USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607 > Part 4
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
35
GEOLOGY.
3. Building Stone. Wherever the Lower Magnesian is ex- posed, there is always an abundance of good building stone. The lower beds of the formation are usually found in regular heavy ledges, very suitable for quarrying. Quarries of this kind are quite numerous, especially on the western side of the bluffs, so that there is no need for special mention of anyone.
4. Lime. The Lower Magnesian formation affords lime with as much facility as building stone. There are numerous lime kilns all along the bluffs, but the stones for the same are seldom quarried from regular beds, much oftener from large rocks which have come down from the cliffs at some time and been buried more or less in the drift. Those engaged in lime burning usually select the stone by its surface appearance and its fracture, and could not tell to what bed of limestone-formation it belongs.
Owing to the large percentage of magnesia in the Lower Mag- nesian, the lime obtained from it is somewhat hydraulic and slakes slowly. This quality may be regarded as rather advantageous than otherwise.
It is scarcely necessary to enumerate the kilns, but it may be remarked that they are usually of very primitive construction with imperfect mechanical appliances. An exception to this I noticed on the bank of the slough in the upper part of Fountain City, where the stone used for lime also comes from a regular quarry.
ST. PETER'S SANDSTONE.
From the preceding pages the reader will find a notice of the occurrence of St. Peter's Sandstone in this county. Its very lim- ited occurrence excuses the neglect to mention any economic pro- ducts derived from it in other localities.
GALENA LIMESTONE.
As there is probably none of this variety in our county, it is barely mentioned here, to complete the discussion of the epochs.
QUATERNARY FORMATION. Glacial Period.
The glaciers mentioned above have left some deposits in their places characteristic of their former presence. Vol. IV of Geo- logical Survey says: "The most southerly glacial . deposit observed (in western Wisconsin) is situated in Buffalo County on · he SW quarter of Sect. 14, Town 19, R. 11, at an elevation of 380
36
GEOLOGY.
feet above the Mississippi River. It consists of a small isolated patch - not over 400 feet in its longest dimension - of small gravel containing the usual drift materials, such as granite, quartz, trap, etc., but no large bowlders. It lies on the side of a small ravine, near the summit of the ridge, and is exposed for a short distance by a road excavation. A similar deposit of fine gravel is found in SW quarter of Sect. 3 of the same township, on the slope towards Eagle Creek.
From these points northwestward, to the Chippewa River, patches of drift gravel are found at numerous points, but bowlders are rare. Beyond the Chippewa bowlders and larger deposits occur, but the glacial deposits are nowhere in this district very large.
Champlain Period.
It is characterized by the Valley drift of the Mississippi and the Wisconsin River.
There are numerous places in the valley of the Mississippi, on both sides of the river, where heavy deposits are found of materials foreign to the adjacent formations. The deposits consist chiefly of silicious sand, with some clay, and a large percentage of small gravel. The gravel is chiefly composed of smooth rounded pebbles of quartz, granite, trap, and fragments of other Archean rocks. The pebbles seldom exceed a few ounces in weight The deposits are, for the most part, stratified, although this can not always be readily observed. They are not continuous, being found only in such places, where circumstances prevented their removal by the streams. There are, of course, numerous deposits of this kind in the county, but none are specified in. the Geol. Survey. Swamps are frequently caused by impervious beds of clay and gravel belonging to this formation. This, however, must not be taken for an assertion, that all swamps rest on such beds, although the same cause is usually expected to produce the same effect.
Recent Period.
During this period, the last, but not by any means so very young a period, there was a general elevation of the country, which resulted in bringing up the Champlain deposits of the river val- leys to their present elevation, gradually increasing the velocity of the rivers and removing the greater part of the drift fillings of
37
GEOLOGY
the last named period. Sometimes this was only a change in the distribution of materials, such as is at present constantly progress- ing. I have heard of no scientific section of the country showing the thickness of its layers, and we have so many differences in that matter, that but little would have been gained by one invest- igation. Among the remarkable features of this period there are two, Calcareous Deposits and Sinks. By calcareous deposits are meant those layers of carbonate of lime that are found in caves on the floor or else on the roof or ceiling. These are stalagmites and stalactites. This occurrence in the county is possible and prob- able but not proven.
