strong enough to hold together. It is nevertheless very hard and dense, and is said to make a good lime. Several other shells and a very singular coral occurs at both Masons and Cochran's quarries, in the former, iii the lowest bed worked. The following gives, as far as we have investigated the subject, the names of all the fossils obtained from these strata:

2. Radiates: Polyps (corals), Favosites niagarense, Halysites catenulata, Chonophyllum niagarense, Zaphrentes ^bilateralis, and two or three others, Heliolites spinopora, Aulapora, Chfetetes, Ptilodycta.

3. Mollusks: (a) Bryozoans; Fenestella - a delicate coral, (b) Brachiopods - ^Pentamerus oblongus, two forms, Atrypa nodostriata, Rhynchonella cuneata, Orthis bilobus, Spirifer sulcatus, and pi'obably Spirifer niagarensis. (c) Lamellibranch.s - -probably Megalomus canadensis, Avicula emacerata. (d) Gasteropods - Platyostoma niagarensis, Maclurea, one species, (e) Pteropods - none known from these beds. (/) Cepholopads - Orthoceros, Ormoceros, Phragmoceras.

With the Niagara period closes the work of continent building for a long period in Whiteside County. Not until the opening of the carboniferous age does there appear to have been any change of which nature has made an entry in her records. For ages its surface had been dry land. Had it been covered by the waters there would have been some strata deposited to tell the story.

But at the beginning of the Carboniferous Period a shallow estuary, bordered by marshes, extended from Mineral Springs, Newton township, northeastwardly to Uniouville, and probably eastwardly from thence several miles into Hopkins. In this valley some strata, in all about forty feet thick - irregularly bedded sandstones varying much in hardness, color and composition, interstratified with beds of quite pure clay were formed. These strata are sometimes lenticular - thick at a given point and thinning rapidly each way until they are but five or six inches thick, then rapidly thickening up to eighteen or twenty inches again. Some of the strata are however of nearly uniform thickness throughout. The clay beds are thin, but in places six to eight inches thick.

Lying on the sandstone is a thin bed of curious appearance, dark buff in color, irregular in thickness, and quite hard. It seems to be formed of thin layers alternately dark yellowish brown and light gray, is from two to five inches thick, the upper surface very uneven and the body of the rock full of cavities and what seem to be cracks. It contains many angular fragments of sandstone and some small gravel. The surface of the sandstone below it is generally comparatively smooth, and the fragments found in it are of the same material as the beds on which it lies. Evidently at some time the upper beds of the sandstone have been carried away by some force which tore them up and ground much of them to sand and small pebbles. We are of the opinion that this stratum is increasing in thickness at the present time and is of narrow extent. It is an argillaceous limestone. These sandstones were probably formed in a marshy tract which received the drainage of the surrounding country. At times there seems to have been very little vegetation growing in this region, and we judge the sands formed banks which the wind drifted, as some of the ripple marking is much more like that produced by the action of the wind than that of water. These rocks are rich in fossils, but wholly of plants; no trace of animals being found except the burrows of a worm; but of plants many species occur. Most of the specimens are poorly preserved, but some very fine ones have been obtained at Burr's quarry. They consist of 1st, Sigillaria - huge trees - seventy feet long and two feet in diameter, of at least four species, perhaps more; 2nd, Lepidodendra - also great trees as large as the preceding, and also of two or more species; 3rd, Calamites - great rushes - three or four inches in diameter and ten to twelve feet high; 4th, in the clays are found what appear to be coarse grasses, probably Cordaites, and also the fruit of some plant resembling Cardiocarpus; a few fragments of ferns have been found in the clay well preserved, but they are very uncommon. There are no shells or other remains of animals as far as known to the writer. Some of the strata contain numerous cavities filled with a soft, bluish, tenacious clay. They form bands in the rock, being confined to certain strata and to a particular part of them. They vary much in size, but are very generally of an almond shape and quite regular in outline. There are also nodules of a hard, red sandstone almost always filled Avith a fine white sand.

The fossils are most abundant in the upper stratum, and as they are very generally quite imperfect, we believe them to have been ti-ansported to this spot from some other locality. Those found below do not seem to have been defaced by rubbing against rocks or each other, and probably grew near the place where they are now found. This formation was without doubt, at one time, much more extensive than it now is, and we presume contained thin seams of coal, as fragments of coal are found in the clays above, as well as considerable masses of sandstone, which evidently came from this deposit; while much of the clay is of a black color, having a very decided bituminous look, and we believe obtained this tinge from the coal contained in the strata, which were at some time in the past destroyed. We presume that the subcarboniferous strata once extended much farther nortli. at least into Carroll County if not farther. During the coal age we know from the evidence afforded by other localities that the sea and land both swarmed with life. Corals, mollusks, fishes and air breathing reptiles certainly existed, and some insects and spiders have left proof of their- presence. There were no birds, no mammals. The life of the land was in its prominent forms wholly vegetable. The forests must have been quite as dense as the tangled jungles of the Sundevbunds of the Granges, or the banks of the Amazon and Rio Xegro. A warm, moist climate must have prevailed, and polar and tropical regions could have differed but little in temperature. But it must be borne in mind that we only infer this to have been the case, and that New Zealand in Lat. 35 "^ to 50 ^ south is the paradise of tree ferns which more nearly resemble the plants of the coal age than any others now living. Hence a mean temperature of 50 ^ F. and perhaps even lower, may have been sufficient to give being to the giant forests of the carboniferous age.

No true coal measures exist in Whiteside County, and all .searches for this mineral will, we are sure, prove in vain. The search for petroleum will probably also prove a failure, and those who imagine that because these substances are found in other places they must also occur here, will be disappointed in the search. The mere fact that rocks exist does not prove that they are coal-bearing. There are certain strata to which certain minerals are almost exclusively confined, and it is the maddest folly to look for these substances outside the limits assigned them by nature. Hence in an economical point of view the study of geology becomes of vast importance, and has not only a theoretical but a pecuniai-y value.

