Rush County, Indiana - Chapter 1, 1888

Chapter 1

USH COUNTY has an area of twenty-three miles, north and south, by eighteen miles, east and west; equal to 414 square miles; and, according to a recent report of the Bureau of Statistics, has 255,315 acres of land returned for taxation. The aggregate taxable property is given as $12,473,020, which, considering that it has no large city within its limits, ranks it as one of the very wealthiest counties in the State. Its -per capita wealth of $652.18 is second to but one county.

It is bounded on the west by Shelby and Hancock counties, on the north by Hancock and Henry counties, on the east by Fayette and Franklin counties, and on the south by Decatur County.

The title of the Delaware Indians to the territory comprising Rush County was ceded to the United States, by treat}^ at St. Mary's, October 2 to 6, 1S18. The United States' surveyors completed their work July 23, 1819, and April 29, 1820, and the land was offered to purchasers October i, 1S20, at the Brookville land office. Up to the year 1822, the land embraced in Rush County, was attached to Franklin County for judicial purposes. This year the countv was organized and the first County Commissioners' Court convened on the first Monday in March. The count}' was named, at the suggestion of Dr. Wm. B. Laughlin, Government surveyor, in honor of the famous Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. June 17, 1822, the county seat was located, and, by July 29, following, the town was surveyed and lots offered for sale, thus showing that push and energy of the early settlers which still characterizes their descendants.

six miles east, and eleveh miles south of the Circle Park of the State Capital, and is thirtv-nine and three-tenths miles by rail from Indianapolis. It is a handsome city of 4,000 inhabitants, and is rapidly growing in wealth and population. The south, and business part, of the city, including the court house, is located on the river terrace, above high water mark; the residence part of the city lies to the north, on the low uplands, and contains manj' fine buildings and highly ornamented front yards. The streets are wide and regular, smoothly graveled, paved, lighted with gas and lined with beautiful maple shade trees. The water supply is drawn from inexhaustible wells. The city government is complete, with a uniformed police force, fire department, and everything to indicate a thriving, vigorous town.

Carthage, on Big Blue River, the second place in point of size in the county, is a good town of 600 inhabitants, surrounded by a fine agricultural region. Milroy is the third town in size, and, since the completion of the Vernon, Greensburg & Rushville Railroad, has grown rapidly. Its location, nearly equidistant between Greensburg and Rushville, and a good farming communit}- supporting it, promise well for its future. Moscow, Richland, New Salem, and Raleigh are thriving, pleasant villages, off the railroad lines. Manilla, Homer, Marcellus, Glenwood, Falmouth, Gings, and Arlington are railroad villages, of three hundred inhabitants and less. They are active trading and shipping marts, the outgrowth of the commercial wants of the finest farming and pasture lands in the world.

Rush County is well supplied with railroads, all centering and crossing at Rushville. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis Railroad runs through the central part of the county, from the east to the northwest; the Cambridge Branch of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad (forming a connecting link in the "Pan-Handle sj'stem"), crosses the county from the southwest to the northeast; the Vernon, Greensburg & Rushville Railroad (a branch of the " Big Four," Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railwa}^) and the Louisville Branch of the Cincinnati & Fort Wayne Road, traverse the center of the county, from north to south.

All pikes and other roads leading out of Rushville are graveled to the out townships, and many of them to the adjoining count}^ lines. The experiment of building free pikes is being tested in some parts of the county. The ordinar}' dirt roads are good, especially for Indiana, and in summer nothing could be much nicer, but in winter they are fearfully muddy. I was struck with the almost total absence from the road side of the rank and vile weeds so commonly seen in a neighborhood of slovenly farmers.

Topography

The striking geological facts bearing on the topography and surface conliguration of Rush County, deduced from the above tables and others before published in connection with the Geological Survey of Indiana, is the limitation of a part of the western border or crest of the ancient upheaval of the bed of old ocean that has given origin to the Cincinnati arch of the Lower Silurian rocks. The western border of the Cincinnati arch can be readily traced from the summit, near Pearceville, in Riplej' County, north through McCo3-'s Station and Clarksburg, in Decatur Count}^ through Richland and Noble townships. Rush County, thence, north on the boundarj- line, and through the western part of Fayette County. The summit of the crest, one and one-half miles east of Glenwood (Vienna), taken at the natural level of the surface of the countr}', has an elevation of 1 1 16 feet above tide water, which ranks it in altitude as the second highest point 3'et reported south of Indianapolis, and second only to the celebrated Weed Patch Knob of Brown County, which has an altitude of 11 73 feet above the ocean.

The next highest point (1084) reported in this connection, is taken at the base of the rail on the Canibridge Branch Railroad, two and a half miles northeast of Falmouth. This line of elevation is not a high ridge in the sense of an abrupt elevation above the common level of the countr}'; the so-called hills of Fayette, .Union and Franklin counties are realj^ not hills, the unevenness of the countr}' being due to valleys cut below the surface. The top of the Lower Silurian outcrop in Indiana, in its early history-, was a level plain. From the western border of this arch or plain the land falls away in a gradual slope to the west, and so gradual is the descent that it is not noticed by the casual observer. A reference to the table of altitudes, however, shows a marked difference in the elevations on the east and west sides of the county. The Glenwood summit, it will be seen, is 159 feet above the bed of Flat Rock River, at Rushville, and more than 100 feet above the common level of the country in the central part of the county. From Rushville, west, to the bed of Beaver Meadow Creek, the descent is eighty-eight feet, equal to a difference of 221 feet between the summit and the bed of the creek last mentioned. The Falmouth summit is loi feet higher than Rushville, and 179 feet higher than the base of the rail at the point where the Cambridge branch crosses the Shelb}'' and Rush county line. The elevations on the Vernon, Greensburg & Rushville Railroad show that there is but one foot difference between the level of Williamstown, at the Decatur County line, and the junction with the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, and that the highest point on the road (Bennett's Station) is twenty-seven feet above Rushville. Two and a half miles west of the Rushville depot, on the Cambridge Road, the top of the grade is t\vent3'-six feet higher than at the depot, and on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis road the difference is twent}- feet.

Stretching away to the west, on a gentle slope, rests the broad and fertile acres of Rush County. Over the surface of an otherwise level expanse of country are short, low ridges, and slight mounds of gravel and sand, intermingled with a greater per cent, of clay. None of these elevations exceed twenty feet above the common level, and very few of them reach that figure - there is just enough rise and fall of ridge or mound to reheve the eye of the monotony of a dead sameness. An apparent exception to the above is seen in Anderson and Orange townships, where portions of the country' are cut into bluffs and valleys by Big Flat Rock River and its tributary creeks and branches.