Sinks we call those almost circular, funnel-shaped depres- sions, often unexpectedly met with on the level summit of most of our bluffs. They very seldom contain any water, even after a copious rain, which, considering that they have usually a diameter of ten to fifteen feet, shows that there must be some rather capaci- ous opening in the deepest spot to let the water escape. This al- way's was the case in the few I ever examined; sometimes there were loose stones between which the water could easily escape. As there must be some place to which the water can descend, it is natural to connect the sinks with caves, but other fissures may answer the same purpose. A close investigation of some large sink might therefore lead to the discovery of a cave, of which we have not at present any instance in this county.
Having now come through the periods, (or rather up) usually accepted by scientific men in such matters it remains to speak of some occurrences going on before our own eyes.
One of them is the undermining of the cliffs on the crest of our bluffs close to the edge of the slope. Wherever the soft sand- stone of the Potsdam formation is exposed we find that the harder ledges are jutting out over the foundation and when we examine the condition of the soil of the slope close to the rock, we find it to consist of the same coarse sand as the foundation. We can also perceive, especially after the winter frosts have thawed out, that the foundation stone is peeling off. This, in course of time, de- stroys the support of the superincumbent rock, and it comes down usually in heavy masses that are horizontally divided, and separate when they strike the ground, and bound down the slope, bury themselves by the force of their weight and momentum in the
38
GEOLOGY.
soft debris or reach sometimes the very foot of the declivity. The most considerable of these disruptions must have happened many years ago on the west side slope between Deer Creek and the Nor- wegian road.
Precisely how long ago I would not assert, but that oaks and other trees grew between the horizontal fissures of such rocks, can be seen in traveling along the Alma and Durand road. One rock, sandstone, is split in two parts by the roots of a birch, which stands upon it, the roots reaching down into the soil for nutrition. The fissure is widening from year to year, and will continue until one day one or both of the two pieces will fall, or break near the ground.
The last occurrence of a similar disruption was the coming down of the pinnacle on the northwest corner, of the once cele- brated Twelve Mile Bluff, at Alma, right opposite to the turn of the river to the southwest, and above Lane's sawmill. The impres- sion made by the detached piece on the ground where it fell was 124 feet long; the top piece, measuring about 15 feet in the three main directions came nearly down to the road, the remainder scat- tered, but did not roll very far away from the steepest part of the slope.
Excavations bring out some of the rock, and reveal the depth of the drift or detritus lying over it. At one place in the city of Alma in an excavation of about 26 feet down to the level of Main Street, the detritus consists of about 16 feet of mixed gravel and clay, with a great many blocks of stone, sandstone and limestone, and possibly some other material, as granitic and sim- ilar bowlders. The two former kinds are of any possible shape, small and large, and but little, if any, worn. At some place, about a mile below town, we find coarse gravel, pebbles and bowlders, largely of the granitic character. Along the Mississippi, and, (so I have heard) along the shores of Lake Pepin, and especially at the mouth of the Chippewa River, Carnelians of very good qual- ities, also rounded pebbles of white quartz are found, intermixed with many different other kinds, of red, or reddish color, some translucent others dull, also some pudding stones, and some stones showing on the surface the cavities in which other material once must have been contained. Several times I noticed when digging on the surface of the prairie, where the soil belongs to the
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40
GEOLOGY.