Overlying the surface of the county is a deposit of clays, gravel and sand, varying much in thickness - from five to fifty feet. They are often unstratified, contain fragments of strange rocks, such as are found here only in rounded and smoothed masses mixed with these materials, and always bearing evidence of having been worn and almost polished by the attrition of other sub.stances. The sands and gravels indicate currents of water, for sand can be borne along only by moving waters, and the coarser the material to be transported the stronger must the current be. The clays Avere deposited in still waters, for only in such are deposits of this kind formed. The great blocks must have been carried along by some means other than the current of a river or the force of waves, and we can conceive of no other agent except ice in the form of a glacier that is capable of producing such results as the records of Nature's archives declare were effected over vast tracts of country. The force producing these results came from the north, for the blocks of stone scattered over the county, and much of the material of the gravel beds came from localities 300 miles north of this; and as we proceed south we find these strange rocks becomingsmaller and less numerous, and at last disappearing altogether; while if we travel northward we shall find them becoming more numerous and larger, and we may trace them to the very ledges from which they were torn. A great glacier - an enormous mass of snow and ice - covering the whole northern part of the continent down to this latitude and even farther, seems to be the only agent capable of effecting such vast effects as we witness here. The center of this glacial force we believe to have been at a point not far from west of the southern point of James' Bay in British America, and northeast of Lake Superior, for to this point the lines of travel pursued by the drift converge, the courses being included between S. 40 ° E. and S. 40 ® W., the former course prevailing in the eastern part of the country, the latter west of New York

State. The course varied at different times, and where the glacier left its autograph in deeply engraved characters upon the rocks themselves in the shape of a smoothed surface, grooves as straight as a line and perfectly parallel, and numberless tine lines knovi'n as scratches or strife, we find that there is sometimes more than one set of them and that they cross each other at a high angle.

Lying well toward the base of this drift deposit is a'stratum of leaves, branches, and trunks of trees. On the farm of Dr. L. S. Pennington, of Jordan, we were shown a place on the bank of Klkhorn Creek where a buried forest has been partly exhumed. The trees seem to have been overthrown by some force from the west, and to have been soon after covered with water and buried in a deposit of marl which contains great numbers of fresh water shells. Home of the trunks are eight inches in diameter. Where exposed to the air they do not decay rapidly, although very soft. The grain is as clearly defined as if they were just cut down, and in some cases the bark can yet be discerned. No leaves or fruit have been observed. At several places in the county in digging wells a similar deposit has been pas.sed through. It is sometimes six feet thick, and the leaves so well preserved that their outlines and venation can easily be made out, and the wood is often (|uite strong. Much of it seems to be derived from cone-bearing species, but the leaves of trees closely related to our deciduous forest trees also occur. In some cases the wood is much broken, and seems to have been transported a long distance, or to have been floating about for a long time; but it often presents few traces of abrasion and cannot have been carried far from where it grew. This stratum is without doubt derived from the Tertiary forests, and if our beds were only carefully studied additions to our knowledge of fossil botany might be expected. AVe would suggest to those who read this article that should they have an opportunity to gather up and preserve some of these fragments, they do it and forwai'd specimens to the publisher of this work, at Morrison. In this way their examination and preservation may be secured. The material of which these strata are formed was produced by the crushing and grinding action of the glacier as it slid slowly forward over the surface, and the sorting and transporting of sand, gravel and clay was eifccted by the water which always issues from beneath the icy mass; but the greater part of this task was performed by the torrents that appear to have deluged the land when the ice king resigned his scepter, and his gigantic works melted away before the genial breath of a milder climate.

It is easy to theorize with regard to the causes that produced this change that ushered in the glacial age. We know that the distribution of land and water has much to do with climate, that the more broken up the land into islands, the more equable the temperature, Avhereas great masses of land have an extreme or variable climate - a very cold winter and a hot summer, and that great bodies of land extending far north seem to become vast reservoirs of cold. Hence, it has been conjectured that in the eras when a mild climate seems to have prevailed, the land was broken up into small bodies, much as it is in the region of mild temperature in the South Pacific. Another theory attributes the change to the variability in form of the earth's orbit. It is certain that it oscillates between the circle and an elongated ellipse, this oscillation requiring for a complete revolution about 1,450,000 years. Its effect is to change the relative length of seasons, to bring the earth nearer to the sun at one time than at another, and to cause the time of nearest approach to the sun to occur sometimes in summer, sometimes in winter. At present we are about 3,000,000 miles nearer the sun December 21st than June 21st, and our summer is about eight days longer than that of the Southern Hemisphere, giving us a higher summer temperature than is experienced by lands south of the equator. The more common opinion is that the lands of the north polar regions became, about the beginning of the drift period, both more extensive and higher than they were previously or are at present, and that this caused a great change of climate, extending over a great period of time. It will be observed that in the table of periods we have three epochs, the Glacial, the Champlain, and tlie Terrace. The first of these covers the period in which the glaciers covered the land; the second was the period of the retreat of the glacier and the beginning of a milder climate, and was probably an age of subsidence or sinking down of the land; and the third covers the time in which the present valleys were cut and the rivers began to pursue their present courses. Of course the latter process may have been in progress at one point while the glaciers covered another, and as the melting of so vast a body of ice must from necessity have occupied a long time, the streams were of greater volume for a considerable period than they are at present. As the drift deposits occur everywhere it is unnecessary to enumerate localities, but one place deserves mention: About a mile and a half southeast of Albany village is a considerable tract of low wet land on which is found several large blocks, one of them the largest we know of. If our memory is to be relied on the dimensions are about eighteen feet high, sixteen feet long and twelve feet wide, containing about 3,000 cubic feet and weighing in the neighborhood of 200 tons. Several blocks weighing from five to twenty tons lie near this one, and a great many smaller ones are scattered about in the vicinity.

Along some of the streams is a deposit of sandy loam containing the shells of the fresh water molluska now living in the streams. In the great 3Iarais de Ogee Slough flat covering a part of Erie township, and with the Cat-tail Slough bottom part of Newton and Fenton, this deposit is ten to twelve feet in depth. In some places it is now a drifting sand as soon as the sod is broken, as is well shown in the southwest part of Newton and near Erie village. In other places it contains some argillaceous material and is more tenacious, supporting a luxuriant vegetation of peculiar plants. In the west part of Garden Plain is a similar tract where the warring winds have worked wonders, scooping out great hollows, piling up fantastic hills, raising almost perpendicular walls of sand, and burying trees almost to their topmost twigs. These loams and sands are alluvial formations, and were deposited by the streams along whose course they are found.