Drainage. - The western border of the Lower Silurian (Cincinnati arch) , besides its bearing on the topography of the count}', determines the course of its rivers and creeks, causing those east of the border, or divide, in Richland and Noble townships, to flow into the White Water River, and those of the rest of the county to unite, as tributaries, with the East Fork of White River. With the exception of Big Blue River (which flows through Ripley Township, in the northeast corner of the county), all the rivers and creeks of the county have their origin within its limits or near the boundary Hnes. From this fact, it is manifest that the greater number of its streams are small. Flat Rock River is the most important stream of the countv, and, with its many tributaries (the largest of which is LitdeFlat Rock Creek), drains the northeast, central and southwest portions of the county. The northwest and western portions of the county are drained by Big Blue River and its branches. Little Blue River and Mud Creek.

The flow of its streams to the west and southwest is determined by the general lay of the land already described and the increasing depth and lower level, from the north to the south, of the Collett Glacial River valley, of which Rush County forms an integral part.

In all drift regions, especially where the drift is heavy, as is the case in the north half of Rush County, the rivers and creek channels seldom reach down to the country rock. Below Hungerford's dam, Section 4, Township 12, Range 9, the bed of Big Flat Rock River is generally rocky, and the same is true of Little Flat Rock Creek, below Milroy. With these exceptions, and appearance of stone in the bed of the river, four miles below Rushville, and in Litde Blue River, below Arlington, the bed and banks of the streams are clay, gravel, or sand. Flat Rock River, where its bed lies wholly in the drift, has well-marked, level terrace banks, or second bottoms, ranging in width from one-half to one mile, with an average width of three-fourths of a mile in the vicinity of Rushville. The average width of the river-bed, or first bottom, is about 300 feet; height of bank is 10 feet; and the difference between low and high water is 8 to 11 feet. The bluff banks of the second bottoms vary in height from 10 to 50 feet, and, in a few places, may reach even 80 feet. The second bottoms of Big Blue River at Carthage, vary in width from one-half to one mile, with bluffs from 20 to 50 ^^ct high. Here, the river banks average 10 feet in height, and the difference between low and high water is 10 to 12 feet. In the early histor}^ of the county, most of the streams, having their origin in the ponds and swamps of the flat lands, were everlasting brooks and branches, which wound their sluggish way beneath the protecting shadows of a dense forest, but, under the improving hand of man, many of them have been changed into artificial ditches that are dr}? one-half the year. In this fast age, even the creeks and rivers are required to do their work in a hurry; the barriers that once held back the waters have been removed, the very soil, by tiling, deprived of its superabundant moisture, and the floods sent rushing down to the ocean.

General Geology. - All the native stone, found in place, in Rush County, belongs either to the Niagara epoch of the Niagara group, Upper Silurian division of the Silurian Age, or the Corniferous epoch of the Corniferous group of the Devonian Age.

Pahvozoic Time - Devonian Age - Corniferous Period. - Buffcolored magnesian limestone, lower division of the Corniferous epoch, used for making lime, 30 feet.

The thickness of each stratum, as given above, is an average of several measurements, made at different points. At some places, the Corniferous group stone has a thickness of less than one foot, at others it exceeds that given. In time but two ages are represented, and the country rock underlying the drift forms but a small part of the great geological series. The top members of the Devonian, the whole of the Carboniferous, Reptilian and Tertiary ages are wanting; either they were never deposited over the surface of Rush County, or they have been removed by agencies that

A practical inference from the absence of the rocks of the Carboniferous age, is that no true coal bed will ever be found within the limits of Rush Count^'.

Palaeozoic Geology

Cpper Silurian Time - JViagara Period. - Commencing with the Niagara group, this limestone is, geologically, the oldest rock seen in the county. I found it an even bedded, crystalline stone, of a drab blue, or gray color, outcropping along the banks of Big Flat Rock River, below Moscow, and from Milroy, south, on Little Flat Rock Creek, in Orange and Anderson townships. It does not seem to form an exposed part of the bluffs on either side of the valleys, and, if it is ever discovered in them, will be found at their base, covered by a heav}- stratum of the Corniferous group. As^ the drift, gravel, sand or clay covers all the stone of the rest of the county, with but a few exceptions in Pose}' and Rushville townships, it is not possible to exactly define the surface and boundary- of the Niagara stone. From the reported results of borings made in the vicinity of Rushville, and the outcrop seen in Flat Rock River, below the city, it is safe to say that wells sunk through the drift in Richland, Noble, Union and Washington townships, will reach the Niagara limestone.

In the central tier of townships - Anderson, Rush-s'ille, Jackson and Center - the prevailing stone will depend largeh' on the irregularity of the surface underh-ing the drift. The Niagara will probably be found in the low places, and the Corniferous cappin"- the higher, with a preponderance of the latter. Mr. Geo. C. Clark, of Rushville, reports that three-quarters of a mile from the city, up the mill-race, the freshets have exposed a gra}' limestone, on'a level with the bed of Flat Rock River, that is referred to the Niagara group. Driven and other wells, put down in the central part of the county, have struck a similar, if not identical stone.

No outcrop of the Hudson River group, Lower Silurian, was seen, nor has any been reported, but, possibl}-, it m.a}- be found in some of the ravines or creek bottoms, on the east side of Richland township, under the thinned edge of the Niagara. No opportunity offered to measyre the dip, but the general topograph}^ of the count}' clearly indicates that it is to the southwest, at a rate of not less than sixteen feet to the mile.

In the region of St. Paul, Decatur County, the Niagara limestone has a thickness of not less than forty feet, and, in places, more: but jt seems highly probable that, on the south line of this count^-, it thins out as it approaches the Cincinnati arch. Near the western crest of the arch, the lithological characters of the top members are changed from cherty rubble to an even-textured stone, or the cherty portion has been eroded away; tlie former is the case with the outcrops seen in Rush County.

