Lisbon Village (part 1 of 5)

History Of Waukesha Count 7 Political Geography

ri^HE territory now included within the boundaries of Waukesha County, as well as that of the JL entire Northwest, was claimed by France from 1671 to 1763, when it was surrendered to the British. By the " Quebec Act" of 1774, the whole was placed under the local administration of Canada. It was, however, practically put under a despotic military rule, and so continued until possession passed to the United States. Before the last-mentioned event, and during and after the Revolution, the conflicting claims of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut to portions of the country were relinquished to the General Government. All the claims were based upon chartered rights, and Virginia added to hers the right of conquest of the " Illinois country" during the Revolution. As early as October, 1778, she declared, by an act of her General Assembly, that all the citizens of that commonwealth who were then settled, or should thereafter settle, on the western side of the Ohio, should be included in a distinct county, which should be called Illinois. No Virginians were then settled so far north as what is now Wisconsin ; and as none thereafter located so far north before she relinquished all her rights to the United States, it follows that Waukesha was not included in Illinois County, and that Virginia never exercised any practical jurisdiction over any portion of Wisconsin; nor did she make claim to any portion of it by right of conquest.

Notwithstanding the passage of the ordinance of 1787, establishing a government over the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which territory was acquired by the treaty of 178.3 from Great Britain, possession only was obtained by the United States of the southern portion, the northern part being held by the British Government until 1794.

The county of Wayne, organized in 1796, was made to include, besides much other territory, all of the present State of Wisconsin, watered by streams flowing into Lake Michigan. As it was not then known how far back into the interior the Menomonee and Root Rivers extended, all of what is now Waukesha County was laid down on the temporary maps of the time as belonging to Wayne County. This was of no consequence, however, as not a white man had taken up an abode within its limits. That was probably the first county in Wisconsin. From 1800 to 1809, what is now included in its boundaries was within the Territory of Indiana, and in the last-mentioned year, passed into the Territory of Illinois. It is probable that Indiana Territory exercised jurisdiction over Wisconsin to the extent of appointing two Justices of the Peace - one for Green Bay and one for Prairie du Chien. In the year 1809, the Illinois Territorial Government commissioned three Justices of the Peace and two militia officers at Prairie du Chien, St. Clair County having been extended so as to include that point, and, probably, Green Bay. Other Illinois counties subsequently had jurisdiction, until 1818, when what is now Wisconsin became a portion of the Territory of Michigan. On the 16th of October of that year, the Legislature of Michigan organized the county of Brown. It included all of the territory embraced between Lake Michigan and a line drawn north from the State line, through the "portage" between the Wisconsin and Fox (not the Waukesha County Fox) Rivers. Thereafter, until September 6, 1834, what is now Waukesha County belonged to Brown County for judicial and all other purposes; but it might as well have belonged to Russia or Great Britain,, for until the May previous to its being set off in September, 1834, it contained no white settlers to transact business at Green Bay - =-the county seat of Brown County - or elsewhere. On the day last mentioned, the Legislature of Michigan set off from Brown the county of Milwaukee, which extended from the Illinois line seventy-two miles north, and to the west, a little beyond Madison, in what is now Dane County, As hardly males enough for the purpose lived within its ample limits at that time, the county was not organized until 1835. The next year, 1886, Congress erected Wisconsin into a Territory, and that ended all "jurisdiction by outsiders," as James Duane Doty expressed it. The county seat was established at Milwaukee, and the name and county of Waukesha were still unknown. Finally, after Milwaukee County had been several times divided, leaving but a comparatively small portion of its territory, the county of Waukesha, just as it now exists, was erected by the Legislature, and ratified at the polls, early in 1846. Thus the territory of the snug little county of Waukesha has been under rule as follows : France, 1670 to 1759 - 89 years ; Great Britain, 1759 to 1794 - 35 years ; Virginia and Ohio, 1794 to 1800 - 6 years; Indiana, 1800 to 1809 - 9 years; Illinois,. 1809 to 1818 - 9 years; Michigan (being a portion of Brown County), 1818 to 1835 ; Milwaukee County, to 1846 ; total, 176 years. It is bounded on the north by Dodge and Washington, on the east by Milwaukee, on the south by Racine and Walworth, and on the west by Rock Counties. The parallels of 43° north latitude, and 88° west longitude cross near the village of Waukesha.

Topography

The almost unsurpassable works donated to the public by the State through its geologist and his corps of workers, on the subjects which might- properly be treated in the subdivisions naturally coming under the head of this article, have wiped out the necessity for an elaborate chapter on this subject in a work of the character here presented. Simple outlines generally, and more salient features particularly, will therefore only be attempted.

Few counties in Wisconsin - the mining regions alone excepted - present such an exceedingly rich and rare field for general study to the geologist and archaeologist as Waukesha ; and for the more particular examination of the details of that wondrous period during which the different strata of limestone were given to man, no other county is its equal. Peculiar features of the not less peculiar lacustrine system for which Wisconsin is famous, are quickly discernible in this county, as well as of springs and, the unmistakable evidences of the glacial period's stupendous work.

When that portion of Wisconsin which is now called Waukesha County first emerged from the ocean, there are evidences that its surface, in common with that of the entire southeastern portion of the State, sloped more or less to the east and south, and was pretty nearly a plane surface. The little inequalities now visible - ^large, perhaps, as compared with the county, but insignificant as compared with the whole extent of similar geological formations - are ^due to subsequent changes, the running water of the pre-glacial period leaving few, if any, traces of its work in this vicinity, though long ages swept over the earth before any other marked geological changes took place. This next change is designated as the Glacial Period, and the evidences of its power and work can never be effaced from Waukesha by the engines of mankind. The causes which led to the formation of vast ice-fields - thicker, perhaps, to the north and east of this section - are not of concern to this chapter ; but it is not doubted that they had an existence, and the results of their movement and melting are salient features of the county. The work of the ice was twofold : First, in the leveling of the surface by planing down the hills and filling up the valleys ; and second, in the creation of a new uneven surface, by heaping up in an irregular and promiscuous manner the clay, sand, gravel and bowlders it had formed, thus giving the surface a new aspect. Among the features produced by the action of the ice are parallel ridges, sometimes miles in length, having the same direction as the ice movement ,; hills of rounded, flowing contour, sometimes having a linear arrangement in the direction of glacial progress : mounds of drift promiscuously arranged on an otherwise plane surface ; oval domes of rock {roehes moutonees) ; sharp gravel ridges, often having a tortuous, serpentine course, transverse to the drift movement; peculiar depressions known as " kettles," and halfsubmerged rock gorges, known as "fiords," all of which combine to form a peculiar and distinctive surface contour. The melting of the ice mass gave rise to swollen lakes and flooded rivers, which eroded at some points and filled up at others, and so still farther modified the face of the country. All these peculiarities, being the result, directly or indirectly, of the ice action, may be denominated glacial features.

And they are particularly noticeable in almost every portion of Waukesha County. There are two distinctive features of the glacial drift, or glacial formations, in Waukesha as elsewhere : (1) The primary drift, consisting of ridges, or " hog's backs," and " kettle-holes ;" and (2) the modified drift. The former consists of glacial formations jiist as they were left at the end of the great ice movement, and the latter of deposits of sand, gravel and lacustrine deposits of clay, which received their present forms from the action of water and wind since the termination of the glacial movement. This glacial movement appears to have been a little west of south in direction in Waukesha County, the principal force and mass of ice coming from the north, although some of its moraines indicate a more westerly direction. The vast glacier that covered the surface of this portion of the earth, lifted segments of disintegrated rocks which were imbedded in its lower side, and these were ground and crushed on the upper surface of the earth's crust as the ice plowed its mighty course to the south. They also scored the ledges, thus leaving the record of the glacial movements engraven on the enduring surfaces of the rock. Sometimes the ice-cakes raised sections of the earth's surface, thus leaving "kettleholes," and the retrograde movements bunche^. into hillocks the masses of rounded rock and gravel. Both are to be seen in Waukesha County, the hillocks outnumbering the "kettleholes." The latter vary from the merest indentation, not noticeable by the untrained observer, to bowls 100 feet in depth and generally from 50 to 500 feet across. Some of them, however, have greater diameters, and are filled with water. There are several of these in Waukesha County - beautiful, deep and clear lakes, having, apparently, neither inlets nor outlets. The slope of the sides of some of them are as steep as loose earth will lie, while others are beautifully curved hollows, with gradually descending sides. They are round, oblong, and sometimes long and trough-like. Ordinarily, the owners of "pots and kettles" - so named from their resemblance to the form of these articles of furniture - have very crude ideas as to the origin or date of them. They think but little about them, unless to grumble because their sloping sides and water-soaked bottoms are worthless except for grazing. It may be interesting, therefore, for them to know that "hog's backs" and "kettle-holes" are the results of the movements of ice and water during the glacial period ages ago, which movements pulverized the various rocks of which the earth is composed, into soil, sand and gravel, and brought bowlders, or " erratics," from the regions of harder metamorphic and igneous rocks, for the farmers' stone walls and "underpinning," as well as made some of his fields so stony as to be fitted only for sheep pastures.