The peculiar clays and loams forming the upper part of the Mississippi bluffs is by some considered to be the equivalent of the loess of the Rhine valley. At the time of its deposit the Mississippi could have laid no claim to the name of river. It was rather a long, comparatively narrow lake if the relative level of various points was then the same as at present. The Peat beds of Union Grove township appear to belong to the alluvial period. They occupy a part of the Cat-tail Slough bottom, are not far from a mile wide by over six miles long and in greatest thickness over twenty feet. There are other deposits in the county, but this is by far the most important.

Limestones. The composition of true limestone - carbonate of lime - is given by J. 1>. Dana, Manual of Geology, 2d edition, page 7, as carbonic acid 44, lime 50. Hut the limestone of the Mississippi Valley differs from this in being not a carbonate of lime but a carbonate of lime and magnesia. The lower niagnesian of St. Croix, Wisconsin, is made up of carbonate of lime 48.24, carbonate of magnesia 42.43, oxyd of iron, sand and alumina 8.84, moisture 0.40. It is therefore a dolomyte or magnesian limestone. The composition of dolomytc as given by the sanie jvvithority, page 56, is, carbonate of lime 54.4, carbonate of magnesia

Peat

45.6. To this type, the precise amount of magnesia varying, all our limestones conform. The hydraulic limestones, as will be seen from the following analysis, from same work, page 75, also contains some magnesia, carbonic acid 34.2, lime 25.5, magnesia 12.35, silica (flint) 15.37, alumina (clay) 9.13, sesquioxyd of iron 2.25 - specimens from Rondout, New York, a locality noted for the manufacture of cements. It is claimed by some of the highest authorities that a certain per centage of magnesia is essential to the excellence of water limes, those containing it setting more readily, especially under water, than those in which it is wanting, and also becoming harder in time. The tltica, Illinois, water lime is composed of water 3.00, carbonate of lime 43.56, carbonate of magnesia

30.07, clay, alumina, 20.00, free silica 1.00, carbonate of iron 2.00, potash .18. (^Geological Siirvci/ of Illinois^ Volume Ill^poge 151.) The limestones of Whiteside are of very different quality, even the different strata of the same locality possessing very different properties. Mr. Cochran informs us that he has at least three grades of stone in his quarry about a mile north of Morrison, and that they differ greatly as to the time required to burn them properly, their slacking, &c. With one variety of it air slacking seems to be advantageous, as we were shown a wall, the lime used in making which had been air slacked, which is sound and hard, while another made of the satne lime, not air slacked, is cracked and soft. A study of the chemical composition of these rocks would probably richly repay the owners and save them some expensive and unremunerative experiments. Mr. Cochran informed us that a stratum which another gentleman had asserted would not make lime, makes an extra fine article, when properly treated, an intense heat being required to prepare it. Lime is the oxyd of calcium - a yellowish metal, harder than lead, melting at a red heat, and very malleable. It soon tarnishes from its great afiinity for oxygen and is seen only as a chemical curiosity. With this oxyd carbonic acid very readily unites, forming limestone - carbonate of lime. It is a widely diffused substance - one of the most common in nature. It is the base of bone, coral and the shells of Mollusks. It is found in the waters of the ocean, in most hard waters in combination with many other substances. Carbonate of lime subjected to a strong heat looses its carbonic acid, which passes away as a gas and becomes the oxyd of calcium, or lime.

In the Cat-tail Slough in Union Grove Township, is found an immense deposit of excellent peat. The bed probably occupies what was once a small lake and is over six miles long by about a mile wide. A large part of this area is a peat bog or " moss " over twenty feet deep, and a large area furnishes peat of a superior quality. It has long been used as a fuel by the people of the vicinity to a limited extent, and for some years efforts have been made to bring it into the market by preparing it on a large scale. The old method of preparation - cutting it into blocks like bricks and drying them in the air - does not fit the article for carriage to any considerable distance, the bulk being much too great in proportion to the combustible matter contained. It was therefore determined to reduce the volume by pressure, and machinery was provided for the purpose, but as the material of peat, partially decomposed vegetable fibre, is very elastic and also absorbs a large quantity of water, it was found impossible to either reduce it in bulk as much as was desirable or to deprive it of any considerable ((uantity of the water held in combination. It was then determined to grind it, and to press the pulp or mud thus formed into blocks. This plan was more successful as the water was now more perfectly expelled, and the material was turned out in a much denser form. But the cheapness of coal, the much greater amount of combustible matter a given bulk of it contains, and the consequent ease of carriage have conspired, with the for years comparatively high price of labor, to render the demand small, and to confine the use of peat to a small territory.

Peat is partially decomposed vegetable matter, derived from the mosses of the genus Sphagnum, or in parts of our country of the genus Hypnum - spongy mosses of rapid growth, common in wet lands Avhich die below while growing vigorously above. Their stems or roots, and especially the last, are densely matted together, and with grasses and other plants found in such localities form in a comparatively short time, a large mass of material, and when partially protected from the action of the atmosphere by water is slowly changed to a semi-bituminous mass, a half coal so to speak, requiring only time and pressure to become coal. We give below an analysis of peat and also of bituminous coal from Dana's Manual of Greology, page 361, 2d edition.

The change to peat it will be seen involves a loss of oxygen, in 100 parts of almost 9 parts, so that the relative proportion of carbon is made to appear greater. The change to coal involves a further loss of 30 parts of oxygen in 100, and a consequently great increase in the relative (juantity of carbon. There is also some loss of hydrogen as well as of nitrogen.

The growth of peat is confined to temperate climates, as in tropical regions the process of decay is so rapid as to render the change to the semi-bituminous condition on the surface of the earth impossible, and if found under mud or sand the pressure and time would produce a true coal. Hence peat bogs are never found in warm regions.