But these discoveries, though certainly new, were by no means the first of their kind in this county. As early as 1855 there was mining for ore in the neighborhood of the old schoolhouse at Fountain City. Mr. John G. Kammueller, now deceased, who had been a foreman of miners in an iron mine in the Grand- duchy of Baden, and his three sons William, Frederick and Leopold, who had also from boyhood been employed at the same business, were even at that early time convinced that metals would be found in our bluffs. Being, however, like most settlers of those early times, without the necessary means for the required investigations, they had to give up their diggings, although signs for ultimate success appeared to be favorable. The following year, 1856, the above named gentlemen, in company with John Martin and Lud- wig Martin again tried their fortune with a new mine. This time they began to dig upon the bluff north of Fountain City, upon the Northeast Quarter of Northeast Quarter of Section 8 of Township 19, Range 11, where the depression, left after the caving in of the shaft, can still be seen. They dug down about 100 feet and found different metals. Towards spring they built a furnace, and smelted out about eight hundred pounds of metal. During the thaw in spring heavy rains prevailed, and the water flowed into the shaft, partly ruining it, so that it was impossible to descend into it. In this enterprise they had received some aid from such citizens of Fountain City as were well inclined towards the matter. During the process of smelting there was considerable excitement in the neighborhood, and everybody went to have a look at it.
Mr. William Kammueller, who is still living in that neighbor- hood, holds to the opinion, that if they could have persevered, they would have found lead. The misadventure of their shaft tumbling in, burying their tools, etc., prevented further attempts ever since. For this information I am indebted to Mr. Jacob Meili of the Town of Milton, who is a son-in-law of Wm. Kammueller. The reader has already been directed to the study of such sources of geological information, as are now accessible and certainly of more weight and authority than any opinion of mine.
41
NATURAL HISTORY.
NATURAL HISTORY.
The following sketches or rather enumerations can not be ex- pected to be scientifically accurate or complete. Indeed it may be objected by some people that they are too systematic and dry for many readers, but it must be observed that the description of Buffalo County could not have been complete without this chapter, and that we should not reject any object of fact or history merely because it is dry. The chapter on Natural History may, moreover, serve for reference with those who do not have the time or much inclination to investigate such matters closely, and would probably not have thought of buying a separate work on natural history. I am convinced that there are a great many such who, , nevertheless have a latent desire to learn something of it, especi- ally what may relate to their own surroundings. This should be encouraged especially among young folks. It was not considered necessary to add anything on Mineralogy, since all the materials. of that branch of natural history had to be discussed under the head of Geology, to which the reader is hereby referred.
ZOOLOGY.
It goes without contradiction that a book like this, though it aims at an accurate and somewhat minute description of the country and its natural productions, can not go any further in the latter part than an enumeration of those productions, which are indigenous, that is, existed without and before settlement and cul- tivation. This is especially the case with animals of all kinds, or the province of Zoology, the description of the Animal Kingdom. The following lists, which I made up from those given in Vol. I of the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, have been submitted to the inspection of Prof. F. H. King of the Normal School in River Falls, and corrected according to his suggestions. The list of Birds may be said to be his work . entirely, as he indicated by numbers corresponding to those in his exhaustive article on the same subject in the volume of the survey above stated, what birds he considered likely to occur at the different seasons of the year
42
NATURAL HISTORY.
in this neighborhood. Perhaps it is not my particular vocation to make up some of these lists, as I am no hunter, nor a fisher, but I tried to do as well as circumstances permitted. MAMMALS. Cats :
Panther. None killed since settlement. ".
Lynx (Canada). Scarce since settlement.
Wild Cat, (Red Lynx.) Frequent and injurious. Dogs : Prairie Wolf. Not yet extinct.
Red Fox. Not very frequent; small. Weasels :
Weasel, (white and little.) Frequent in these parts.
Mink. Not very frequent.
Skunk. Rather numerous of late.
Otter. Possibly on sloughs and Mississippi.
Badger. Rather scarce, unless the ground hog be its represen- tative.
Bears : Black Bear. . Scarce, but not extinct.
Racoon. Not rare; sometimes tamed.
Deer:
Elk. Formerly quite frequent, but now extinct. Common Deer. Not rare, nor very frequent.
Moles : Common Mole. Common, but owing to habits not frequently seen. Shrews :
Similar to moles, and sometimes called such; probably present, but not frequent.
Bats : Common Bat. Said to be of eight species, which are not usually distinguished.
Mice :
The name is significant of habit and structure. Common Mouse. Very frequent. Rat, black and brown. Very frequent.
Prairie Mouse. Likes prairies, but may occur in this county. Muskrat. Quite frequent in swamps and small streams.