Chemically, the Niagara limestone is a carbonate of lime and magnesia, in variable proportions, together with alumina, silica, and oxide of iron in much smaller quantities. The reddish color of weathered specimens of the stone is due to a change of the oxide of iron from a lower to a higher oxide, bv exposure. The percentage of silica is greatly increased in the flinty or cherty portions of the top strata, and is aggregated into irregular masses, nodules, and rough tables, that cause the stone, on exposure, to break into fragments. The Rush County stone seen b}^ me is comparatively free from cherty matter, as I have before mentioned; and, hence, the upper ledges are more valuable than the outcrops at some other places. Uniformity of structure is an important element in a durable limestone for building purposes - hard and soft places differ widely in the amount of water the stone will absorb, and so, by freezing, subject it to very unequal strains and cause it to shell and break. Mr. Geo. C. Clark called my attention to the gradual crumbling, to tine fragments, of the court house foundation in Rushville, where frequently, as much as an inch has been worn awaj-. Whether this erosion was due to atmospheric waste, acting on a stone deficient in the cement that holds the particles^^together, or irregularity in density, it was not possible to say with certainty, but probably the former; and it ma}- be that the durability of a limestone, aside fom the homogeneitv manifest to an ordinarv quarrvman can be thoroughly tested only by time and exposure. And while but few ledges of this stone seen in Rush Countv will come up to the high standard required of a first-class building rock, for use in expensl ve structures, all of it will be found valuable for the thousand-and-one uses to which stone is now applied. It can be economically worked in roadmaking, to form a base on which to spread gravel. This experiment is being made on the Milroy and Anderson ville pike with every prospect of it proving a success. In time, the south part of the count}- will be fenced with stone walls taken from the Niagara beds of Big and Little Flat Rock; and, but for its n earness to the quarries just south of Decatur County line, it would n ow be in demand for fence posts and bases. At present what s tone is taken out is mainly used for foundations and other purposes about light buildings.

Geology

ciently strong to reduce the crinoid^ and other organic remains found in it to fragments; and as corals do not flourish below the influence of the waves, their presence in the top ledges indicate a shallowing of the waters near the close of the period.

In this State the base of the Niagara is made up of shale, in strata ranging from a few inches to eight or nine feet in thickness. None of these beds are exposed in Rush Count}', but, as they outcrop northeast of Clarksburg, in Decatur County, they may be found near the surface in the southeast corner of Rush Count}'.

The upper Niagara shale (or soapstone, as it is frequently called) is seen at Moscow and Milroy. This formation is generally known as the Waldron shale, for the reason that the outcrop, on Conn's Creek, in Shelby County, is largely made up of magnificent fossils that have given the locality a world-wide reputation. It does not seem to have an exact equivalent in anv of the adjoining States, and in Indiana, so far as reported, the outcrops are confined to Flat Rock River, Cliffy Creek and their tributaries. It is seen frequently from Moscow and Milroy, south, to Hartsville, and from Milroy and Sandusky, west, to Waldron. Aside from the fossils found in it and its marking the junction of the Upper Silurian and Devonian Ages, it has no special geological import of economic value. In this county, the Waldron shale contains more than the usual per cent, of argillaceous matter, nowhere showing imbedded nodules and flat pieces of limestone. Perhaps it was due to a want of carbonate of lime that no fossils were found in it, aside from a few fragments. In structure, the beds are made up of thin laminaj of friable shale and indurated clav. When not exposed the color is some shade of blue that weathers to yellow or ochrey, and the broken-down, disintegrated beds are scarcelv distinguishable from the overlying yellow clay of the Drift period.

The conditions under which the Waldron shale was formed were in part a continuation of those of the shallow sea of the cherty Niagara limestone. The essential change in the conditions was the addition of currents loaded with a clay sediment. It has been suggested that, to the northward, the Waldron area was a more shallow sea, but, so far as yet reported, these beds are local, and, as indicated above, of no very great area, and it seems possible that the clay sediment also may have been of local origin. At this time in geological history the Lower Silurian limestone and shale of Indiana and Ohio, on the southeast, was either dry land or a wave- washed bank that may have furnished the alumina of the Waldron shale.

then in existence, by the sea. The Devonian sea was bounded on the southwest by the islands of the emerging Cincinnati antichnal; on the west, the nearest land was the Lower Silurian mountains of Missouri; away to the north, the highlands of Canada were a part of a great and growing continent; on the east, in the States of New York and Penns3-lvania, an extended area of dry land was exposed. Doubtless changes in the relative level of the land and sea were more frequent and well marked in their influence on the east, where the Devonian shales and sandstones have a total thickness of more than 15,000 feet, than in Central Indiana, where the formation is for the most part limestone of an aggregate thickness of 300 feet or less. But over all the interior space a warm sea prevailed, even its northern margin being studded with coral reefs and islands, and its shores having a tropical vegetation (Newberr}-).

The surface, extent and limits, east and west of the Corniferous group stone in Rush Count}^ ma}' be defined by reference to the description already given of the area covered by the Niagara epoch. Roughly stated, if all the drift materials were removed from the west half of the county, the exposed surface would be found to be buff-colored, magnesian limestone of the base or lower division of the Corniferous. Exceptions to this general rule are found in the valley's of the creeks and i-ivers. The stone exposed in the mound southwest of Rushville, Section 24, Township 13, Range 9, and near Swayne's mill, on Little Blue River, and in the vicinity of Arlington, are all outcrops of the Corniferous stone.

In the banks of Big Flat Rock, near Moscow, it has the same general character as the strata further south. It is a coarse, argrillaceous stone, having much the physical appearance of a sand-rock, and is frequently so called by the quarrymen; but the ease with which it is burned to lime proves that it is not a sandstone. Near the bridge over Little Flat Rock Creek, just west of Milroy, the Corniferous is the only stone seen in the outcrop, and has the same earthy color and appearance, but is in thinner strata that break into wedge-shaped pieces with feather edges. In general appearance it is identical with the outcrops of the same formation in the vicinity of Greensburg, and contains a higher per cent, of carbonate of lime than the equivalent beds on Big Flat Rock. In its western exposure, at Moscow, the bedding is from medium to heavy massive, bi'eaking into angular blocks that are rounded at the corners by weathering, and under certain conditions of constant moisture, disintegrate to a fine powder. One mile below Milroy, on Little Flat Rock, the Corniferous outcrops above the Waldron shale and has local characteristics that distinguish it from either of the two varieties before described. Here it is a thin-bedded, shelly, blue or drab, crystalline limestone apparently free from admixture with earth^^ matter. In lithological appearance, it is the equivalent of the middle division of the Corniferous group that lies just under the North Vernon stone in many other parts of the State. Nowhere in the adjoining counties have I seen a stratum of so highly crystalline stone as this at the base of the group. These varieties, occurring withing a radius of a few miles, indicate that they were formed under local conditions acting near the margin of a surfbeaten coast.

The folowing is a list of fossils found in Rush County: Uffer Silurian-^ JViagara Grouf. - Favosites Forbesi (var. occideiitah's), Favosites spinigerus, Streptelasma radicans, Streptelasma borealis, Cyathoph3dlum radicula, Eucalyptocrinus crassus, Eucalyptocrinus cfelatus, Lyriocrinus melissa, Lichenalia concentrica, Anastrophia internascens, Retzia evax, Rhj-ncotreta cuneata (var. Ainen'ca)!a), Rhynchonella Whitii, Rh3'nchonella Indianensis, Meristina Maria, Meristina nitida, Atr^'pa reticularis, Spirifera crispa, Platyostoma Niagarensis, Strophostylus C3'clostomus, Gyroceras Elrodi, Orthoceras annulatum, Orthoceras crebescens.