As peat is essentially of the same composition as coal it possesses all its heating qualities, and is only inferior to it in requiring a greater volume to produce the same results, that is to heat or raise the temperature of a given quantity of any substance, as of water, to a given degree. It is quite free from sulphur; hence no sulphurous gasses are evolved. The combustion is perfect and very little soot is produced. It is thus for household purposes a much more desirable fuel than any ordinary bituminous coal, making much less dirt, and creating no unpleasant smell. It burns freely either in an open grate or a stove, and makes a cheerful hot fire. It is now manufactured at the point where the Albany road the Cat-tail, very powerful machinery being used to press it into blocks, the Union Grove deposit there arc others in this Ioav land tract, of less extent, said to be of ecjually good (juality. A deposit of small extent exists in the north part of Sterling, another in the township of Portland. Others of limited area are probably scattered about the sloughs not only of the loAvlands but also of the prairies, for peat is by no means confined to low lying lands - moderate temperature and abundance of water being the only re({uirements of its formation, and where these conditions exist, whether in the valley or on the mountain, there peat bogs are found. In many cases where it has been removed it has been known to again accumulate to a depth suflicicnt to be workable. Its rate of growth is slow and may of course vary with the conditions. Pieces of wood, stems of trees, leaves, bones, human bodies, the works of man, are found in these marshes. The waters of such morasses have the propei'ty of arresting the processes of decay and preserving substances, that under ordinary circumstances, would soon perish, and from them jnany curious articles have been exhumed.

Mineral Springs

In this County we are not aware that any relics of much importance have been obtained up to this date, some bones of tlie Buffalo or Bison, as far as we can learn, being the only vestiges of animal life revealed.

With a high price for coal, cheaj) labor and perfect appliances for compressing the peat, it must become an article of great c(mnnercial importance and prove a source of wealth and prosperity.

The sphagnous mosses from which it has boeti formed yet flourish in these marshes, forming thick, tangled, spongy masses of a greyish green color, interspersed with scattered blades of a coarse, light green grass or narrow sedge about four feet high, and some orchideous plants, that at times enliven the dreary plain with their brilliant and peculiar flowers. Some tracts are covered with large dark green rushes - Juncacae - and the pools with a tall, somewhat oval leaved - ovate, acuminate - grass. This great bed at any season, as seen from the highlands bordering it, has a dreary, forbidding aspect, which the frosts of autumn intensifies by stripping them of the little variety of color they possess during the summer season. It is invisible to the traveler until he reaches its very border and then bursts upon him, like the creatiofi of a dream. The comparatively narrow valley extending from near Fulton to the valley of Rock lliver, in Fenton, has much the appearance of a great river of greenish water sweeping with a slightly sinuous course toward the south east. It probably was at one time the bed of a great stream, and the cliff" on which Fulton now stands and the mass forming a part of Albany, Garden Plain, Fentoii and Xewton townships, were islands in its channel. The Mississippi we believe, at one time, in part through this valley, in part through the Marais de Ogee or Meredosia, flowed into Avhat is now a part of Rock River, but was then the Mississippi, until some convulsion shattered the rocky barrier that now forms the Rock Island Rapids, and the great River worked out for itself a more direct but less navigable channel. It seems to us that the rents in the rock of the Rapids clearly indicate a forcible rupture, rather than the gentle, Avearing action of running water, and are themselves a record of their origin in nature's own language, too often strangely perverted in meaning by her self-constituted interpreters.

The mineral springs of the county do not seem to have attracted much attention. We have heard of but few, and these have no reputation as far as we can leain for medicinal qualities. The most widely known is located in Newton township, and near it was bored a well in exploring for oil. A copious flow of water, clear, cold and sparkling was obtained, the same as that of the spring, charged with iron and sulphuretted hydrogen gas. The well is at the bottom of. a ravine, the rock of the bounding hills being a coarse-grained subcarboniferous sandstone, soft, friable and full of water. The well, we believe, is about 70 feet deep. A greasy film often seen on the surface of such watei's, where they are collected in pools, led to the belief that oil was to be found here. We advise our readers to leave the search for petroleum in this region to those who have nothing else to do and money W'hich they arc anxious to get rid of. A similar spring exists near Hough's mill in Clyde. These waters would probably be found valuable in some diseases, but so far have been neglected by health seekers. We are not aware that an analysis of either has ever been made. About two miles east of Sterling there is a spring owned by Mr Albertson, the water of which is said to contain soda, iron, magnesia, potassa in the form of bicarbonates - lithia and silica, and some chlorides and phosphates.

In several places in the county artesian wells have been tried, but the results achieved have in several cases been much below the expectations of those who projected them. An acquaintance with the conditions requisite foi>success seems to have been wanting, and the thought given the subject to have related only to the cost of the work. The reasoning adopted seems to have been much as follows: '-Wells are bored at Chicago, and a plentiful supply of water is obtained, therefore the same result may be obtained in the same way at Morrison, or any other place." Water cannot rise above the level of the fountain that supplies it, hence to make an artesian well a success there must be a head of water higher than the place where the well is bored. Then below and above the strata containing the water there must be strata through which water cannot pass freely, as if it can it will flow away in springs, and not rise higher than the point at which it escapes.

The character of the rocks, their slope or dip, and the source from which they derive their supply of Avater, are, of course, veiy important features in the problem, and go far toward enabling us to settle the question of success or failure. In the valley of the Illinois, water is obtained at from 230 to 400 feet, rising from thirty to fifty feet above the surface, while on the prairie to the north of the river the only successful well is 2180 feet deep, while the boring at Mendota, 2160 feet deep, is not a success. The deepest boring in the world is that at St. Louis, Missouri, 3843^ feet deep. The water does not rise to the surface. At Sterling, a well 1655 feet deep, owned by Joel Harvey, flows a large quantity of water of good quality. The boring at Morrison, 1200 feet deep, does not flow, the water not rising to within twenty feet of the top. Dr. Pennington has bored near his residence, in Jordan, to the depth of 2200 feet, the water rising to within thirty-five feet of the top. At Utica, La Salle County, in the well of James Clark, there are three horizons of water-bearing rock in about 200 feet. The well penetrates the Potsdam sandstone about seventy feet, this being the water-bearing rock. Below are given the strata as penetrated in several wells:

Mineralogy

This subject is well worthy of a careful study, the great outlay involved in boring a deep well, demanding a tolerable certainty of success, before one is justified in commencing so costly a work; and even when all is known that can be ascertained, there is room for more than a reasonable doubt of the result.