43
NATURAL HISTORY.
Beaver : Common (Am.) Beaver. I have heard of only one pair, which was said to have lived in Bull's Valley, and doubt its pres- ent existence in this vicinity. Squirrels:
Fox Squirrel. Not numerous.
Gray Squirrel. More numerous; the black variety occurs some- times.
Red Squirrel. Abundant; small.
Chipmunk. The little fence-mouse, so-called.
Striped Gopher. Quite numerous.
Pouched Gopher. Perhaps a few.
Gray Gopher. Not numerous, but large and voracious.
Woodchuck. Mistaken for others.
Porcupines : ·
Canada Porcupine. Not numerous. Rabbits :
Northern Hare. Changeable fur; rare.
Gray Rabbit. Frequent in some years.
Number in Vol. I, G. F. 1. Common Robin.
BIRDS.
A. Summer Residents : -
2. Wood Thrush.
6. Veery; Tawny Thrush; Wilson's Thrush.
8. Catbird.
9. Brown Thrush; Sandy Mocking Bird; Thrasher.
10. Eastern Bluebird.
20. House Wren.
22. Long-billed Marsh Wren.
24. Horned Lark; Shore Lark.
26. Black-and-White Creeping Warbler.
41. Chestnut-sided Warbles.
· 48. Golden-crowned Thrush.
49. Water Thrush; Water Wagtail.
52. Maryland Yellow Throat; Black-masked Ground Warbler.
59. Scarlet Tanager.
61. Barn Swallow.
62. White-bellied Swallow.
44
NATURAL HISTORY.
63. Cliff Swallow; Eave Swallow.
64. Bank Swallow.
66. Purple Martin.
68. Cedar Waxwing; Cherry Bird.
69. Red-eyed Vireo; Red-eyed Greenlet.
71. Warbling Vireo; Warbling Greenlet.
72. Yellow-throated Vireo.
76. White-rumped Shrike.
85. American Goldfinch; Thistle-Bird.
90. Bay-winged Bunting; Grass Finch.
95. Song Sparrow.
98. Chipping Sparrow; Hair-Bird.
Clay-colored Sparrow.
100. 103. Lark Finch.
107. Rose-crested Grosbeak.
108. Indigo Bird.
110. Ground Robin; Chewink.
111. Bobolink; Reedbird; Ricebird.
112. Cowbird.
113. Redwinged Blackbird.
114. Yellow-headed Blackbird.
115. Meadow Lark; Field Lark.
118. Baltimore Oriole; Golden Robin; Hangnest.
121. Purple Grackle.
123. Common Crow.
125. Blue Jay.
127. King Bird; Bee Martin.
134. Traill's Flycatcher.
135. Least Fly catcher.
137. Whippoorwill; Night-Jar.
138. Night-Hawk; Bull-Bat.
139. Chimney Swift.
Ruby-throated Humming-bird.,
140: 141. Belted Kingfisher. 142. Black-billed Cuckoo.
143. Yellow-billed Cuckoo.
151. Red-headed Woodpecker.
152. Golden-winged Woodpecker.
45
NATURAL HISTORY.
154. Great Horned Owl.
155. Red Owl; Mottled Owl; Screech Owl.
156. American Long-eared Owl.
159. Barred Owl. -
164. Marsh Hawk; Harrier.
171. Sparrow Hawk.
175. Broad-winged Buzzard.
White-headed Eagle.
179. 180. Turkey Buzzard.
181. Wild Pigeon; Passenger Pigeon.
182. Carolina Dove.
185. Pinnated Grouse; Prairie Hen.
186. Ruffed Grouse; Partridge.
188. Quail; Bob White.
191. Killdeer Plover.
American Woodcock.
200. 201. American Snipe; Wilson's Snipe.
Bartramian Tattler; Upland Plover.
White Crane; Whooping. Crane.
220. 226. 227. Northern Sandhill Crane.