Devonian Age - Cornljcrous Group. - Cyathophyllum rugosum, Acervularia Da\idsoni, Favosites hemisphericus, Favosites limitaris, Favosites epidermatis, Stromatopora tuberculata, Zaphrentis gigantea, Athj-ris vitata, Atrypa reticularis, Spirifera Oweni, Spirifera euruteines, Spirifera mucronata, Strophodonta demissa, Conocardium trigonale.

All the sedimentary,' stone of Rush County is fossiliferous, but not highlv so: and no localities are known that offer attractions to the professional specimen collector. Just below the Decatur County line, on Big Flat Rock, Mr. Shaw showed me several fine fossils, found in the Niagara limestone of his quarry. One of them is, probably, an Eucalyptocrinus of very large size; another appears to be a large cystidian. He, also, has a fine specimen of Orthoceras strix, the only one I have seen from any of the Indiana beds. This locality is mentioned, with the hope that some good collector may visit and give it a thorough examination. The Waldron shale, so. far as seen, is nearly destitute of good specimens, and fragments by no means common. The Corniferous fossil beds present nothing specially different from those of other localities. Mr. Geo. C. Clark has some nice specimens of Spirifera mucronata (P^i and corals, found in the Drift gravel near the Little Flat Rock Christian Church. I visited the locality', but did not find anything of interest.

Loral Details. - Following the banks of Big Flat Rock, north from St. Paul, the height of the bluffs gradually grows less, until, at Moscow, they are less than twenty feet. Generally, after cross- ing the county line, but one side of the stream shows a full bluff outcrop, the other side having been eroded awav bv the forces that, in ages gone by, excavated a valley manv times greater than the rain storms of this day ever fiU. Underlving some of these low bottoms, quarries can be opened and worked economically: the ,quarr3'men will find but little stripping r^ecessary, nature having done this part of the work for him.

This quarry is opened in the east bank of Flat Rock River, on the point of an angle formed by a ravine. The amount of work done has not been sufficient to develop the exact quality of the stone, that taken out being changed by exposure and atmospheric waste. So far as the quarr\' has been developed, the stone is very free from chert, so common in the top strata of the Niagara at other places. The bedding is loose, even, and generally free from vertical seams, and of sufficient thickness to make excellent flag and general-purpose building stone. The facilities for working the quarry are confined to an ordinary outfit of drills, bars, hammers etc. At the time of my visit, Mr. J. H. Jones, lessee of Jos. Owens the owner of the quany, and two employes, were engaged in prospecting and preparing to take out stone in quantities. With a good gravel road from Moscow to Milroy, a local demand, at least, might be developed that would pay good returns on a quarry investment. That the citizens of Milroy and vicinity are a wide-awake, enterprising people, is shown by the money they have spent in building the Milroy and Andersonville free pike; a continuation of the same spirit will macadamize a road west to Big Flat Rock. Let the propi'ietors of the quarries show what they have on hand, and those in need of stone will get it away.

This section was taken in the bend of the creek, on the east side, where the wash of the stream has removed the crumbling Waldron shale, and left the Corniferous limestone projecting over the bank. Quite a number of fossils were seen in the overhanging rock at this point, and in the equivalent stone further down the creek. The Waldron shale is here intercalated with verjr thin calcareous lamina; that, when found thicker, as is the case at other points, are invariably fossiliferous. Here, the amount of carbonate of lime and magnesia appears to have been insufficient to preserve the organic remains buried in it. Only fragments and crinoid stems of the species general to this horizon were found. The underlying Niagara limestone is in thin strata, so far as could be seen, and much less massive than at the Moscow quarry. The same remark applies to the quarry of Captain Rice, located a little lower down the creek. That better stone could be had b}' opening back into the bank or bluff, is very probable, but, from what I have seen of this stone further south, it is not likely that the bedding will be heavy. The Niagara beds in this vicinity will yield good, light flagging, fence posts, bases, and light building-stone. Nowhere, in hundreds of examinations of the base of the Corniferous, where it forms a junction with the Waldron shale, have I found the stone so highly crj'Stalline and so nearly a pure limestone as here. Doubtless it will make excellent " hot " lime, but, on account of its tendency to shell, will not prove of value for any other purpose.

^lartcrnary Age, Drift Period. - In Rush Count}', covering alike the Upper Silurian on the east and the Devonian on the west, to a depth ranging from. ten to one hundred feet, and thus largely concealing them from view, is found a mixture of clay, sand, gravel, pebbles, angular, subangular, and rounded stones, generally unassorted, unstratified and unfossiliferous. Out of this apparentl}^ heterogeneous mixture, a careful studjr evolves a degree of order that, in its history, has been governed by the same invariable laws of antecedents and sequences as in the other domains of nature. The general arrangement of the drift materials is illustrated in the following sections:

East Of Rushville Railroad Depot, Rushville

This bore, one of the deepest reported in the count}^, was put down on the table-land back of the highest bluff. Water was found in the lower stratum of stone, and rose about sixty-seven feet in the bore.

In one well dug at Milroy, 150 yards from Little Flat Rock, sand was reached five or six feet from the top; after going through ten feet of sand water was found, which filled the well so it could not be walled. In one of the village wells a bowlder fifteen inches in diameter was found in the muck stratum, and they are reported as of frequent occurrence in other wells. Along the southern border of Anderson Township there is a stratum of red cla}- that seems to replace the lower blue clay, as it comes from the bottom of the wells. The average of the wells above given is taken from wells dug on the uplands, above the first terrace or second bottom of the creek.

quicksand or gravel; (2) blue plastic clay or gray hardpan, and occasionally, buried timber, muck or peat; (3) 3'ellow or red clay; and (4) soil. Another conspicuous member (5) of the Drift, not mentioned above, is the frequent occurrence, in places, of bowlders - exotic stones, derived from the Archaean rocks found native in the high land of Canada and on the south shore of Lake Superior. In some of the sections it will be noticed that one or more of the generallj' found strata are wanting; either they were never formed, or by the action of local causes, they have been removed, or altered and blended, until it is impossible to identify them as the equivalent of any particular stratum; but however altered and changed, the order of succession remains the same in the Rush County Drift. In the southern townships. Orange, Anderson and Richland, the average thickness of the Drift will not vary much from thirty feet. On the east side of the county, in Richland, Noble, Union and Washington townships, near the water-shed, the deposit grows thinner, and will not generally exceed twenty feet. At Rushville, Henr}' Ormes Sa. Co., who have made many borings and wells, give forty-eight to tifty feet as the average depth of stone. North, northwest and west of Rushville the general depth w'ill reach sixty feet and over. At Manilla, the well above reported passed through seventy-three feet of Drift; and another, bored on an adjoining farm, is said to have been put down 123 feet before reaching the bottom of the blue claj-.