Mineralogy describes and classifies the material composing our globe. The system generally followed is that used by Jas. D. Dana in his Manual of Mineralogy. The classification is based on the chemical composition, the proportions of carbon, sulphur, oxygen, silica, &c., deciding the place of the species in the arrangement. Hence some ores of metals being of one class and some of another are found widely separated. The numbers occuring after each name is the number of Dana's species as given in the Manual.

The minerals of Whiteside County are not many nor of great interest, yet of some species fair and of some fine specimens are easily obtained.

Copper is found in the drift in its metallic state. It occurs in small quantities only. The largest fragment we have seen weighs about ten pounds, and is now in the collection of the Academy of Sciences, Ottawa, Illinois.

Lead does not occur in the rocks of this county, but probably may be found in the drift. The ore found at Galena is Glalenite - 40 - sulphurate of lead. It may possibly be found in fissures in the Trenton limestone in the north part of the county.

Iron has several important ores - the most valuable being hematite - 180 - red oxide, red ochre, specular iron, yellow clay iron stone; magnetite - 186 - octahedrite, octahedral iron ore, magnetic oxide, black oxide; limonite - 206 - brown oxide, bog ore; siderite - 736 - carbonate of iron, brown clay iron stone. Hematite - 180 - occurs as a rather soft, easily cut, red stone, a half mile east of Rock Falls, where it is quarried for the use of the Sterling Mineral }*aint Company. It is also found at Cochran's quarry near Morrison, and in small ((uantities at many other places, being generally called red clay. Yellow clay iron stone is quite common in most parts of the county. Limonite forms with gravel a ferruginous conglomerate of a deep brown color. We found large pieces of it in gravels in Ustiok township, near th(? residence of J. M. Williamson,

Calcite - 715 - carbonate of lime, limestone, has been described and its localities mentioned. By calcite is generally understood crystallized carbonate of lime. It occurs as dogtooth spar, having the form of pyramids, generally filling cavities or hollows in the rock; as spar having the form of cubes or rhomboids, when transparent and possessing, as it commonly does, the power of making objects seen through it appear double, it is called Iceland spar. Cavities filled with crystals are called geodes. Calcite is generally white or colorless, but is sometimes yellow, red, bluish, brownish, &c., and the crystals often contain small particles of other matter. We found some beautiful, but very small crystals at Dr. Pennington's. They are often highly colored. Calcite is found in all the limestones. We have obtained some good but small crystals in Newton. A beautiful stalagmite is found in some of the crevices of the Niagara limestone.

Dolomyte - 71(3 - is very similar to calcite. It has a pearly lustre, however, and is not readily attacked by sulphuric acid, while calcite is; that is if you drop a little sulphuric acid - oil of vitriol - upon a piece of calcite, it will soon foam and eat into the stone; poured on dolomyte there is little foaming and the acid produces little effect on the stone.

Pyrite - 75 - bisulphide of iron, sulphur, fool's gold, might be classed and really is a common ore of iron, but it is never used in the manufacture of iron, being worthless for this purpose. It is very abundant in the coal measures, being found in the form of scales and flakes of a golden yellow color in the coal itself. It is sometimes found in large lenticular masses, very hard, heavy, and when broken, of a yellowish gray. It also occurs in spherical masses from a half-inch to several inches in diameter, appearing to be engraved on the outside with geometrical figures, formed of a combination of triangles, and of a brassy hue. Its crystals are cubes, very perfect, dodecagons, and many other forms, the two named the most common. Some fine small crystals are found at Dr. IV-nnington's. and on sections 5, 7, and 8, Ustick, and in the limestones of most localities. It often decomjjoses when exposed to the atmosphere, sulphate of iron, sulphurous acid and a sulphate of iron and alumina - an alum - being the product.

Clay. - Clay is the name given to a tenacious earth but sparingly dissolved by water and almost impervious to it. It is of various colors, a)id its composition varies greatly. Yet common as clay is, it is a substance of great value. Brick, pottery and stoneware are manufactured from it and are impossible without it. Clay is the oxide of aluminum, a metal in color resembling silver, but bulk for bulk only half as heavy. This oxide is called alumina. Clay however is seldom pure alumina. Iron, lime, and silica or sand, as well as other substances are mixed with it and materially mf)dify its <)ualities. When pure it is almost impossible to melt it, but when mixed with sand and lime, it becomes more fusible, and we often see the surface of bricks looking as if glazed, the heat of the fire having fused the material of the brick, showing that the clay is not pure. The red color of brick is owing to the presence of iron in the form of red oxide. Mineralogically the clays belong to several species. Of these kaolin is one of the most important. It occurs on an island in Rock River, in Coloma township, belonging to a Mr. McKenzie. Fire clay is found between the strata of the Unionvillc sandstone in beds of from two to eight inches thick. It is of good quality but limited in quantity; also at Cochran's (juarry. Red, yellow and blue clays are found in almost every township in many places. The red and yellow clays are colored by iron and some of them are real ores of iron. They are true hematites, analagous to red chalk and red ochre.

Other minerals occur in the drift as hornblend, orthoclase, albitc, mica, quartz, &c., but they are not found constituting strata or parts of any strata that have not been disturbed, and hence deserve no extended notice here.

The rocks have been described. Limestone of many varieties is found over the county, generally magnesian, or dolomyte. Most of the limestone of the Central Plain is dolomyte containing from one-eighth to one-half carbonate of magnesia. Sandstone is found in only a narrow tract of territory.

Granite, syenyte, gneis, doleryte, and hypersthenyte are common in the drift in fragments of greater or less size - varying from small pebbles to huge boulders weighing many tons, the largest about 200 tons.