The counterparts of these " kettle-holes " are the hillocks called " hog's backs." They vary in form, size and height, and in Waukesha County are composed of almost impenetrable masses of coarse gravel, sand and bowlders. Any attempt to penetrate some of them suggests that they are compact enough to warrant the conclusion that the mass was glued firmly together, as separate kernels are stuck together to form popcorn balls. Some of these hills have had a thin layer of soil - finely pulverized rock - spread over them by the last of the glacial flow, and are therefore tillable ; but most of them are called " gravel-knolls " by the farmers, and are hard, dry, barren, and able to resist all efforts of the plow. With the unlearned, " gravel-knolls " are usually ascribed to violent upheavals of the earth's surface, caused by internal forces. This is a positive error, even if they do not owe their origin to the glacial period. That they do owe their origin to that period there is little doubt now among savans, however.

In Waukesha County, the " kettle range " comprises among its elevations the highest points of land in the county. They are high and bold in Delafield, Grovernment Hill being 611 feet above Lake Michigan. They are numerous, and of marked elevation in Menomonee, Eagle, Pewa'ikee, Waukesha, Vernon, Delafield, and in fact almost every town in the county.

Th« fact that not all of the series of hillocks in the "kettle range" extend in the same direction has been a subject of much discussion, the question being raised as to whether the glacial flow was really from northeast to southwest, or whether there was first one to the west, or east, and another across it to the south. There was probably but one general direction, so far as any evidences are left in this county, and that toward the southeast ; but that flow may have been violently interrupted, or turned aside by some ice-mountain, or other obstacle not now discernible, thus causing lateral moraines, and in some places leaving hills and "kettle-holes" well intermingled, giving the surface the appearance of a chopped sea, similar in likeness to the famous cairns of Scotland.' The erosion, abrasion and trains of gravel, bowlders and silt, show that the general flow was from the north to the south, southeast or southwest.

In the town of Eagle, where the range of kettles crosses the Cincinnati group' of limestone, large quantities of calcareous shales, belonging to that formation, are found. These, at Lake Winnebago, lie about two hundred feet below the upper face of the group mentioned. In the same town are large quantities of that unmistakable, fine-grained, white dolomite, which came from the Waukesha beds of the Niagara group, and which journeyed only a few miles before being deposited. They came, however, from the northeast, which is the important point, thus establishing the direction of the glacial flow. Pieces of native copper have been found from time to time, usually near the surface, in Waukeslia County, whioh is further evidence of the general southerly direction of the great glacial drift movement, all copper, of course coming from the North.

Occasionally, a large hillock of drift deposit is found in the shape'of an elbow, or acute, obtuse, or right angle. Wherever such are found, their structure conflicts with the theory of a general flow in a southern or any other direction ; but they are generally such as suggest the theory that perhaps an ice mass moving forward cornerwise, on the surface of the earth's crust, was halted, and that either melting or retreating, the sand and gravel which had been scraped up and pushed along before it, were left to conflict with the conclusions of geological theorists, and to show the outlines of some vast fragment of ice.

Some of the " hog's backs " in this county, so far as examined, are composed entirely of sand of nearly uniform fineness. Occasionally, one of this kind is found between large hillocks of gravel and bowlders, as though the ice masses had halted, and a vast stream of water, heavily charged with sand, had rushed on through an opening, thus forming a large rounded hillock of clean sand, while on all sides, perhaps, the halted ice masses were finally melted, thus depositing in irregular shapes their mixed burdens of fragmentary rocks, rounded bowlders and coarse gravel.

The " modified drift " - consisting of clay, finer sand and gravel, which shows the actidn of water or wind some time after the end of the glacial flow - is not so conspicuous in Waukesha. A section of this drift might present a horizontal stratum of deposit, or an undulating one,.or a sharply waving one, or all three of these features. The strata may be composed of thin layers of clay, fine 6and, coarse sand, and coarse gravel, in almost any order, the coarser deposits, however, generally being below. The most casual observer will notice these features in the softer sandpits, which have been opened to secure material for buildings and road-beds.

Farmers, when contemplating the worthlessness of their " pots and kettles," should recollect that the rich, strong soil of this portion of Wisconsin is due to the grinding, pulverizing and intermingling of many difierent rock formations, by the advances and retreats of the great icefields of the glacial period, thus furnishing a soil of such varied ingredients as make it adapted to the production of more numerous varieties of plants, fruits and grains, than could otherwise have been possible.

The surface of Waukesha County is composed of prairies, oak openings, small marshes, almost innumerable lakes and small hills. The openings and prairies are rich, productive and valuable lands ; the marshes are mostly drained, and used for meadows, while the hills are no

- to any extent - so barren and precipitous as not to be utilized for grazing purposes. But comparatively little of the surface, except that covered by lakes, is worthless for all the branches of agriculture. The natural resources of the county are therefore as varied as they are extensive, while its natural beauties would seem to be unsurpassed. It presents a surface neither flat nor precipitous ; submerged nor lakcless ; a jungle nor treeless, but a well-watered, generally well-timbered, undulating and pleasing landscape, combining hill, valley, lake, prairie, stream and forest in one beautiful landscape gem.

Geological Formations

Geologically speaking, the vicinity of Waukeshais the oldest in Wisconsin - that is, it was covered by the ocean for ages after later formations began to come into existence in other localities. It was, for unknown centuries, the bed of an ocean teeming with invertebrate, or backboneless, life, while the earth's crust in other States was undergoing various changes and receiving additions. Waukesha, geologically, belongs to the first or oldest period of the Paleozoic Age - the Silurian, or Age of Invertebrates. The backboneless fossils of this age are visible everywhere, almost, in the county. After the Silurian came, successively, the Devonian, or Age of Fish ; Carboniferous, or Age of Coal ; Reptilian, or Age of Reptiles ; Mammalian, or Age of Animals which give birth to their young alive, and, lastly, the Age of Man. Thus, gold, silver, coal and granite will never be found native in Waukesha County.

Archcean Rocks. - The Archaean formation of rocks is the oldest that crops out in Wisconsin, and of this, only the upper stratum is visible. It is the great, sloping floor of quartzite, porphyritic and granitic rock on which rest, successively, all the later formations. Were it not for its great irregularity of surface, Archaean rocks would appear nowhere in the State. Its knobs protrude through the superincumbent deposits as far south as Green Lake County, but none are visible in Waukesha and Southeastern Wisconsin. The thickness of this formation varies, and can only be estimated, so far as that portion underlying this county is concerned, but extends downward many thousands of feet. The ordinary observer may distinguish the formation by the numerous specimens of heavy, hard or crumbly, bluish, flesh-colored, pinkish or grayish bowlders and erratics which appear in the trains of glacial drift in various portions of the county. They are all true igneous rocks.

Potsdam Sandstone. - Next above the Archaean floor is Potsdam sandstone, which is also next younger. It varies in thickness, mostly on account of the uneven surface of the rock on which it lies, but its depth is generally from eight hundred to one thousand one hundred feet. " Sandstone Bluff," at Green Lake, is the most southern outcrop of this formation, so that none can be found visible in Waukesha County. It is the lowest stratum of the Lower Silurian formations, whose superincumbent strata are so conspicuous in this vicinity. The evidences of marine animal life in the Potsdam sandstone indicate that it was deposited beneath the ocean.

Lower Magnesian Limestone. - Dr. Owen gave this name to the silicious dolomitic beds of limestone, which rest upon the upper surface of the Pottsdam sandstone. This is in contradistinction to the Galena and Niagara limestones, which were once called Upper Magnesian. The term dolomite, given to most of the limestones in Waukesha County, has no significance, geologically, but is so called from a once famous French geologist named Dolomieu. When pure, it is composed of 54 per centum of carbonate of lime and 46 per centum of carbonate of magnesia. Although geologists credit none of this Lower Magnesian limestone formation to Waukesha, it probably underlies the county in a thin bed. Much of the true and general geological character of the district has undoubtedly been obscured by the various local terms given to the same formations by different persons, the names being determined by the names of the localities where the outcrops are visible, or by some slight local modification.

St. Peters Sandstone. - Although geologists credit none of this formation to Waukesha, they desaribe its unmistakable outcroppings in Rock Courity, a few miles distant. It is also known to exist to the northwest and north of this section, and therefore probably stretches along under Waukesha, between the Lower Magnesian and Trenton limestones, in a stratum varying in thickness from 8 to 130 feet. It is undoubtedly a submarine deposit, as is evidenced by ocean fossils, laminations and ebb and flow structure. There are some modifications, but this rock may be generally described as being composed of rounded, nearly uniform, transparent and incoherent grains of igneous rock, making a very friable formation. It is too soft for building purposes, but it is a water-bearing formation, valuable also for glass-making purposes. Glass has already been successfully made from it in Wisconsin.

Trenton Group. - This large and remarkable bed of limestone has frequently been obscured by local names. It consists of (1) Trenton limestone, lying next above the St. Peters sandstone ; (2) Galena limestone, and (8) Cincinnati shales, which are the latest formations in the Lower Silurian group. The whole group may possibly be five hundred feet in thickness.

(1) Trenton limestone is the lower stratum of the Trenton group. It has several features, which has caused it to be subdivided, so far as name is concerned, into as many different groups or heads. They are essentially limestone and dolomite, blue and buff. All contain numerous fossils.

(2) Immediately upon the blue or Trenton limestone rests the gray or Galena limestone, possessing similar characteristics. It derives its name from the fact that it is the main formation that beiirs Galena or lead in the southwestern part of the State. It differs from the Trenton in being deeper bedded and having a more irregular texture, weathering into rough, craggy forms, sometimes with a rotten appearance. Being essentially dolomite, the weather disintegrates much of its lime and magnesia, giving any outcroppings a jagged appearance. It is not visible in Waukesha County.