The sand, glacial sand or gravel stratum resting on the country stone is not alike constant over high and low ground, but it seems to occur in greatest force in the surface depressions. Its component materials range in size from fine siliceous sand to gravel and angular chert fragments; in color, from snow-white to dark or black quicksand. Generally it is a water bearing bed of fine sand, but is occasionally replaced by dry, hard pieces of stone, that, from lithological and fossil evidence, are probably the debris of the eroded Carboniferous and Niagara group limestones. It is suggested that the agencies that reduced the flinty portions of the stone in one case to tine particles or sand, and in the other to coarse gravel, were not uniform in their action. Occasionally, as in some of the w'ells at Milroy, this and the next succeeding stratum are blended together.

The blue, plastic clay, bowlder clay, glacial clay, or hardpan, is a very generally diffused member of the Drift, occurring universally, except in the valleys south of Rushville, where the rivers and creeks reach down to, or near, the bed-rock. Wells and borings sunk in the first river terrace on Big Blue River, at Carthage, and on Big Flat Rock, at Rushville, pass through the blue clay, show- ing that the forces which have excavated the valle^-s ceased to act at these points before reaching the bottom of the blue hardpan. Taking the average depth to stone of the Rushville wells at fortyeight feet, and comparing it with twent}- feet, the average height of the bluff part of the cit}' above the bed of Flat Rock, it will be seen that many of the wells go twenty-eight feet below the river channel before reaching stone. The exposure of stone, before mentioned, on the west bank of the river, at the head of the millrace, on a level with the bottom of the stream, shows that Flat Rock does not reach down to the bed of the ancient valley. During the Drift period, the vallej' was filled with clay and gravel, and the channel of the present river subsequently formed near the close of the period. The Avell at the northeast corner of the court house yard (dug eighteen feet in the surface claj- and gravel without striking the blue clay), indicates that the bed of the river may have shifted from the north to the south at a still later date in geological history, or the bed of the modern Flat Rock may formerly have been much wider and graduall}- contracted, bv silting, to its present limits. In ph3'sical appearance it is a blue or lead-colored cla}', where protected from atmospheric change; where exposed, of a lighter shade. It usually occurs in compact beds, ranging from a soft, laminated, plastic, putty-like mass, to a dry, impervious hardpan, that can only be excavated with a pick. That these differences in consistency are largely due to moisture may be shown by subjecting different specimens to the same drying process. Chemically, it is an alumina silicate, mixed with fine, impalpable sand and salts of iron; its color is due to the latter. At Rushville, Mr. Geo. C. Clark describes this stratum, by saying that " It is not properly blue clay, but a hardpan of dark bluish cast, verj' gritty, filled with coarse sand and pebbles or gravel, intermixed Hke grouting. It has a very disagreeable smell, and, w^hen it forms the wall of a well or the well is walled inside of it, the water has an offensive smell and taste for some months, but, finally, becomes palatable. In some places this bluish hardpan is forty feet thick, but generally less. " " Southwest of the city, four or five miles, a well, bored sixtj^ feet deep, did not strike stone, but found real blue clay, tough and resisting the drill by elasticity. "

In some places, fair-sized bowlders of northern origin are found in this stratum, but, as a rule, the}!' are small, worn, and occasionally striated. Not infrequently it contains intercalated beds of sand.

The occurrence of buried timber, or a bed of soil and carbonaceous matter, is intimately connected with a description of the blue clay. In this portion of Indiana it usually occurs at the top of the statum, but at Milroy was found at the bottom. Buried soil or tim- bar is reported in nearly every neighborhood in the southern townships of the county. The soil bed, where it forms the top of the blue clay, is frequently overlooked in digging wells, or only remarked as a bed of black earth or cla}% while the finding of a stick of wood or the root of a tree twenty or thirt}^ feet below the surface, is something out of the usual line, and is reported; and the same is true of the muck beds. I am thoroughly convinced that the less conspicuous soil bed is of much more frequent occurrence.

The yellow or orange colored clay is found everywhere overlying the blue clav, except in the valleys and upland gravel ridges. Over the east side of the county, and in the vicinit}' of New Salem and Richland, it is so intimately associated with the top soil that it is not possible to separate them. Near the Fayette County line, the color is a reddish orange, and especially so in parts of Washington Township. Generally, it is comparatively free from gravel in the uplands on the east and north sides of the county. Isolated points, low mounds and slight ridges, are not infrequent in which the proportion of gravel and sand is increased. This increase is, in part, due to the clay having been dissolved out by the rains. The gravel, pebbles, and bowlders distributed through the mass are identical in composition with those of the blue cla}-, but are less worn; especially is this true of the bowlders that are larger, seldom sub-angular, striated or flattened on one side by attrition. In structure it is a heterogeneous, friable clay, much more pervious to water than the blue clay, and yet so tenacious as to be improved by tiling. The percentage of lime is quite large, as indicated by a vigorous growth of sugar maple. The calcareous matter and very fine sand incorporated with the orange clay, in parts of Richland, Noble, Union and Washington townships, give it many of the physical characters of loess. Ten feet will cover its average thickness in Anderson Township, that gradually grows heavier on the north, until it will measure thirtv feet or more. Near the southeast corner of the county, the yellow clay is very thin; and over the line in Franklin County it fails as a factor of the Drift period, and leaves the blue clay exposed as the surface clay.

On the crest of the river bluff, west of Big Flat Rock, for five miles below Moscow, is a continuous ridge of imperfectly stratified gravel unmixed with clay. The stratification is seldom parallel with, the horizon, but more clearty conforms to the surface slope of the ridge. A transverse section shows the alternating strata of sand, gravel, sand and gravel, or sand, gravel and pebbles, running in irregular, increasing, and vanishing lines, that may or mav not be conformable. The composition of a stratum is not uniform. It may be made up of sand in one place, that gradually changes to gravel within a few feet. Here and there pockets are found, filled with clean, unstratified sand, or well-rounded metamorphic pebbles and bowlders. Occasional blocks of water-worn Niagara limestone occur, that seem to increase in size and number below the Decatur Count}- line. By infiltration of water charged with carbonate of lime, in favorable localities, the thin beds of polished gravel and pebbles are cemented into a mass of conglomerate. This ridge contains enough good road gravel to macadamize Rush County. Other beds of upland gravel are reported as occurring east of Moscow, but were not examined; and it is probable that some of the low gravel beds on the east side of the count}^ are similar in origin and structure to that described.