The Niagara limestones of Whiteside County are an unfailing source of wealth. They furnish an inexhaustible supply of excellent building stone, it being generally easily quarried, not difficult to dress, of good color, and durable. The quarries of Ustick, Fulton and Sterling have been extensively worked for block stone, while at Albany, Newton and Morrison, stone for foundations, rough work and lime is procured; and in Prophetstown it is also quarried. Near Spring Hill the rock appears, but is soft, friable and worthless.

The Trenton limestone in Jordan, at Dr. Pennington's, and in Hopkins, is extensively quarried. It makes a beautiful building material, being of pleasingcolor, easily worked and very durable. The Doctor has several fine buildings of this material, which fully demonstrate its capabilities as a constructive material. There are three shades of it, all seeming to be e(|ually well fitted for architectural purposes. Some of the strata furnish a very superior flagging, stone of any dimensions being procurable. We saw some immense slabs ready for market, free from any trace of crack or flaw, and rivalling the best Berea or Batavia flags. The lowest stratum both at the Jordan and the Hopkins quarries is a very hard semi-crystalline stone, wholly unaffected by dampness or frost.

The Unionville sandstones supply an easily worked and tolerably good material for foundations, and when pains is taken in quarrying, blocks of moderate size, 2x5x1-^ feet may be obtained, as well as good stuff for caps, sills, water-tables, steps and small platforms. It varies much in color, but is generally of agreeable tints and wears well. Burr's quarry furnishes from its lowest beds a hard bluish white stone, from the middle l)eds a yellowish white, and from the upper beds a reddish gray stone. The stone from this quan-y is of very good quality.

Lime is burned at Cochran's quarry and at Mason's quarry north of Morrison. The lime manufactured here is of good quality, but the different strata are of different composition and produce limes of different character. That from one stratum seems to be improved by air-slacking. We were shown a wall made of air-slacked lime which is remarkably hard and sound, and another wall made of the same lime, not air-slacked, which is badly cracked, soft, and we should say worthless. One of the beds seems to be a hydraulic lime, but the quantity is too small to render it of value. We were told by a gentleman in the lime trade that this rock would not make lime, but Mr. Cochran assures us that when properly burned it forms a lime of the best quality. Lime is the Oxide of Calcium, a yellow metal, which on exposure to the air soon becomes tarnished and in a short time turns to the white substance which we call lime. This oxide absorbs carbonic acid gas and then becomes limestone. Heating the limestone drives off the carbonic acid as a gas, and the oxide of calcium re- mains. Air-slacking results from the lime absorbing moisture from the atmosphere. Slacked lime is chemically speaking hydrated oxide of calcium, or a combination of water and oxide of calcium. Calcium in its metallic state is seen only as a curiosity, its great affinity for oxygen rendering it impossible to preserve it from the attacks of that clement whenever they come in contact.

Peroxide of iron is quarried near Rock Falls and is ground at Sterling by the Sterling Mineral Paint Company. It is quite extensively sold and is well liked by those who have used it. It is of a dark rich brown, wears well, and from its composition must be incombustible and as near fire proof as a paint can be. An analysis made by Prof. Mariner, of Chicago, gives as its composition: Peroxide of iron, 68.; Silica, 15. ; Alumina, 11.; Water, 5. Eleven hundred tons were quarried last winter and will be required to supply the demand for the current year. It is used by railroad companies in painting cars and largely for painting out-buildings, and in coating iron and tin roofs. The sales extend to all parts of our country and there is a good prospect of a European market. This is therefore one of the most valuable mineral deposits of our County.

Clays. - Red, yellow, blue and white clays are found in almost every neighborhood. The red is always an ore of iron resembling in general character the Sterling Mineral Paint, but containing less iron and more silica and alumina. The yellow contains some iron and it is this element that gives the red color to our bricks when burned. Very good brick are made at Morrison, Sterling, Fulton, Lyndon, and other places. Fire clay contains little iron and should be free from lime, for while either silica - sand, alumina - clay, or lime taken separately can be melted only in the most intense heat of a powerful furnace, when mixed they are quite fusible, consequently the presence of lime in the clay renders it more fusible, and therefore unfit for use where a high temperature is to be sustained. The clay found in beds of from two to eight inches in thickness between the strata of the Unionville sandstone is a very good fire clay and has been used in the manufacture of fire brick at Fulton, and also at the Morrison lime kilns. It was used at Fulton in the manufacture of pottery and would answer a good purpose but does not take glazing readily. It is somewhat difficult to get it out free from arenaceous matter, and the quantity is too small to be of much value. Near Cochran's quarry is a bed of clay that may prove to be of some importance. He informs us that brick made from it stand the action of fire remarkably well. It has not been tried on a large scale.

gand. - Sand for mortar is found in all parts of the county. Moulding sand (of good quality) is obtained at Lyndon, and a bed that seems to possess all the qualities of a good moulding sand occurs at Cochran's quarry.

Gravel beds are found in the drift everywhere, but in many cases they are deep down and practically inaccessible. South and west of Lyndon on the C. R. I. & St. L. R. R., is a fair deposit of gravel.

Marl. - -A calcareous clay or soft shelly limestone, is quite common, but is usually called a clay. These marls where found in sufficient (juantities are valuable fertilizers and are worthy of much more attention than they have received. The exuberant fertility of our soil has caused our people to neglect these sources of wealth because deemed unnecessary, but the day is rapidly approaching when a better system of farming will be inaugurated, and then the question of manures will receive a more careful consideration. The deposit known as quick clay is a marl. A bed of shell marl occurs on Dr. Pennington's huid in Jordan, but seems to be thin.

Such then are the mineral resources of Whiteside County. They are not such as are calculated to startle and amaze the reader, and seem when compared with those of Jo. Daviess or La Salle Counties, scanty and mean, and when contrasted with those of an equal area of Colorado or California to be of no consequence; but we must not forget that these treasures are indispensable to the welfare of a people, that without them progress must be slow and enterprise continually embarassed. Besides they are of such a nature that the demand must continue to increase with time, and the supply is practically inexhaustible. They are therefore of great economical value, mines of wealth more necessary and more conducive to our progress than the gems of Golconda, or the mines of Nevada.