(3) The Galena limestone is succeeded by a series of shales and limestone known as the Cincinnati group, which constitute the upper series of the Lower Silurian period. Just where this series begins and ends, however, is a matter of some dispute among geologists. The thickness varies from 180 to 255 feet. The formation contains fossils of seaweeds, radiates, mollusks, and articulates. The shales that form the prominent member of this group have a varied character ; one kind is but little else than silicate of alumina. It is indurated, of a greenish or bluish color, and contains but little sand or other hard material. It graduates, however, by the addition of fossils, iron pyrites, calcareous and silicious matter and gypsum, into impure, worthless shales. A second class is more shaly and easily splits into thin, brittle, regular plates. A third has something of the appearance of fine-grained sandstone. These three general classes are subdivided into minor varieties. The characteristics of the rock are no reliable guide to what may be found below. Some sanguine parties expended large sums in piercing this formation for coal in Waukesha County, but, of course, found none. Probably none will ever be found in or beneath it. Its most southern outcrop is probably in the town of Eagle, in this county. The exposure at that point is slight, and is not, contrary to geological theory, next below the Niagara limestone, a bed of clayey shale separating them. On Section 10 of the same town, there is a plain line of demarkation between this group and the bed of Niagara limestone above it. It is the dividing line between the Upper and Lower Silurian formations. At Pewaukee, in this county, it is almost impossible to distinguish where the lower beds of Niagara limestone end and the upper beds of the Cincinnati shales begin. In fact, in a shaft fifty feet in depth, sunk in the before-mentioned search for coal, limestone was found in which at least eight new fossils were discovered. That is to say, eight never before known to exist in what have been named Cincinnati shales and Niagara limestone in other localities. This is significant, as well as confusing to those who read the printed works of professional geologists. It indicates that if there was not some distinct formation between the Cincinnati shales and Niagara limestone, the lower beds of the latter or the upper beds of the former had some features and fossils in Waukesha not yet found elsewhere.

Niagara Limestone. - This, with its various subdivisions, is the latest geological formation that appears in Waukesha County, except the drift, which was merely a shifting and changing of form, in formations already completed. It belongs to the Upper Silurian series. Dr.

The reports of the State Geologists will be used as authority in treating. of the so-called Waukesha beds. They consist of three classes of limestone. In the quarry near Carroll College, in the village of Waukesha, the upper fourteen feet consists of layers of soft, yellowish, coarse dolomite, which in other localities, is called Racine limestone. Below it is the more regular bed of hard, compact, firm-textured, crystalline dolomite. This is of a grayish color and conchoidal fracture. "It is characterized," quoting from the State Geologist's report, " by the presence of much chert in the form of nodules, distributed chiefly in layers coinciding with the bedding joints. These strata abound in orthoceratites, but contain few other fossils. They constitute the type of the Waukesha beds. The transition to the Racine beds is quite abrupt, but does not correspond to a bedding joint. From three to four inches of the base of the thick layer consists of compact rock, like that below, while the remainder has the open texture and fossils of the Racine beds. Passing by several intermediate quarries for the moment, we find at the limekilns, two miles above Waukesha, a fine display of Racine limestone reposing upon similar cherty flags, which form the sole of the quarry. * * * jjj ^j^g j-o^^ south of this quarry the porous Racine limestone appears ; but 100 yards beyond, and at the same elevation, occurs a light-colored, hard, close-grained, sub-crystalline dolomite, resembling closely Waukesha flags, except the chert is absent. * * * Several openings follow at short intervals, including Mr. Hadfield's main quarry, which exhibit the same character. This is true also of the several quarries on the opposite side of the Fox River. * * * rpj^g only undoubted members of the Waukesha beds are the cherty flags near the [Carroll] College and the kiln " [in Waukesha Village].

In Menomonee the cherty flags appear, but at Pewaukee the Racine beds appear. At Pelton's quarry both Racine and Waukesha beds appear, the former being above the latter.

" An interesting feature of this locality, " again quoting from the State Geologist's report, " is a mound of rock, lying a short distance west of the main quarries, which rises ten or twelve feet above its base. * * * It is hard, compact, white and in some portions cherty, and contains a few brachiopods. It owes its origin (position) to irregularities of disposition and not to upheaval. Johnson's quarry, in the town of Genesee, presents a vertical exposure of twentyfive feet of beautiful white, fine-grained dolomite, in beds twenty inches in thickness and less, having an eastward dip of one foot in sixty. * * * ^ fe^ rods distant, on the opposite side of the road, a quarry displays very similar beds ; but they are more porous and abound in chert in certain layers, which is rare or absent at the other locality. In Section 34, town of Lisbon, we find a formation that may be said to be identical in character with the upper strata at Pewaukee. To the east and northeast, in that and the adjoining towns, are numerous openings upon white, fine-grained, even-bedded dolomite, with few or no fossils, which renders their place in the series somewhat doubtful. As the horizon of the Waukesha beds is traced northward, it plunges beneath the deep drift of the kettle range, and on emergiiig beyond, the Byron beds and upper and lower coral beds are found to occupy the space between the Racine beds above and the Mayville beds below. The cherty flags at Waukesha most closely resemble the upper portion of the upper coral beds, which occupy the same stratigraphical position beneath the Racine strata, but nowhere in the southern counties is there manifested that abundance and variety of coralline forms that distinguish the formation to the northward. The Pentamerus beds at Pewaukee bear a closer alliance to certain members of the lower coral beds than to any other member of the Northern Niagara series, while the white, compact, chertless beds bear so striking a lithological resemblance to the Byron beds (in Fond du Lac County) that they have been sometimes regarded as equivalents. But to satisfy all these affinities would be to impose incredible _if not impossible demands upon the stratigraphical relations upon the southern members ; besides, the aflSnities are not by any means unequivocal. The facts seem to be that in this case, with the lower formations, the deposits in the southern counties differ from the corresponding ones in the northern counties, and that the Waukesha group of strata is the equivalent of the

This incongruity of names as well as of descriptions of the same or similar formations in different localities, makes it exceedingly diiBcult to clearly and properly describe, in general terms, the formations that appear at any given locality, so the untrained reader can understand them.

Following is a popular description of what is not the occult geology of Waukesha, written by the late Dr. Increase A. Lapham, when he was State Geologist, to C. C. Olin :

" In reply to your request for a statement of the geological features to be found at and around Waukesha, and of the character of the rocks out of which at least some of the numer-* ous springs having medical virtues issue, I have to say that these rocks are limestones of the Niagara group (Upper Silurian), so called because they are of the same age or period as those over which the water falls at Niagara. No other rocks are found in their natural bed at Waukesha. They occur in two very distinct varieties ; the lower, compact and evenly bedded is very much used for building and as flagstones for sidewalks ; the upper, more irregularly bedded, is quarried chiefly for the manufacture of quicklime, and corresponds in many particulars with the limestone found at Racine. The first has been named Waukesha limestone, and is generally known under that name. The long, jointed fossil, so common at Waukesha, often seen in the flagging of the sidewalks, is not a petrified snake as many suppose, but a very old marine chambered shell, like the modern nautilus, except that it is straight instead of coiled.

" These, like all other limestones, are marine deposits, as is clearly evinced by the shells and corals so abundantly found in the quarries. Hence we come to the strange conclusion that Waukesha was in the old Silurian times the bottom of the sea. Limestones are formed by the deposition of soft calcareous mud upon the sea bottom, which cannot be free from the salts contained in the sea water. These salts have remained dormant until the present time, when they are gradually being re- dissolved and carried away by the ever-flowing springs. Visitors will find many curious relics of this old ocean by an occasional visit to the several stone quarries.

" The limestones at Waukesha contain a large proportion of magnesia; so large, that they may properly be called by their mineralogical name of dolomite, instead of limestone. Spring water, while percolating through the rocks, contains free carbonic acid, which seems to give it the power to soften and dissolve this dolomite ; and to this source we must attribute the carbonates of lime and magnesia found in the Waukesha waters; and also the soft white grains found bubbling up from the bottom of the springs.

"An examination of any of the quarries will show that the limestones have been subjected to movements of elevation at some very remote time, causing numerous crevices, by which they are divided into large squares or irregular cubical blocks. ,These crevices afford passages through which rain water, falling upon the surface, penetrates to great depths, only to be returned in the form of springs, charged with the various mineral substances taken up during its passage through the rocks. The uniformity of temperature of the springs, winter and summer, shows that their sources are deep in the ground, being below the level to which the changes of the seasons affect the temperature of the earth.

"Those who are even slightly posted in modern geological science will know that the Niagara limestones at Waukesha belong far down in the geological scale, and far back in the order of time. When they were deposited, no animal of the vertebrate branch had yet appeared upon the face of the earth, and no plants of higher organization than the humble seaweed ; the . fishes of the Devonian, the tree-ferns of the coal period, the reptile of the middle ages, had not yet been brought into existence. There were then no Kocky Mountains, no AUeghanies, no Mississippi River.

" Such facts may give the numerous visitors to your springs some idea of the great age of the rocks around them, whose dissolution is now giving health and strength to their enfeebled constitutions.