Along the banks of the principal streams, as already shown, are terraces or bottoms, averaging something over one-half mile in width. These terraces are the direct result of the wash or scouring action of the river flow that has removed the previous deposit of yellow cla3\

Borings made in the bottom pass through what is left undisturbed of the original Drift series, and show the same general section or borings on the uplands, minus a part of the yellow clay bed. In other places, the erosive action has been carried down to the blue clay, and sections show a partial replacement of the yellow clay by gravel or coarse sand. The terrace gravel beds are usually stratified, but not alwaj^s so, and present the same alternating strata of fine and coarse materials, with increasing and vanishing layers, as the upland beds, but differ from the latter in having a strata | nearly horizontal, more continuous, and showing less evidence of having been acted on by currents coming from two or more directions. The stratified terrace beds, when unmixed with large fragments of Niagara or Corniferous stone, 3-ield good road gravel. Frequently however, a few feet awa}- from the channel of the stream, the gravel does not show stratification, and is too fine for macadamizing purposes. Well-marked second terraces were not observed in Rush County, but something of that kind shows near the southern boundarj' line, above the confluence of Big and Little Flat Rock, where the latter stream cuts across the ancient flood plain. These terraces are supposed to be evidence of a greater flow of water, some time in the past, together with a gradual elevation of the land on the north, that gave greater velocity to its rivers and, hence, more power to scour deep channels.

The extension of the yellow clav and gravel laj'ers over the summit of the divide between the White Water and White River valleys, east of Rushville, and much above the level at which the equivalent bends are wanting in other places not many miles distant, is suggestive of some curious speculations on the geology of Indiana. If the yellow clay deposit is due to a submergence, it seems probable that these high lands must have been relatively lower than at present. Observations bearing on the history of the Cincinnati arch of the Lower Silurian, and the geological period or epoch in which its western border was uplifted to the present level, and omitted as too technical for presentation here.

Bowlders are scattered throughout the mass of the 3^ellow clay and gravel beds, but the vast majority seem to lie on or near the surface. In size, they range from a few inches to two or three feet in diameter. In shape, they are angular and verj^ seldom show a worn surface; especially is this true of the isolated specimens. On the side of the bluff bank, below Moscow, lies much the largest one I have seen in Southeastern Indiana ; it will probably weigh over twenty-five tons. They are not common over the whole countj^ but are principally found in the southeast and west parts, and seem to occur as the continuation of a line of bowlders that reaches south, nearl\' to North Vernon. They are Archaean rocks, generally of the gneissoid variety.

Recent Period. - The soil of Rush Count}* is almost wholly derived from the Drift deposits. Scarcely any of it is due to decompositfon of the country stone found in situ ; it is the combined result of the Quarternar)' Age acted on by the fertilizing agency of animal and vegetable life. In color, it ranges through various shades from black to pale yellow; the former is locally known as the black land, and the latter as the clay land. The black loamy soil covers the greater part of the surface of the count}*, and is general over the central and western parts. The great body of the black lands were formerly wet and swampy, and the dark color is due to the humus and carbonaceous matter derived from the decayed vegetation that grows luxuriantly over its surface. The yellow clay beds form the subsoil, except in the terrace bottoms, where the clay is sometimes replaced by gravel or sand. Outside the black lands, the distinction between the top and subsoil is not mai'ked; the pale yellow surface clay grows brighter as it gradually grow'S deeper, and has more the character of a true tenacious clay. The tenacity of the subsoil explains W'hy all the lands of the county are improved by tiling. A happy blending of calcareous matter, sand and clay in the subsoil, renders it peculiarly susceptible to the aerating influence of under-drainage. Exposed to the fertilizing influences of air and rain, charged with carbonic acid, the calcareous matter locked up in the clay and fine limestone gravel is unloosed, the salts of potash and soda set free, organic matter taken up, and, di- rectly, it supports a vigorous growth of vegetation. The yellow clay subsoils of Indiana universal!}- contain all the inorganic and a large per cent, of the organic elements of fertility; those of Rush County, in consequence of their fine state of division, readil}' yield their elements in bountiful harvest, the substantial foundation of all wealth. Practically, they are inexhaustible; they may deteriorate under continuous cultivation and non-rotation of crops, but rest soon restores them to pristine productiveness.

Eco)2omic Gcologw - The wealth of Rush County is essentially agricultural, together with such commercial relations as necessarily grow out of the wants of a great farming communit}'. Originally covered with a dense forest, and, in places, wet, the husbandman has nobly done his work of turning an unbroken wilderness into splendid farms. The virgin soil, without a rival, has been constantl}' growing more productive. The bountiful gift of nature has been carefully utilized, until, to-day, instead of a wild waste, the e)^ wanders over well-inclosed farms and growing grain, pasture fields dotted vv^ith blooded horses and cattle, huge barns and fine residences. A moment's attention directed to agricultural statistics and land drainage will more forcibl}- and eloquently show, than mere words, what has been done for the farming interests of the county.

In 1882, the assessors of Rush County reported 446,00 rods of tiling against 442,000 rods in Shelby, 477,000 rods in Marion, and 693,000 rods in Decatur; giving to Rush the third place in the State in the number of rods of tile put down. Before a people can expend money in improvements they must first produce a surplus. That surplus is easily accounted for. In the number of bushels of corn produced per acre. Rush outranked any other county in the State and was third in aggregate j-ield, with 2,223,414 bushels grown on 57,669 acres. The two leading corn counties were Tippecanoe and Benton, both including extensive tracts of Wabash bottoms within their limits. With 55,070 acres sown in wheat, producing 997,772 bushels, it ranks fifth in the State, and is led by Gibson, Daviess, Posej- and Shelb}- counties. In clover lands, it had 20,369 acres against 21,310 acres in Wabash Count}-. No more direct proof could be adduced than the last item, of the attention paid to the rotation of crops and keeping the land up to its high state of fertility. In 1881, 59,891 hogs were fatted for market, which is nearly thirty per cent, more than was produced in any other county in Indiana. The number of horses, mules and cattle owned in the county is well up with the best. In the leading farm products and stock raising. Rush is found at the head of the list. A very few counties may exceed it in a single farm pro- duct; but, when the whole list is taken into consideration, it stands without a rival. The mines of California ma}- be exhausted, manufacturing may be overdone, banks may break and securities decline in value, but, with proper care, the Rush Count}' farmer need not have anv fears for the future. The peculiar adaptability of its soil to the growth of any of the cereals or to stock raising gives a variety of resources, that, in all human probability, render a total failure an impossibility.