The Uuionville Sandstone. - These strata seem to form isolated patches or islands in a Niagara sea. As they now exist we believe them to be wholly unconnected. They are fragments of a once much more extensive deposit, most of which has been torn up and scattered over more southern lands.

The Walled Well. - The story of a walled well - a work of aboriginal art^ - has been heard by many who may read these pages. Mr. Jas. Shaw considers it to be a pot-hole or hole worn out by the action of the water and gravel. The porch of a house now covers it and investigation would be difficult if not impossible. It is to be regretted that this object has not been examined by competent jparties, as its character is yet doubtful.

Coal and Petroleum. - The search for coal and petroleum maybe pronounced in vain. Neither are to be expected in this county. The coal-bearing strata do not extend into the county, and as the shales that are the great reservoirs of petroleum are all wanting we may assume that petroleum does not exist in any quantity worth looking after.

The Natural History of Whiteside County has not been studied with the care the subject should receive. No collection of its animals, reptiles, birds, fishes and insects exists as far as we now know. This is to be regretted, as species once common here are becoming scarce and some not native here are appearing year by year and taking. the place of those that are disappearing.

The principal animals found in the county by the first settlers were the Gray wolf, Prairie wolf. Lynx, Wildcat, Kaccoon, Skunk, Mink, Weasel, Beaver, Otter, Muskrat, Hare (rabbit), Gray squirrel. Fox squirrel, Grey gopher. Striped gopher (Spermophile), Chipmunk (probably an emigrant). Mole of several species, Mice of several species. The Bison or Buffalo (Bos Americanus) certainly at one time visited this county as the bones are now found in the peat beds. The bear was also probably an inhabitant of this region, although we have not seen it mentioned as being found here by our first settlers. The elk and deer were common and were found many years after the county was settled, although they are now extinct.

The birds of Whiteside County are those of a large section of the United States. Several species are only occasional visitors, many species go southward during the winter, while a small number remain here the year round. Among the birds of prey the Baldeagle (Halifetus leucocephalus), holds the first place. He is probably not a resident of the county at this time. The Buzzard, Sparrow hawk, Goss hawk, Snowy owl, Barn owl, and Screech owl, Butcher bird or shrike, King bird. King fisher. Blue jay. Wood pecker, Yellow-hammer, Meadow lark, Snow bird, Wren, Redstart, Chipping bird. Blue bird, Brown-thresher, Tomtit, Yellow bird, Baltimore oriole, Robin, Pewee, Phoebe bird, Cheewink or Ground finch. Cuckoo, Plover, Snipe, Wild goose, Duck, Crane, Heron, Gull, Brant, Swan, Partridge, Prairie chicken or Pinnated grouse. Quail, Turkey,

Night hawk, T\Tiipporw'ill, Swallow, Chimney swallow, Martin, Dove, Pigeon, Crow, Bittern or Pump thunder. Black bird, Woodcock, Bail, Humming bird, are found at some seasons of the year within our borders. Some of them are now seldom seen while others are constantly met with. The practice of ruthlessly shooting everything that has feathers and wings has tended to greatly diminish the number of birds, and some species are verging on extinction as far as this region is concerned.

Keptiles are neither large nor numerous. Of the turtles there are four species, two of which attain a considerable size. The newts or Tritons are represented by one, perhaps more species. The Mennobranchus inhabits the still water of sloughs. Frogs are numerous and of several species. Toads are common. The tree frog is often heard, if not frequently seen, and the cray is a well known denizen of our low lands. Of the Ophidians - the serpents - the number is not large, and most species are less common than they were a few years ago. The rattlesnake was represented by at least three species, two of them the yellow rattlesnake - Crotalus horridus, and the Prairie rattlesnake now seldom seen, are large reptiles. The blow snake - a species of viper, blue racer, garter snake, the most common of our snakes, the water snake, and the ground snake, very scarce, comprise most of our species.

The fishes are quite numerous in all the streams of any size. The catfish, pout, black and rock bass, sunfish, perch, buffalo fish, pickerel, pike, sucker, sheephead, spoon fish, sturgeon, eel, shiner, gar, and minnow, are the principal species. They are caught in considerable quantities, especially in the Mississippi and Bock Bivers.

The insects comprise representatives of all the great families. The Lepidoptera - moths and butterflies, has many species, varying greatly in size, from the great Cecropia moth, five inches across the wings, to the tiny Tenia less than a half inch in breadth. The Neuroptera are common, dragon flies of several species being found along our streams. The Corydalis frequents the same places, especially the woods of Bock Eiver. Mosquitoes are over much of the county, too abundant for comfort. The Coleoptera are numerous, and many of them large and beautifully colored. The beetles, embracing the troublesome and destructive borers of many species, belong to this class, as also the carrion bug or scavenger beetle. Many of the borers are remarkable for the length of their antennae and for the strangeness and elegance of their forms. The beautiful and delicate lady-bugs also belong to this division. The Hemiptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera are represented by the flies and bees, of each of which there are several genera and many species: the humble bee, wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, mason wasp, mining bee, and hornet are too well known to require description. The spiders, Arachnida, are found everywhere, many of them being highly colored and some of them of large size.

The molluska are represented by about forty species of Unio, varying greatly in* size, form, exterior surface of shell and internal structure. The Viviparus, Melania, and Planorbis are also well represented in most of our streams. Many of these shells are beautiful objects and they offer a fine field to the naturalist, being easily obtained in great quantity. The land species, Physa, Helix, &c. are found in the woods and marshy lands. We have seen no living specimens of either genus in our researches this summer (1877).