" Above the limestones around Waukesha, there is a layer of drift, either in its original condition as left by the old ' continental glaciers,' when our country had the climate of Greenland, or in a condition modified by subsequent causes. These glaciers left their marks upon the surface of the rocks precisely like the grooves and scratches of the glaciers of the Alps. The grooves show that the motion of the glaciers was toward the southwest, or down the valley of the- river. In the beds of this drift are -found pebbles and bowlders of nearly all the different kinds and qualities of rocks ; and we may suppose that they also, by their decay and solution, aid in supplying the mineral ingredients of the Waukesha Springs.

" Remains of coniferous wood have been found in digging wells near Waukesha at great depth below the surface ; and the discovery of a tooth of the fossil elephant (mammoth) has shown that at one time the woods and prairies around were enlivened by that uncouth animal.

" Next folloTving the now long extinct mammoth and mastodon, were an ancient race of men, almost as strange, and about whojm as little is known. The ' turtle mound ' (now destroyed) left by them near the site of the court house, was one of the first of those strange animal-shaped earthworks to attract the attention of the curious. Implements of stone and copper with remains of pottery further attest the former existence of these people, and give but a faint knowledge of their habits.

" Accumulations of marl and peat are found under the larger marshes, which have been formed in modern times - indeed are still in process of formation.

" We have, then, at Waukesha, as matters of geological interest : 1st. - The Waukesha Limestone. 2d. - The Racine Limestone belonging to the Niagara Group of Silurian Age. 3d. - The Glacial Drift. 4th. - The Modified Drift. 5th. - The age of Mammoths and Mastodons ; and, 6th. - The age of pre-historic man ; each a fruitful subject for study by the thoughtful - each affording opportunities for investigation and elucidation."

Stone Quarries And Limekilns

The cheapness with which buildings have always been erected in Waukesha County, as well as their substantial character, is owing to the abundance and excellence of the stone which is quarried at almost every desirable point. The oldest structure of stone in the county - the old Prairieville Academy building - still retains its original clear, bluish color. When dressed, Waukesha stone, as it is. popularly termed, makes an exceedingly fine-appearing building. It is a close- textured, light-colored magnesian stone, of which many of the business blocks and private residences at the county seat are constructed. At the village of Waukesha there are three classes of limestone. The upper layers of the quarry near Carroll College consist of a soft, coarse dolomite, corresponding with the Racine limestone, under which are the hard, compact, and crystalline blocks of building stone of which the Fountain Spring House is constructed. West of the river and above the village is found a mottled stone of blue and white in addition to the two classes already mentioned. All the quarries at Waukesha, now being worked, belong to the Messrs. Hadfield.

The large group of buildings used for the workshops and accommodation of the Wisconsin Industrial School for Boys is built of Waukesha limestone ; and the balance of the best buildings in the county are of that material. The durability of this building stone, so far as experience has proven, will be almost infinite, and the supply is practically inexhaustible.

The principal quarries of these kinds of stone are Hinckley's in the town of Eagle, Hunter's in Ottawa, Audley & Graham's and Robert's in Delafield, Johnson's in Genesee, Ross & Cairncross' and Ormsby Brothers' in Pewaukee, Colville & Ormsby's, Gray's, Davidson's and Caldwell's in Lisbon, and Saunders' and Howard's in Menomonee.

The first stone quarry ever worked in Waukesha County was opened in the early spring of 1840 by Lyman Goodnow. The land in which the stone was noticed was leased by him from Morris D. Cutler, in the village of Waukesha, and the first stone taken out was used in building the old Prairieville Academy that same spring. The work was prosecuted in the top layers, but the product of even that portion of the quarries proved so compact and hard that from that day the fame of Waukesha limestone was firmly established.

The first limekiln to burn lime for sale, in Waukesha County, was opened by Lyman Goodnow, as soon as the snow left in 1840. At first the product was sold only in the immediate vicinity, but now Waukesha County lime is sold extensively in Chicago and in States west of Wisconsin, notwithstanding the cost of transportation, on account of the marked excellence of the article. There are kilns at almost every important stone quarry, and an analysis of their products shows that when properly burned, Waukesha lime is almost pure oxide of calcium. It is the whitest and strongest lime in the market.

The watershed of Waukesha County is somewhat peculiar. Its streams flow into both the Mississippi and St. Lawrence basins. The sources of most of its rivers and streams being principally within its limits, they must necessarily be small. They are of great importance, however, furnishing, as they do, fish, admirable systems of drainage _.to lakes and marshes, an abundant supply of good water where there are no marshes and lakes, and water-powers of considerable value.

Fox River. - This is the principal stream of the county, in which the head-waters of its taain branches take their rise. Originally it was called Pishtaka, a name erroneously supposed to have been given to the stream by " the Indians." This stream has branches in twelve of the sixteen towns in the county ; and although its general course is south and southeast to the Mississippi River, into which it empties, it flows in every conceivable direction before leaving the county, on Section 34, in the town of Vernon. It enters that town from the north ; flows across and out of it in a southwesterly direction, enters again from the west and flows almost entirely across to Muskego in an easterly direction, and then flows out in a southwesterly direction, thus afi"ording an opportunity for almost every resident of the town to have a farm or a house on its banks. The Fox is not a large river and is generally sluggish, affording but few water-powers, and those with but little fall. Its waters drive mills at Waukesha, Powaukee and Section 26, town of Pewaukee. One of its principal branches takes its rise in Pewaukee Lake; another in New Berlin, and another in Genesee. All the old settlers agree that the Fox River is but little more than half as large as it was in 1835. Its size then indicated the possibility of an unlimited water-power.

Poplar Creek. - This is a branch of the Fox River, which takes its rise on Section 21, town of New Berlin ; flows north into Brookfield ; southwest into Pewaukee, in which, on Section 21, it empties into the Fox. The stream is much smaller now than when the county was first settled. It is fed mostly by springs. The early settlers testify that when they first knew Poplar Creek, so named from the poplar trees along its banks, it contained trout ; but this was probably a mistake. At least it contains no trout now.

Bark River. - The most remote head-waters of this stream have their source in Washington County ; but by far the larger portion of its volume is furnished by the astonishing number, size and character of the lakes and springs in three of the northwest towns of the county, Merton, Delafield and Summit. Its bed lies in Lisbon, Merton, Delafield, Summit and Ottawa. On Section 6, of Ottawa, the Bark River crosses into Jefl"erson County, flowing west, in which it empties into Rock River, at Fort Atkinson. It affords several good water-powers, mostly by damming the outlets of the lakes through which it flows.

Oconomowoc River. - This stream averages next in size to the Fox River in Waukesha County. North Lake, in the town of Merton, is its principal source, though two streams - one of them large enough to drive a mill, flow into North Lake from the southern portion of Washington County. This branch rises in Section 19, town of Polk, in Washington County. At the outlet of Okauchee Lake, and in the city of Oconomowoc, this stream furnishes good waterpowers. Chas. B. Sheldon remembers that Oconomowoc River is not much more than one-half as large as it was forty years ago, and does not contain, with the lake through which it passes, one-half as many fish. The stream is fed by springs and spring lakes.

Muhwonago River. - This creek, more properly speaking, takes its rise partly in Walworth County, in the south, but mostly in the towns of Eagle and Mukwonago, the north branch rising near the line of Section 1, in the former, and Section 6, in the latter. The stream turns a mill in Section 36, of Eagle ; furnishes good water-power at the village of Mukwonago, and empties into the Fox River on Section 30, in Vernon.

Menomonee River. - One branch of this stream takes its rise in Washington County and flows southeast through Menomonee, while another rises in Brookfield and Menomonee. The river flows nearly east, emptying into the Milwaukee River at Milwaukee. It is a small stream in Waukesha County. At Menomonee Falls the river has cut through high banks of limestone, where also it has a fall of fifty feet in a half-mile of distance, affording a good water-power.

Aahippun River. - This little creek, the outlet of a small lake of the same name, in the town of Oconomowoc, rises mostly in Dodge County. It crosses the northwest corner of the town just named and soon commingles with the Rock River, in Jefierson County.

Muskego Greek. - This is the outlet of Muskego Lake, in the town of the same name, though the lake has several feeders which rise in New Berlin. It is finally a confluent of the Fox, into which it empties at Rochester, Racine County.

Root River. - The head-waters of this river take their rise in New Berlin, but a few rods from those of Poplar Creek, and other branches of the Fox. The Root empties into Lake Michigan at Racine. One of its branches joins a creek which flows into Muskego Lake, and at one point it is diflScult to tell which way its waters flow.

To the casual observer, no matter whether he be hastening through the county on business, wanderiilg in search of health, or roaming in quest of nature's rarest embellishment of earth, the most remarkable feature of Waukesha County is its wonderful lacustrine system. The number, character and beauty of her lakes astonish all. They are mostly, without doubt, the deep bowls formed by the glacial movements of bygone ages filled by numerous springs. Some of them have neither inlets nor outlets, except such springs as can be seen boiling up through their gravelly bottoms, and which keep the water at a certain depth, no matter how rapidly evaporation takes place. All of these quaternary lakelets abound in black, rock, green and strawberry bass, perch, sunfish, pickerel and other fish, as well as all the water-fowl common to Southern Wisconsin ; and a dozen or more of them have large summer hotels, costly residences and scores of summer cottages of numerous fantastic designs overlooking their clear depths.

There are sixty-three lakes in the county, the greater number of which belong to its northwest quarter - the towns of Oconomowoc, Delafield, Summit and Merton.