The general remarks of Prof. Collett on the soils of Indiana are especially applicable to the black land, clay soil and yellow clay subsoil of Rush Count}-. A heavy forest of sugar maples and walnut, supported by experimental evidence, is proof of its calcareous nature and adaptabilit}' to the growth of blue grass.

"The surface of the drift was left nearly level, but has since been modified by fluviatile and lacustral agencies, sorting the claj'S, sands, etc., so as to form, generally, a loose, calcareous loam, deeply covering the gently undulating wood lands, plains and valleys. The great depth of the Drift deposit allows it to act as a gigantic sponge, absorbing excess of moisture in the spring or winter, until the long sunny days of summer, thus insuring against any prolonged drouth, and constituting a superior grazing district. For the perfect growth of grasses, a rich soil and perennial moisture is required, conditions which do not prevail in manjr other States. Indiana is the native home of "Blue Grass," Poa pra/eiisis - the glorj' of our rich calcareous soils - and infallible gold-finder. It forms a permanent sward, thickening with age, so that, within ten or twent}' years, the sod will withstand the hoof of heavy bullocks, even in wet weather. It grows slowly under the snow of a cold winter, but bursts into new life with the first genial day of spring, carpets the earth with productive beauty through the summer, and, if reser\ed for winter, cattle, horses, sheep, etc., may be well kept, except in time of deep snows, on this food alone."*

"Among the blue grass trotters," America over, is understood to mean more than the accidental relationship of the queen of native grasses to the fast horse. Muscle is necessary to the thorough development of the horse; "blood will tell," and the blue grass wood lands tell on the blood. The elastic sward, over which the high-steppers range, gives ease and grace to his proud movements, while he is protected from the blazing sun in "pastures green," that are charmingh^ undulating and invite trials of speed. Everything in nature and the loving care of man conspire to give life and strength to the noble animal. The Blue Bull and Jim

Monroe farms of the late James Wilson, of Noble Township, attest what can be done. These farms have turned out trotters and pacers that take rank with the best in America. The Blue Bull strain has second place in the trotting list for horses that have made better than 2:30; and Monroe Chief, from the Monroe farm, has a trotting record of 2:16^.

It has been remarked that the possession of a fast horse curiously gives a kind of vicarious merit to his proprietor; he is esteemed a^ something of a high stepper and flyer, and as likety to run his factory, his newspaper, or his farm, or whatever it may be, a little better than other people. It is the best advertising medium known. And, in a degree, the same is true of the breeders of all kinds of pedigreed stock. Of the many proprietors who prove the truth of the above in Rush County, that are engaged in stock raising, and especially interested in producing improved strains of horses, cattle, etc., onl}* a few can be mentioned here. Mr. Richard Wilson, of Rushville, and Mr. Samp. Wilson, of Noble Township, as breeders of trotting horses, maintain the well-merited reputation of their father. Mr. John T. McMillan and Mr. Cal. Bates are well known owners of thoroughbred Norman horses. Mr. S. Frazee, of Noble Township, breeds, and exhibits at the State and county fairs, complete herds of full-blooded shorn-horn cattle. IMr. George W. Thomas, of Homer, is another breeder of short-horn stock; and Mr. J. H. Beaubout, of Rushville, of Jerseys. Mr. Leonard McDaniel, of Posey Township, and Geo. W. Mauzy, of Union Township, are well-known producers of full-blooded Cotswold, South Down, Canada, and Merino sheep. Of course, in a county so largely engaged in hog-raising, especial attention is paid to the production of all the leading varieties.

All the various kinds of orchard and small fruits are successfull}' grown, but not so extensively as in some of the adjoining counties. A rich sugar tree soil will undoubtedly produce the very best kind of orchard products. AVinter-killing seems to be the great draw-back. With care in selecting varieties of trees that are known to be hard}', and good under-drainage, this trouble might be obviated. Wheat, corn, and stock-raising chiefly occupy the attention of farmers, but some fine orchards were seen, showing what might be done for the whole county.

The soft magnesian stone found at the base of the Corniferous group, at Moscow and Milroy, makes a lime that is highly prized by masons and plasterers, and especiallv by the latter, on account of its working easily and smoothly under the trowel. The Moscow stone, having a considerable percentage of earthy matter, will yield a " cool " lime that slacks slowly; while that produced from the

Milroy stone, on account of its more crystalline character, will rank as an intermediate between a "cool" and "hot" lime. Typical "hot" lime is produced from the hard Niagara stone. It was formerly thought that the dark, rotten, Corniferous rock, having much the appearance of a decomposing sandstone, that occurs abundantly on the banks of Flat Rock and its tributaries, was utterl}' worthless for making lime. Experience shows that the darkest stone will burn perfectly white, and that the alumina, or earthy matter, mixed \\ith it, adds greatly to its value for builders' use. The equivalent of the stone under discussion is used in making lime at Adams and Greensburg, in Decatur Count}', and at Geneva, in Shelby Count}'. The ease with which the Flat Rock stone can be quarried, and the less amount of fuel required to reduce it than the hard Niagara stone, are questions of expense that indicate that the business might be made to pay in this county.

Any of the yellow or blue clay of Rush County, when free from gravel, can be readily moulded and burned into brick or tile. Brick buildings are common in the towns and country; and farmers usually make what they need out of the clay found on the farm. Messrs. Patten and Caldwell, of Rushville, have a steam tile factory and kiln, with a capacity to turn out from 18,000 to 20,000 tile at a burn. There are a number of other factories of less note in the county.

Road gravel I is found in the terrace bottoms of all the creeks, but not abundantly on the smaller streams. In Orange, Anderson, and Noble townships, upland gravel ridges occasionally occur that are free from clay, but the main supply for the county comes from the banks and bars of Big Blue and Flat Rock Rivers.

Bog iron ore, in considerable quantity, has formed on the borders of the marshy tracts of land five miles east of Rushville. These deposits of ore are the result of the organic acids, derived from decomposing plants, acting on the salts of iron that occur in the drift clay, thereby rendering them soluble. By exposure to the air oxidation takes place, generally at the margin of the marsh, and the. iron, in the form of hydrated peroxide, is again thrown down. Such accumulations are not infrequent, and some day may have a commercial value.

In 1879 '^"'^ 1880, the assessors for this count}' reported more gallons of maple syrup made than were reported from any other county in the State. A soil that supports a mighty growth of sugar maple, Acer saccharinum, will abound in majestic specimens of black walnut, yug-hnis nigra; yellow poplar, Liriodcndron tiilififera: white oak, ^lercus alba: white ash, J^raxiiiiis Americana ; shellbark hickory, Carya alba; dogwood, Coniits Florida; red bud,

Cercis Canadensis; iron wood, Carfrinus Americana ; paw-paw, Asimina triloba, etc. Beech, Fagus ferriiginea ;' burr oak, ^tercus macrocarpa ; elm, Ulnms Americana; swamp maple, Acer dysacar- ^itm, etc., are the most common varieties of timber growing on the wet, black lands. On the east side of the count)', huge yellow poplars were once common; and one cut a few years ago, growing in Union Township, is said to have been the largest reported in the State. The great body of the primitive forest has been removed in preparing the land for the plow, and the wood lands left have been culled of their best trees. A casual examination of a Rushville saw-mill yard, containing o^"er three hundred logs, showed only beech, maple and elm.