Botany. The botany of this county is rich in species both of Exogens - plants having a true wood and bark and increasing in size by the addition of layers on the outside, and Endogens - plants having no true wood and bark, and growing from within. The Cryptogamia are also quite numerous, the Musci, Filices and Fungi being quite plenty. A list of the plants alone would occupy several pages, and for the general reader possess little interest. We shall therefore only enumerate the principal species:

The forest trees and shrubs embrace the Cottonwood, Yellow Popal, Quaking asp; Oak - white, black, yellow, chestnut; Black Walnut; Coffee Bean - Gymnocladus; Elms - lllmus americana and TJlmus fulva; Willows, several species; Mulberry, Morusrubus; Box P]lder - Negundo aceroides; Soft Maple - Acer rubrus; Hard Maple - Acer saccharum; Sycamore; Plane tree - Platanus occidentalis; Ash - black and blue; Baswood, or Linn tree; Honey Locust; Three Thorned Acacia, Gledithschia tricanthus; Sassafras - Sassafras officinale; Plum; Crab Apple; Wild Cherry - Cerasus serotinus; Witch Hazel; Dogwood - Cornus; Shadberry; Juneberry - Amelanchier canadensis; Thorn - Crategus tomentosus and Crategus crusgalli; Sumac - Rhus glabra,,Rhus'typhina, Rhus radicans, climbing; Staff tree; False Bitter Sweet - Celastrus scandens, climbing; Birch; Hazel; Elder; Button Bush - Cephalanthus; Black Alder; Red Cedar - Juniperus virginiana.

A noticeable feature of this list is that the finest timber trees of the east are wanting here. Neither the Tulip nor Cucumber tree are present, and the Linn is of less size. The Oaks are more scrubby and less valuable. The Hard Maple is found in a few places only, the Beech not at all. Of the herbs and small shrubs the number is very great, many of them worthy of notice on account of the beauty of their foliage and flowers. From early spring when the Anemone Nuttalliana appear on the sandy hillsides until the chill wind of winter browns the foliage with its icy breath there is a constant succession of floral beauties. Several species of Ranunculus enliven pastures and roadsides and are known to all under the familiar name of crowfoot or butter cups. Liverwort - Hepatica triloba; Spring Beauty - Claytonia; Cowslip - Caltha palustris; Dutchman's Breeches - Dicentria cucuUaria and canadensis; Dentaria diphylla or pepper root; Cardamine rhomboidia, Arabis canadensis or wild cress; Barbarea vulgaris or water cress; Viola pedata; Viola cucullata; Dodecatheon media or prairie points, prairie pink or Mead's cowslip; Thalictrum cornuti; Grei-anium maculatum or crane's bill; Sanguinaria canadense or blood root; Oxalis violacea or purple sorrel; Spirea; Phlox, maculatum, and several other species make up a constant succession of flowers from spring to midsummer, while the compositae through the spring are represented by but few species, dandelion - Leontodon taravensis and Troximon with Cirsium pumilam, a lai-ge beautiful thistle. Lilies now begin to appear, and two species, - L. superbum and L. philadelphicum, are quite common. Rosin weed - silphium of three species, sunflowers - Helianthus of six species; Coreopsis of four species; Rudebeckia, four species. Solidago - Golden rod of six species; Vernonia fasiculata; Liatris, four species; Aster, ten or twelve species; Cirsium thistle, four species; Lepachys; Echinaceas purpurea, purple cone flower; Parthenium. Heliopsis Ifevis; Erigeron, three species; Eupatorium, boneset thoroughwart, four species; Dysodia, dogfennel; Cacalia; Cynthia Virginiana and several other genera make a splendid display of composite flowers until frost. Lobelia - four species; cardinalis - red cardinal flower; syphilitica - blue cardinal flower; leptostachys - slender lobelia, inflata - lobelia; Campanula Americana; C. rotundifolium, in rocky ground; Lysimachia stricta; L. longifolia; Gerardia auriculata; the curious and beautiful Castilleja coccinea - painted cup; C. sessilifolia; Dasystoma flava; Gerardia; Pentestemon grandiflorus; Mimulus ringens - monkey flower; Eryngium yuccacefolium; Petalostemon violaceum; Dalea-alopecuroides; Lespedza capitata - ^bush clover; Cassia chamsecrista; Baptisia, two species; Latliyfus - wild pea - three species; Desmodium. four species; Podophyllum peltatum - may apple, mandrake, are some of the most common. Several species of Asclepidiacet^ or milkweeds, among them the lovely butterfly weed with its large scarlet heads of flowers, is a very conspicuous object by roadsides and in fields; the Calystegia sepium, commonly called morning glory - a great pest of the farmers from its creeping roots and spreading vines of rapid growth; Ipomea panduratus - man root, man of the earth - a splendid plant with large morning glory-like flowers, having a purple tube and white border and a large fleshy root very difiicult to kill, are frequentl}' met Avith and cannot fail to attract the attention of the lover of nature. The curious Euphorbias are not generally striking in foliage or flower, but E. carollata is very common in dry fields and its large white umbellate heads, is a very conspicuous object. The remainder of the species common here are creeping plants and cover our ploughed lands, if not frequently stirred, with a web of variegated green or red. Of the Grasses we have not space to speak, and moreover have never made them an object of study. The Filices or ferns, Musci or mosses, and Liverworts, must for the same reason be omitted.

It will be seen from this meagre article that the botany of this county offers a treasury by no means poor in its resources, to him who seeks a knowledge of the Creator's wonderful works. It is far from creditable to the litterati of the county that no better collections illustrating Natural History exist. Our teachers, especially those standing at the head of our High Schools, could very easily awaken an interest in this subject in the minds of their pupils, and large and valuable collections could readily be made, collections that would not only be of value for illustration in teaching, but become standards of reference in the future. Besides this knowledge has a value that cannot easily be estimated. The man who goes out into the world having some acquaintance with Geology will not spend his time and money in digging in Devonian and Silurian strata for coal, or boring in Niagara Limestone for petroleum. He who has a knowledge of botany will not be liable to be tricked by seedsmen and speculators into buying worthless wonders in vegetables. The locust, the potato beetle, the many borers all demonstrate the need of at least a passing acquaintance with insects and their habits, and our teachers should take the lead in the work and make an efi'ort to impress on the minds of all that such knowledge is of great importance. The loss sustained annually by the farmers of Illinois from the ravages of insects may safely be placed at more than $20,000,000 - a vast sum in the aggregate - a tax of almost $7 per head on every man, woman and child in the State, and most of it a tax levied by ignorance on those who despise knowledge.