Muskego Lake. - This body of water is the largest in the county - contains a few more square rods than any other, though Pewaukee Lake has generally been supposed to be larger. It lies in the town of Muskego ; has fewer bays, more irregular shores than any other of the larger lakes, and has much the appearance of being, so far as its basin is concerned, the direct result of the glacial movement. It is about four miles in length, two miles in width and eleven in circumference, and contains 3,165 acres - nearly five sections. Its outlet is Muskego Creek, which flows into the Fox River at Rochester, Racine Co., Wis.

Pewaukee Lake. - This is a noted as well as exceedingly beautiful sheet of water. As near as can be measured, one-half of it lies in the town of Pewaukee - the town taking its name from the lake - and the other half in the town of Delafield. It is nearly ten times as long as wide ; has high but not precipitous banks most beautifully wooded, and deep, clear, cool water. It was formerly called Snail Lake, but this slimy and common-place term was long since dropped. This was a ridiculous name, as the shells on the shore of the lake, whence the term arose, are not snail shells. The lake covers about three and one-half sections and ha? a coast-line of eleven and one-sixth miles. Before the erection of the dam for mill purposes at PeWaukee Village, the lake was a trifle less than four and one-half miles in length ; now it is a trifle more than that. Its depth is fifty feet ; its elevation above Lake Michigan is 263 feet, and its outlet discharges, on an average, 300 cubic feet of water per minute, which is supplied by springs. Dr. I. A. Lapham wrote in 1843: " Around this lake, at many places, as well as other lakes in Wisconsin, may be observed a singular wall of round stones or bowlders, laid up with such regularity as to suggest that it was the work of art. A little further observation, however, will show that these walls were made by the expansion of the ice during the winter, which has a tendency to push the bowlders up the shore. The sandy ridges around some of the lakes were formed in the same way."

La Belle Lake. - This, "the beautiful lake," is the lowest and largest of what is termed the Oconomowoc group of lakes. It is in the southwestern portion of the town of Oconomowoc ; two and one-half miles in length ; occupies an area of about one thousand three hundred acres, and is six and one-fourth miles in circumference. The Rock River is only twenty-five feet below this lake and 500 rods west of it. Long Island, the largest in La Belle Lake, is a beautiful place. The lake is comparatively shallow ; 273 feet above Lake Michigan, and filled with springs. Some are small, but several are very large, and keep the water cool in summer, and so warm in winter that ice never forms over where they boil up, during even the coldest weather. The shores of La Belle Lake probably have more summer residences than those of any other lake in the county.

Nagawioka Lake. - This is a beautiful sheet of water, 304 feet above Lake Michigan ; two and one-fourth miles in length ; five and one-fourth miles in circumference, and containing about seven hundred acres. Its outlet is Bark River, which also flows into it. A dam built at Delafield for a grist-mill raised this lake several feet. It is the largest lake in Delafield, and contains a high and attractive island.

Okauchee Lake. - This irregular body of water is partly in Oconomowoc and partly in Merton ; contains 957 acres of surface ; is 5f miles in circumference and is fed and drained by Oconomowoc River. A dam, built for a water-power, raised the lake several feet.

Oconomowoc Lake. - This lake, lying in the town of Summit, near the north line, is 282 feet above Lake Michigan ; contains 750 acres, and has a circumference of 6| miles. It is not very deep and by some is considered an enlargement of Oconomowoc River, which flows through it.

Pine Lake. - Originally this was called Chenequa Lake, signifying pine, on account of'the , existence of a few pine-trees on the small island in it. The outlet of Beaver Lake empties into it, and thence flows into North Lake. Jts area is nearly 700 acres, lying mostly in the south part of the town of Merton.

Twin Lakes. - The Indian name of these two hill-bound lakelets is Nee-sho-tah, now spelled Nashotah, or twins, which is still the proper term by which to designate them on the maps. They are situated in the east portion of the town of Summit, and have become famous as the seat of the Episcopal college, called Nashotah House, which was established at a very early day. Their shores are high, thickly wooded, and as beautiful as nature could make them.

Other Lakes. - Not all of the fifty-four other lakes in Waukesha County have been honored with names. There are, however, Denoon and Little Muskego in Muskego ; Mukwonago, lying mostly in the town of the same name ; School Section and Pretty Lakes in Ottawa ; Mud, Golden, Silver, Duck, Egg, Genesee, Crooked and Nehmabin in Summit ; Ashippun and Fowler in Oconomowoc ; Mouse, Beaver, North, Mud and Keesus in Merton. This leaves forty-three lakelets scattered over the county, many of them with only an outlet, and some with neither outlet nor inlet, which have not been named ; or, if they have been, their names have not become generally known, or cut upon the maps.

In his article on the lacustrine system of Wisconsin, State Greologist Chamberlain said : *' Muskego, Wind (in Racine County,) and several smaller lakes associated with them, bear evidence of having formerly constituted parts of a much more extended body of water, which leveled by erosion and deposition the original uneven surface in their vicinity, so that its primitive drift features disappeared, and with them the corresponding features of those lakes. They, .therefore, do not now present those features common to the majority of the others. There are other evidences that the southeastern portion of the county was once covered, at a period comparatively recent, with a fresh-water lake."

The " Ogonomowoc chain " comprises the most remarkable group of lakes in Wisconsin. Their number is about forty, and their beds, together with the surrounding land, except perhaps a few bluflPs which were islands, constituted the bed of a large lake immediately, and for ages, after the glacial epoch. To the action of their waters, no doubt, is due the level character of the country about Oconomowoc.

Water-Powers

The close observer will conclude, from present indications, that water-powers in Waukesha County have more of a past than a future. Concerning volume of water in all her streams, from the spring's bubbling outlet to the Fox River, this is true. The marshes have been ditched and plowed; ponds drained, and various changes have been wrought by man during the last forty years, which have diminished the available flow of water-power streams. This is indeed unfortunate, not only for the producers of food and wood and wool, but for the cities and consumers of the county. There would have been no Waukesha Village (so those who first entered the land on which it stands, declare to-day), had there been no rapids in the Fox River at that point, out of which a water-power might be built. But Waukesha has been compelled to live and thrive independent of the aid which the original owners of the place calculated would be sufficient to build up a goodly city, and maintain it in prosperity ; for the Fox River at Waukesha drives one ilouring-mill, and nothing else. There are no great water-powers in this county, but the shrewd Eastern mechanic can see that not 50 per cent of the moving force of those which do exist is utilized. This is true of the power at Delafield, which is backed by Nagawicka Lake as a reservoir; at Oconomowoc, backed by Fowler Lake; at Menomonee Falls, when there is a fall of fifty feet, and at other places. There are not in Waukesha County the latest improved appliances for utilizing the moving force of water. This is not the fault of the locality, nor of the water-pjower, but of the manufacturers. The wealth of the West will begin to increase more rapidly, when these matters receive their proper attention. The inhabitants of Waukesha County produce vast quantities of crude material needing mahufacture. This bulky and heavy matter they transport a thousand miles to be worked up, and their food products are sent the same thousand miles to feed those who manufacture the other material. They then bring back the manufactured article, murmuring at its expense. The situation is this : At one end of a thousand miles is a man and his tools ; at the other end is the heap of crude material he is to manufacture, the bulky food he is to eat, and the market for his products ; and the problem is, " Shall the mountain go to Mohammed, or will Mohammed come to the mountain ? " What is needed is for capitalists to fully realize that the natural facilities for manufacturing in the interior must, in the immediate futur^ be utilized to their utmost capacity. Those who first turn their attention to utilizing to their utmost capacity all the powers in Waukesha County, will reap the greatest benefits. A small water-power often yields as great a profit as a large steam-power, and requires only a little of the outlay to put it to use.

The soil is the latest and most important geological formation. To make a report at once accurate and intelligible to the general reader is as difficult as the subject is important. Scientific farming is rapidly taking the place of the blundering, hap-hazard manner of tilling the soil which has been the rule for so many years and to such great cost in this country ; and farmers, therefore, desire to understand the value of soil ingredients, that they may till and sow accordingly. The difficulty in presenting an intelligible article on soils arises partly from the vagueness of the descriptive terms used by different persons. People speak of "light "and "heavy " soils, the majority of them supposing reference is had to the actual weight or specific gravity of them. This is a great error. For example : localities are described as composed of a " heavy clay," and " a light sandy " soil ; but literally the sand weighs almost twice as much as the clay, measure for measure. Light and heavy, as commonly used, are terms intended to describe adhesiveness, power of holding water, comminution - in short, the manner in which the soil "works." Again, purely scientific persons generally suppose that sandy soils are composed of grains of quartz - globules of hard igneous rocks - and are, therefore, barren. This is not always true, as, sandy soils may contain grains of limestone and be very fertile.

The leading elements of soils are derived from the original rocks, which were broken into fragments by internal forces, and ground, pulverized and transported by water mostly, either as ice during the glacial period, or later by streams and lakes. These elements were, however, generally not left by these agencies in such a state as to be fertile. Ages of leeching, weathering and wearing, by such agencies as winds, sun, rain and frosts, prepared the beds of soil which were afterward self-enriched for ages by vegetation. It will now be clear that the character of a soil will depend upon (1) the nature of the rock from which it is derived ; (2) the manner and degree of its reduction; (3) the amount lost by leeching and otherwise, and (4) the amount gained from vegetation above, or capillary attraction from beneath. Or, to put the' matter in simpler terms, a soil depends upon (1) the chemical nature of the material and (2) its physical state, or degree of fineness to which it has been reduced.