The artesian chalybeate wells of West Rushville have attracted attention for years, and are curious examples of subterranean streams or sheets of mineral water, held down bj' the impervious blue clay. The wells are dug in the usual manner, or dug a few feet, and then bored through the cla}'. The x^^ater is found in the fine gravel or white sand overlying the bed rock. Pump logs were placed in some of the wells and tamped with claj- until the water was forced through the log. The quantity- of water discharged was never great, and additional wells seemed to weaken the flow of those previously dug, indicating that the water probably comes from a compact, saturated bed of sand that slowly gives up its superabundant moisture. Other mineral springs of note are found in the vicinity of Homer, and at the Soldiers' Home, south of Knightstown. Small ferruginous springs are rather common in all parts of the count}', and, so far as I could learn, are nearly identical in composition. Their chemical nature is shown by the brown or ochery deposit of hydrous peroxide of iron seen near the spring. Before reaching the surface, the iron is held in solution as a ferrous carbonate, that is rapidly changed to the insoluble peroxide by oxidation on exposure to the air; hence, to get the medicinal effects of the water it should be used fresh from the spring. It will be found beneficial in all diseases where a mild preparation of iron is indicated.

Water Sitpfly. - There is a wide-spread belief among phvsicians as well as the laity, that sheets of water found in or confined to the sand or gravel beneath the cla^^ are continuous, and that the pollution of one well will contaminate man}'. That there is some truth in this, I am free to admit, but not to the extent generally believed. That the water supply of the cit}' of Rush\-ille has nothing to do with the level of Flat Rock River has already been shown. The var3dng depth of wells to water, and failures to find water, are proof that the water-bearing sand under the city is not contin- uous, nor on a common level. Two wells were put down just west of Main Street and north of R,uth Street, respectively twelve and eighteen feet to w^ater; and two others near by, one on the west twenty-seven feet deep, and the other on the east thirty-seven feet deep, and no water. Southeast of the latter well, in court-house square, water was found at eighteen feet. Mr. J. C. Parker's well, north of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis depot, was put down fifty-eight feet, no water; another, near the point where the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis road crosses Main Street, failed to find water at eighty-seven feet; while water was found in the triangle formed by the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, Main Street, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis Railroad, at thirty-eight feet. These differences in depth are not due to inequalities of the surface," as the city is built on comparatively level ground.

Throughout the county, potable water for culinary and drinking purposes is almost wholly obtained through wells, and, as might be expected, springs rarely occur in a countrj^ so uniformly level. Wells sunk to the gravel or sand stratum, under the blue clay, reach an abundant supply of water; in localities where the claj'' rests on the country stone, a vein has to be found in the rock, or the well proves a failure - failures, however, are not common. Well water contains more or less mineral matter, even where it percolates through sandstone, and the water found in or beneath the calcareous drift deposits is universarily "hard." That this hardness is not wholly due to calcic and magnesic carbonates is shown by its not being rendered "soft" by boiling, that changes the bicarbonates held into solution into insoluble carbonates, with consequent precipitation. The hardness remaining after boiling is probably due to calcic sulphate. Notwithstanding a hard water does not answer for all kinds of household use, it is perfect!}' healthful, sparkling and delicious.

The Rivers' Pollution Commissioners of England, in their sixth report, make the following classification of water in respect of wholesomeness and general fitness for drinking and cooking: Wholesome - (i) Spring water; (2) deep well water; (3) upland surface water. Snsficioiis - (i) Stored rainwater; (2) surface water from cultivated - land. Daiig-erous - (i) River water to which sewage gains access; (2) shallow wells. In this county wholesomeness and safety lie in the use of water from deep wells that reach the glacial sand or gravel or a vein deep in the stone. Some facts have come to my attention indicating that the well water may be unwholesome that has percolated through the ancient forest bed or buried muck and carbonaceous soil. Especially does this seem to be true where the stratum rests on the native stone, and the water supply comes from it or from the stone just beneath. Organic matter in water, no difference what the source may be, supplies the conditions necessary for the development of microzymes. Every source of organic contamination should be rigidly e.xcluded b}' digging deep, and protecting the mouth of the \\'ell from surface wash or soakage. A supply of soft water is had by storing rain and snow water in cisterns that are easily made in the clay.

Arckcrology. - Burial mounds of a race of people who lived prior to the advent of the modern Indians not infrequently occur, and, so far as reported, are most common in the southern part of the county. I visited the site of a large mound on the farm of Mr. Louis J. Offutt, northeast quarter of 'Section 21, Township 14, Range 9, that, in the early settlement of the country, is said to have been 106 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, and connected with a smaller mound, on the northeast, by a ditch. Fifty-three years ago, the large mound was covered with a heavy growth of beech timber, some of the trees measuring iS inches in diameter. Since the timber has been cut awa\- and the mound ploughed into, it has been nearly leveled with the ground. A few j-ears ago Mr. Offutt dug into the larger one, near the center, and found parts of several skeletons, copper bands encircling the bones of the arms, wrists and ancles, bone beads, and two curiously perforated pieces of jawbone with a single, tusk-like tooth. The perforations were cut through the bone into the hollow of the tusk, and gave it somewhat the appearance of a whistle, but its use is not very evident.

Dr. S. H. Riley, of Milroy, has assisted in opening several mounds in the county, and reports that they all contained ashes, charcoal, and red or burnt clay. Relics were found in three of them. In one (Section 12, Township 13, Range 9), were found an arrow point, copper needle, beads, and block of mica of an oval shape, 7 by II inches in diameter and Jb of an inch thick. Two nearly perfect skeletons and parts of a third were found in another (Section 27, Township 12, Range 9), buried with the heads turned toward a common center; also copper and bone beads. Some bones and copper bracelets were found in the third one (Section 12, Township 13, Range 9). A large mound in Section 27, Township 12, Range 9, about 10 feet high and 40 feet in diameter, has not yet been explored. From the fact that shells peculiar to the Atlantic Ocean, copper from the shores of Lake Superior, and mica from the mines of South Carolina have been found in the mounds along the banks of Little Flat Rock Creek, it is presumed that the commercial relations of their builders were much more extensive than their limited means of travel would seem to indicate.