Prairie Loam. - This soil owes its origin to the decomposition of underlying limestone ; to the disintegration of limestone gravel, or to the deposits of ancient lakes. The true type may be described as a black, light soil, that works like an ash heap when dry ; rolls into little pellets when wet and refuses to "scour," except with the very best steel plows. It is a very warm soil, but not so rich as its dark color might lead some to suppose. It is very responsive to fertilizers. This soil is easily penetrated by the humus of vegetable matter, hence its dark color. The apparent absence of the carbonates of lime and magnesia is owing to the fact that this soil is the residue of rocks from which the lime and magnesia have been dissolved. The necessary mineral substances, however, will always be found in the subsoil. There are only a few small patches of this soil in the county.

Clayey Loams. - These are sometimes called marly clays, and are drift soils derived chiefly from calcareous or limey clay, formed by glacial agencies. The top is composed largely of lime and magnesia, but the subsoil is more marly. The plow frequently turns up a reddish or yellowish subsoil, which contains but very little decayed vegetable matter. It is a fertile soil, and stands floods and droughts well. The marly clay soils are light and heavy, but their origin and character are essentially the same. The latter is apt to contain "hard-heads," and works heavily at first, but more easily afterward. Thus, crops which at first were failures, finally produce well upon it.

Red Glay. - This does not appear to any extent in Waukesha, although it is prominent in Milwaukee, and counties along the lake shore. It is hard when dry, and always requires a great amount of working. It is easily distinguishable by the tendency to crack, the cracks occasionally widening into large fissures in dry weather. Such a soil is not the true clay ; it contains some lime and magnesia, silicious matter and hematite. The hematite, or sesqui-oxide of iron, may be easily found by drawing a magnet through a handful of the dust, and is the substance which aids in giving the color to the clay.

Silicious Sand. - This forms a small portion of the soil in Waukesha County. It needs no description. Without mixtures of other soils it is sterile. It is hot and dry, and, when mixed with adjoining clays, produces certain crops in abundance. It is also wonderfully lAmestone Loam. - This is an improper term, used to designate a soil composed of decomposed limestone, unmixed with much drift matter. It is easily worked, and supports a heavy growth of hard timber. It produces excellent wheat, and is > one of the valuable soils of the county.

Calcareous Sand. - This is a drift soil, having its origin in the reduction of the dolomitic beds of the Niagara group of limestone, mixed with silicious sand. It is the principal soil of most of the towns in the county, though found in various slightly modified forms. It will, and generally does, support a heavy growth of hard timber, being well adapted to the growth of maple. It is light, warm and arenaceous, but has little appearance of fertility. This is owing to the fact that the sand has been left by decomposition and bleaching on the surface. The subsoil, being essentially dolomitic, adds 100 per cent to the value of the land for agricultural purposes. Being a drift soil, it is found pure in but few localities, being modified, for better or worse, by mixture of the substances which compose other soils.

Ilumus Soils. - These are chiefly peat and swamp muck, or vegetable mold. They are generally very rich, though sometimes thorough drainage is necessary to make them productive, and sometimes the acids of the decomposed vegetation render them too " sour " for the profitable growth of cereals. They generally produce grasses, but do not contain mineral ingredients enough for cereals. Some of the finest pastures in the county, as well as many of the best meadows, are humus swamp muck.

Economic Considerations. - Prairie loam is generally covered with such grasses and plants as the virgin prairies presented to the first settlers - the light, marly clays are covered with oaks ; maples grow in heavy, marly clays ; red clays have about the same- growth of trees ; limestone loam is generally covered with oaks in this zone ; maple, oak and beech grow on calcareous sands ; conifers, pine, hemlock, etc., on silicious sands ; swamp vegetation on humus soils.

The natures of soils may be also known by the following tables, the plant growing most rapidly and thriftily in soil where its principal ingredient is found in the most liberal quantities :

These tables show that lime is concerned more in the formation of fiber of all kinds, and magnesia in the growth and production of the fruit. This accounts for the excellence of Waukesha County wheat, and may be of value to farmers in sowing their various crops on proper soils.

Elevations Of Different Localities

To know some of the different elevations of the surface of Waukesha County may be of' value, and will certainly be of interest. The Government and State surveyors will be given as authority for these figures, which are undoubtedly correct. However, the State Geologist's report, page 126, contains a statement, which, if correct, is certainly astonishing. It places Fox River, in Section 17, town of Waukesha, eighty feet higher than at the depot in Waukesha Village, two miles up the stream. It has been testified in court that Waukesha mineral water will " flow up hill ; " but the Fox River is generally considered too much of a sluggard to climb a hill, even to bear out the statements made in a public document. More seriously, this may be considered the only error in the ofiicial elevations of the county, only a few of which will be given, beginning with the highest.

Native Vegetation

The plow, the ox, and herds and flocks have driven much of the native vegetation of Waukesha County out of existence. A list of the prominent products of the virgin soil, before the march of civilization had wrought her wondrous artificial change, may be of interest and value. There are (a) upland, (b) marsh, and (c) intermediate groups of vegetation, and each has its groups of representatives in Waukesha County.

Upland Vegetation.. - This is comprised in what is technically termed the prairie group, consisting of prairie grass and prairie blossoms, and plants of all kinds, and the various arboreous or tree groups. The oak group comprises the burr-oak (quercus macrocarpa), white-oak [quercus alba), and pin-oak (quercus palustris), which are the prominent species, and give name to the whole. With them are found poplar or aspen {populus tremuloides), shell-bark hickory [carga alba), pig-nut or bitter-nut hickory [oarya glabra), crab-apple (pyrus coronaria), chokecherry [prunus Virginiana), black cherry [prunus serotina), wild plum (jprunus Americana), sumac (rhus typhina), hazlenut {corylus Americana), sugar-manle {acer saccharinum), red maple

Muskego Centre

Marsh Vegetation. - Waukesha County has not much marsh, but its vegetation is the same as that of larger marshes. The grasses are luxuriant and indicate a soil that may be easily reclaimed. The sedges (cyerdcece), occupy marshes that usually cannot be easily reclaimed.

The heath family (ericaceee), comprises some important plants. The most characteristic ones, the leather leaf {cassandra calyculata), cranberry [vaceinium macrocarpon), willows, larch, mosses and erratic plants. The existence of native cranberry plants in Waukesha County is a matter worthy of some attention, as it indicates a condition of soi-l and climate which will insure the cultivation of the plant as an industry of profit. The simple presence of that plant in a wild state, is not all-sufiScient ; but when leather-leaf, gander-bush and feather-leaf abound also, cranberry culture is sure to be a success. Native cranberries are found in Eagle, Section 31 ; Ottawa, Sections 28 and 32 ; Summit, Sections 9 and 12 ; Delafield, Sections 34 and 27 ; Oconomowoc, Section 4. Next in importance in marsh vegetation is the tamarack group, so far as this county is concerned. It is the American larch [larix Americana). A few white cedars [thuga occidentalis), and black spruces (abies nigra), are found in some of the swamps. The rosin plant [sUlphium laciniatum), or compass weed as it is sometimes called, grows in Mukwonago, on Dr. Youman's farm. It was a popular belief that its broad leaves always point north and south, thereby furnishing travelers in uninhabited countries a sure guide by which to keep their proper course.

Intermediate G-roups- - These are of very little importance in this county. They comprise stray witch-hazel clumps, black alder, yellow birch and cohosh.

Miscellaneous. - There have been discovered and classified, in Waukesha County, over six hundred different plants, not including mosses. Many of them are valuable for their medicinal properties, and others as articles of food, i Among the 600 may be mentioned cowslip (caltha palustris), gold thread (coptis trifolia), golden seal, bloodroot (sanguinaria Canadensis), prickly ash (zanthoxylum), snake root, [polygala Senega), tea (oeajwthus), grape (vitis cestivalis), wild pea - three varieties - which, in early days, were considered of great value as food ,for stock ; wild bean, Indian potato {apios tuberosa), used not only by Indians but by the early white settlers as a substitute for potatoes ; strawberry {fragaria Virginiana), red and black raspberry, prickly gooseberry (ribes cynosbati), wild red and black cuYra,nt {ribes Jloridune a,nd R. rubrum), spikenard [aralia racemosa), sarsaparilla {A. nudicaulus), wild coffee (triosteum perfoliatum), high-bush cranberry [vibernum opulus) Indian tobacco [lobelia injlatd), popularly called Thompson's physic ; "ginseng" [genitiana), yi\\di hop (humulus lupulus), Indian turnip {arum tri phyllum), wild asparagus* [A. officinalis), sweet flag (aeorus calamus), wild rice (zizania- aquatica), and fifty species of wild grasses. Many of these are gone, but they, with the carices, which were used for hay, formed a most valuable wild product in early times, as farmers could cut fodder enough without waiting to make " tame " meadows.

Fossil Remains

The most noticeable fossils in the limestones of Waukesha County are to be seen in great numbers in the paving stones of the village of Waukesha, and are the remains of those old species of cuttle-fish which are provided with chambered ahells - either straight, when they are termed ortlioceratites ; somewhat curved, called cyrtoceratites, or voluted, like the shell of ihe nautilus, when they receive the name of gyroceratites. These petrified shells may be found by hundreds, visible to the casual pedestrian along the streets of Waukesha, and are from one to two feet in length, ordinarily. The pentamerus, a shell bearing some resemblance to the oyster, but thicker and smoother, is common in the Pewaukee limestone, and various forms of trilobites are to be found in both places, though not so plentifully. Of stone corals, the halysites and

is little doubt that thia is a degenerated plant, introduced a* asparagus by the French settlers. None is known to exist in thU county now. Solomon Juneau pointed out a few plants near Muskego Center, years ago.

favosites are to be found almost everywhere in the county where limestone appears on the surface, either in quarries or as drift, and crinoid specimens are also quite numerous.

For the benefit of those who desire a more particular knowledge of the fossils to be found in the limestones of Waukesha County, a more detailed list is here subjoined.

At Waukesha, besides those mentioned above, there are more than twenty species of coral, ten of cystidea, three of bryozoa, twenty of brachiopods, five of lamillibranchiata, nine of gasteropods, and ten of Crustacea.

Mineral Springs

Nothing ever gave Waukesha County so great a notoriety as her numerous mineral springs, whose waters are drank everywhere for the restoration of health. The providential discovery of the virtues of these springs at once gave the entire county a reputation world-wide in extent ; springs wholly invaluable to the thousands afflicted with several fatal diseases for which their mineral properties are a specific. The elements of all of them throughout the county are very similar, the mineral substances and curative properties being nearly the same in each. They may be found, too, almost anywhere, but only a few springs, compared with the number known to exist, have been improved, advertised and their waters sent abroad. They are nearly all of astonishing size, almost any one being large enough to furnish as much water as could be shipped with ordinary railway facilities ; and the flow from all the springs in Waukesha County would be sufiicient to more than slake the thirst of all the inhabitants of the Union. Thus, nature has provided, free and delicious, a remedy so unlimited that every person in the civilized world afiiicted with the peculiar diseases for which it is a specific, can have an abundance of it. The existence of good, pure springs in Waukesha County has been known, it is true, ever since the country was first settled by whites ; but their wonderful curative properties were never fully understood, probably not known at all to the whites, until 1868. The Indians, however, had 'one of their oldest and largest trails leading to Mineral Rock Springs, another to Bethesda and another to the springs at Pewaukee ; and their Medicine Man told some of the first settlers that the water of the two springs at Waukesha was " sick." It may be judged from these facts that the aborigines understood the peculiarities of them and drank of their waters with that understanding.

In fact, George Washington Featherstonhaugh, now of Milwaukee, sent out nearly fifty years ago as a surveyor and geologist by the English government, and as the commander of the party referred to in the extract, furnishes the following : j

"In 1834, a party was dispatched by the Topographical Bureau to survey and fix a road from Port Lawrence and Vistula to Fort Armstrong, Rock Island on the Mississippi, nearly opposite to the mouth of the Rock River.

'' The survey was arrested at the confluence of the Fox River with the Illinois, opposite to the town of Ottawa, Illinois, by the illness of the men. Fourteen or fifteen had complication of fever and ague, and many other bad consequences resulting from exposure and bad water.

" At this time the whole region from Portage City to Chicago was purely an Indian territory and the Indians outnumbered the whites by immense odds. A half-breed guide informed the commanding officer that at the head of the Fox River was a spring of great virtue well known to the Indians. Having some faith in the information thus obtained, a small party was detailed to follow the Fox River and endeavor to find this healing water.

"By following up the main water-course they arrived at the present site of Waukesha and encamped on the bluff". No less than 100 Indians were engaged in drinking the waters, using them as external applications and pouring them into rude vessels for transportation.

-" On the historical branch of this vitally interesting question it is a work of supererogation to dwell any longer. A cloud of living witnesses can at any moment be summoned before the tribunal of public opinion."

In handling the waters of the various springs in this county as a business enterprise, a rivalry sprang up between their proprietors. This may have misled the public somewhat ; but there was no occasion for it, as the published analyses of several chemists of unblemished reputation demonstrated that there is but very little difference in the mineral properties of the various springs. The chief difference, discovered by careful observation, is that the waters of most of them are more strongly impregnated with mineral substances in dry weather than during the wet periods of spring and late autumn ; but all are subject to exactly the same conditions and changes, river over-flow alone excepted. Their similarity renders them unusually valuable, for abounding in various portions of the county as they do, ample room is furnished for all who may come - the great annual influx of pleasure-seekers, as well as afflicted, not being compelled to crowd around one little fountain.

The source of the curative properties of these waters has never been satisfactorily explained. The use, by the most skillful physicians, of the substances found in Waukesha water would have very little effect in curing diseases for which these springs are a specific. When all other remedies failed in the attempt to overcome retention of urine among the victims of yellow fever in the South in 1878 and 1879, Waukesha water " acted like a charm," in the language of Dr. Broaddus, of New Orleans, " and numerous cases of recovery can be attributed alone to its use." This was an invaluable boon to the fever-stricken South, as the water loses none of its curative properties by transportation.

The flow of the Waukesha Springs has no peculiarities. Their temperature remains the same throughout the year. A beautiful and interesting phenomenon was thus described by a Milwaukee chemist in 1873 :

" Every one who has observed any of the springs in this vicinity, may have noticed small white particles constantly bubbling up with the water. They vary from the size of a grain of sand to that of a pea, and are of irregular shapes and very white. They are tossed up by the action of the water and fall back again ; they are rolled out and roll back again, appearing and re-appearing, and performing all kinds of pretty and curious revolutions. If you endeavor to keep your eyes upon one particular particle, you will find your strictest watch evaded, and in the course of one or two pretty parabolas it will give you the go-by in spite of yourself.

" Taken in the fingers, one of these little globules is quite soft and smooth, giving no indication of grit, and rather soapy when rubbed between the fingers. They are regarded by many as being composed of magnesia, but this is not strictly true. Their composition is about onefourth carbonate of magnesia and three-fourths carbonate of lime. They, moreover, undoubtedly have their origin in the course of the water which evidently comes from the limestone. How they should consist of so large a per cent of carbonate of magnesia may be explained in this way.

" The limestone of this place is to some extent magnesian (carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, the latter being in a very small proportion). The water, percolating through the strata of the stone, disintegrates the carbonate of magnesia more easily than the carbonate of lime, hence the greater proportion of magnesia is found in the water, and the solid substance which it carries with it.

" If the course of any one of the numerous springs of this place were traced to the limestone bed, there would perhaps be found, near the outlet of the water from the strata, considerable quantities of the same substance as the little moving particles alluded to. In the Waukesha Mineral Rock Spring, which flows directly from a spur of Mr. A. Hadfield & Co.'s quarry bed, this substance exists in bulk. Pounds of it may be taken out in a fine condition, soft and pasty and white as snow.

" In noting these facts, I do not wish to be understood as claiming any medicinal virtues for the waters hy reason of the presence of carbonate of magnesia, although its admixture in suitable proportions may contribute to the general effect. The phenomena, however, have given rise to some inquiry, which it is hoped, the above explanation will tend to satisfy."

Bethesda Spring. - The late Richard Dunbar, the first white man to discover the virtues of Waukesha mineral water and receive an almost miraculous benefit from them, relates the not wholly unromantic story of the discovery as follows :

" I had been afilicted with the disease known as diabetes, in its worst form. I resorted to the most eminent physicians in this country, but without avail. My family physician, the distinguished Dr. Willard Parker, of New York City, having exhausted his skill in medicine, advised me as a last resort to visit Europe. I went but returned home unbenefited. On my return I called on Dr. Parker. He told me that there was no use in resorting to any more remedies ; that my case was beyond the reach of medical aid. I then concluded that there was nothing more for me to do but put my house in order and resign myself to my fate.

" In pursuit of a matter of family interest, I visited South Bend, Ind., accompanied by Mrs. Dunbar, and while there I was summoned to Waukesha, by the death of Mrs. Clarke, my wife's mother, who had resided there. I was very feeble, at this time, and enduring much bodily suffering. My insatiable thirst was beyond the power of man to describe. My tongue and gums were ulcerated ; my bodily suffering was intense. Under these conditions I reluctantly made my way to Waukesha. This was the autumn of 1868. On the following day after the burial I was invited by Miss Clarke to ride out to see some real estate she had purchased within the corporate limits of the city. I protested strongly against my going ; finally I reluctantly consented, feeling but little interest in, to me, earth's fast receding affairs, as I did not expect to live one day beyond the limit set by Dr. Willard Parker - six weeks.

" When I entered the field on which the spring is located, the intolerable thirst which had so long afflicted me had nearly overpowered me, and at this time I bemoaned my imprudence in leaving the house, and wished to return to obtain water to slake my insatiate thirst. Miss Clarke remarked that there was plenty of water on the property which we were viewing.

" A tumbler was immediately procured. As if providentially, I went to the right spring. 1 drank six tumblerfuls, and felt instantly a most grateful and refreshed sensation, as I felt the water coursing through my system. My tongue and gums were raw ; my lips were parched ; the water seemed to coat my tongue, and my lips became moistened. The water seemed to me so rmild and soothing, I at once remarked to the ladies that there was something peculiar in the water. Reader, it was to me the most delicious, the most grateful beverage that entered my mouth in years. I immediately sought rest under the shade of a wide-spreading oak which then stood and now stands overlooking the spring, like a guardian angel watching it.

^' After a rest of one-half hour I returned again to the spring, and drank six tumblerfuls "in succession, making twelve in all within the space of half an hour. I felt then, and expressed the opinion that there was something wonderful in the water, as I felt it working a great change in me. Previous to my reaching the house, a profuse perspiration broke out all over me, a result science and medical skill had failed to produce in the three and a half years of my illness. That , night I retired at half-past 9 and slept all night. Such a night of undisturbed repose I had ;not enjoyed for years. I arose that morning feeling well. At 11 o'clock A. M., on that day, I ' considered myself as well as ever I felt ; nevertheless I remained three days and drank the water but never exceeding twelve glasses per day. I then returned to Indiana, finishing my business there, after which I returned to New York, feeling I had a new lease of life, so benefited and restored did I feeL

" I again called on Dr. Parker. He felt a great surprise to see me, and so well, for he said when last I took my leave of him he would never see me again alive, and questioned me about what brought on this change. I told him about my visit to Waukesha, and the almost miraculous cure. He said it was wonderful ; had never heard of anything like it.

" In the following January, while at Washington, I suffered a relapse. I felt it was a punishment inflicted on me by Divine Providence for my neglecting to introduce to suffering humanity the great and wonderful specific. On that day I telegraphed Dr. Parker saying I had a relapse. He answered by saying, there is no other remedy but the Wisconsin water. I left Washington that evening for New York, and called on the Doctor previous to my going home. He (Dr. Parker) then told me there would have been a foot of grass on my grave if it had not been for that water, and then advised me to send for a cask of the water. I told him there were several other springs adjacent to the spring from which I drank, and that my. friends might make a mistake. One of these springs was twenty feet from the Bethesda, on the same level, and boiling up out of the earth ; on the other side, about fifty feet, was another large spring boiling. I told him I would go to Waukesha. He said that was well, and keep him posted on the effect of the water on me. If it had the same effect as before, it was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard of, and if it could be purchased, to spare no time in obtaining it. 1 arrived in Waukesha. In due time I hastened to the spring, and I found the same effect as before. I then made the beneficial effects of the water known, and people crowded here, drank the water and were healed.

" I determined to be a help to humanity, but was derided, abused, persecuted by many of the good people of Waukesha. I was even accused of drugging the spring. So fierce was the blast I had to encounter, that I would have relinquished the spring, if I had not been drawn and impelled forward by an influence which I could neither fully analyze nor resist. I would hear that word as distinctly as I now can see to write - ^' Push Bethesda ; you cannot say two much for it; don't abandon it.' While introducing the water throughout this nation, it never failed to perform all I claimed for it, and, in fact, more than I had ever anticipated it would do. Today it has no counterpart on earth as a grand specific for all kidney troubles.

'' Time, which makes all things even, had made Bethesda a victor. The voice of sneering incredulity was silenced ; the healing properties of the spring were acknowledged. I have been the means of enriching those miserable persecutors. I have snatched Waukesha from obscurity, and set it in a large place; its'conspicuity is widening, as everybody can see. The acknowledged merits of the spring are attracting the attention of this and other countries, and the present and prospective wealth of Waukesha has been increased $1,000,000 or more.

'' Prof. C. F. Chandler, of Columbia College, N. Y., made an analysis of the water. I found nothing remarkable in the analysis, but public incredulity could not induce me to disbelieve the evidence of my own senses, or forget my rescue from an imminent and painful death. I proclaimed and do proclaim the fact of my cure. I refer to Dr. Willard Parker for the facts in my own case. Throughout this nation and Europe, I have invited for it the severest tests, that of actual trial, and serenely awaited a verdict which I knew to be inevitable, and have public confidence obtained.

" I called the spring Bethesda, because the Lord was merciful to me in leading me to the healing fount. The word Bethesda signifies the house of mercy, and was the name of a pool at Jerusalem, which had five porticoes, piazzas or covered walks around it. - ^John, v, 2 and 4.

" The generality of expositors think it had this name rather from the great goodness of Go:l, manifested to his people in bestowing healing virtues upon its waters. It was at this pool that Jesus directed a blind man to wash for the recovery of his sight. - John ix, 7.

" The five porches mentioned by the Evangelist, John, v, 2 and 4, are supposed to have been five apartments for the accommodation of the multitude that came to the pool to be cured of their bodily diseases. In these porches, says the Evangelist, lay a great many of impotent people, blind, halt and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters, for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever the first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatever disease he had. The modern pool of Bethesda is about the same dimensions as the ancient pool. The five springs encircling the pool of Bethesda, I compared to the five porches at the ancient pool - the five porticoes, or covered walks, all are built. Of those springs, so far, we find but one curative ; the other four I filled, as they were worthless. What those curative properties are seems to be beyond the comprehension of all scientists. I drank of the modern Bethesda ; I was healed of an incurable disease, one that baffled the skill of the most scientific men, at home and abroad."

The first analysis of Bethesda water was made by Prof. C. F. Chandler, of Columbia College, N. Y., with this result, the quantity analyzed being a wine gallon of 231 cubic inches :

The surroundings of this spring have been made beautiful. It is in the midst of a large park, in which are numerous walks and drives, the latter named after the prominent citizens of AVaukesha. Near it is a large pool, in which are several other springs and several varieties of fish. This pool, in a difi"erent shape, was in existence when the first white people visited Waukesha. During the summer of 1880, Mrs. Dunbar, proprietor, erected an office and bathhouse at a cost of nearly $8,000, and the work of planting trees and flowers never ceases. The shipment of water from Bethesda Spring is to all parts of the civilized world, and averages thirty barrels per day.

Mineral Rock Spring. - The Mineral Rock Spring is owned by C. C. 01in"& Co. The following analysis, by Prof. Gustavus Bode, of Milwaukee, shows its ingredients :

Dear Sir : - In transmitting the result of ray analysis of the Wmkesha Mineral Rock Sprinj, you "will allow me to stite that the above water does not dififer materially in its combination from the famous Bethesda water. Chemical analysis has thus far failed to detect what causes the well-known effects of those waters. There are, however, some points to which I would call yoar attention, which may serve to give some explanation :

All spring waters contain certain combinxiions of salts, in larger or smaller quantities, and upon the amount of lime and magnesia salts they contain depends their degree of hardness. Almost all of them contain the lime, principally combined with sulphuric acid (as sulphate of lime - gypsum), which in'the cause of its hardness and the formation of kettlestone. The Waukesha water contains no sulphate of lime, and but very little sulphate of soda. To the absence of sulphates their medical effect is to be attributed.

If you will refer to the analysis of the Bethesda water, made by Prof. Chandler, and compare the figures of the inclosed analysis, you will find that the Waukesha Mineral Rock Spring aonimas less lime and magnesia salts, and hardly any sulphates, and, if the conclusions I have come to are correct, you may expect the water of the Waukesha Mineral ,tock Spring to prove even more efFeciive than the Bethesda and others.

The location of your spring, coming direct from the lime quarries, and being considerably elevated above the river, is another guarantee for its purity, which it will maintain in times of high water when other springs are overflowed and mixed with river water.

Hygiea Spring. - This spring, only a few rods from the street, owned by Edward Flannery, an engineer on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, by whom it was improved in 1872, is inclosed by the finest and largest amphitheater of masonry in the county of Waukesha. The spectacle is a remarkable one, the broad slabs of marble, the lime, the sand and the clear, sparkling mineral waters, all being natives of Waukesha, and to be had in unlimited quantities. During the season of 1880, Mr. Flannery erected a new office near his spring, and made other improvements of value. The analysis of this spring made by Otto A. Thiele, of Berlin, Prussia, is as follows :

Crlenn Waukesha Spring. - The waters of the Glenn Waukesha Spring, near the Fox River, in Waukesha Village, were analyzed by Prof. C. F. Chandler, of Columbia College, New York, with this result:

This spring is owned by J. K. Grlenn, of New York City. He now has an office, bathhouse and shipping-house near, and ships large quantities of water, especially to New York. A wind-engine has been erected for hoisting water for an artificial fountain and for packing purposes. The pavilion at this spring is a good one, and the mason-work about it substantial. A large lamp is kept burning, at the head of the stone stairway leading down to the spring, every night in the year, for the accommodation of those who drink of its waters.

Clysmic Spring. - This spring, near the corner of Grand avenue and the Fountain House grounds, is the property of Mrs. Kate B. Hill, of Natchez, Mississippi. It has a liberal flow and is very cold and sparkling. The water was awarded a grand medal by the American Institute at New York, the award being to John L. Lockwood, of New York City, who is the sole lessee and manager. The improvements about the Clysmic Spring are not extensive, but valuable ones are in contemplation. The analysis by Prof. Rathbone, is as follows :

Crescent Spring. - This mineral spring, discovered while excavations were being made near the Fountain House, in Waukesha, is a very large one. The mason work incloses the largest area of any in the county, and over the clear, deep pool is a two-story pagoda, of attractive architecture, capable of seating comfortably nearly two hundred persons. The discharge from this spring is 400 barrels per hour. The proprietor, Matthew Laflin, of Chicago, who was cured at the age of sixty-nine, of rheumatism, placed the water from this spring on the market, which has reached a wide sale. The analysis made by Prof. A. Voght, of New Orleans, shows the water to contain the following ingredients :