228. Great Blue Heron.
230. Green Heron.
232. American Bittern.
233. Least Bittern ..
236. Carolina Rail; Carolina Crake. ..
238. Florida Gallinule.
240. American Coot.
257. Blue-winged Teal.
259. Wood Duck; Summer Duck.
288. Black Fern.
295. Red-billed Grebe; Dab-Chick.
Winter Residents :
14. Black-capped Chickadee; Titmouse.
16. White-bellied Nuthatch.
67. Bohemian Waxwing.
75. Butcher Bird; Northern Shrike. .
77. Evening Grosbeak.
78. Pine Grosbeak.
46
NATURAL HISTORY.
80. American Red Crossbill.
81. White-winged Crossbill .-
82. Red-poll Linnet.
86. Snow Bunting; Snow-Flake.
87. Lapland Longspur.
125. Blue Jay.
145. Hairy Woodpecker.
146. Downy Woodpecker.
154. Great Horned Owl.
155. Red Owl; Mottled. Owl; Screech Owl.
160. Great White or Snowy Owl.
162. Richardson's Owl.
163. Acadian or Saw-whet Owl.
168. American Groshawk.
178. Golden Eagle.
179. White-headed Eagle,
185. Pinnated Grouse; Prairie Hen.
186. Ruffed Grouse; Partridge.
188. Quail; Bob White. FISHES. Perches :
Yellow Perch. Abundant.
Wall-eyed Pike. Abundant.
Gray Pike Perch. May be the same fish.
White Bass. Numerous.
Large-mouthed Black Bass. Abundant.
Small-mouthed Black Bass. Common.
Six-spined Bass. Probably in lakes.
Rock Bass. Said to be caught.
Common Sunfish. Frequent in places. Common Spotted Sunfish. Frequent in places. .. Trouts :
Brook Trout. Once abundant, but now decimated. Pikes : :
Muskallunge. True Pike; seldom caught. Pickerel. Abundant.
Minnows :
Blunt-jawed Minnow. Silvery Minnow. I am not aware that minnows are dis- tinguished by particular names.
. Blunt-nosed Minnow. Shiner. May be common.
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48
NATURAL HISTORY.
B. Poisonous Snakes.
Yellow Rattlesnake. Common.
Massasauga. Rare.
II. Amphibians.
Frogs :-
Leopard Frog. 1 Green Frog.
All common.
Wood Frog. Bull Frog.
Common Tree Toad.
Pickering's Tree Toad.
} All found but not very abundant.
Striped Tree Frog. Toads :- Common Toad. Common. Tritons :---
Spotted Triton. Occasionally found. Salamanders:
Red-lined Salamander. In heavy timber; doubtful here. Mud-Puppies :-
Mud Puppy. Probably abundant in streams, ponds and sloughs. Dangerous to the spawn of fishes. CRUSTACEANS.
Of this family of animals only very few members are of in- terest or importance, or generally known to those who have not made the study of natural history their special object.
The Crawfishes are the most obvious representatives of the Crustaceans and the varieties living in Wisconsin may be distin- guished as such that live in running waters, and such as live in sluggish waters and burrow in the adjacent soft or swampy land.
Of the first kind we have:
Cam barus Virilis: Greenish Crawfish.
Cambarus Propinquus: Crowding Crawfish.
These two varieties are quite abundant, but not much used for any purpose that I know of.
Of the second kind we have only one variety, Cambarus Obe- sus, the Thick or Flat Crawfish, but whether it is used for food or other purposes by any body but the cranes, I can not attest. Fresh.' water crawfishes are sometimes used for bait to catch larger sorts of fish.
49
NATURAL HISTORY.
The list of Crustaceans in Vol. I of Geological Survey con- tains many more names but all in Latin, and from this we might conclude that the species enumerated are known only to scientists of that stripe, that they have no current, popular or vulgar names, and do not want to make the acquaintance of any but the most distinguished zoologists. To all of which we have no objections. to offer.
INSECTS. ,
Insects, in a restricted sense, are six-footed articulates. (Now we know it!) Wisconsin is rich in insect life, among which are many southern forms. The presence of these southern insects may be satisfactorily accounted for, in part, by the warmer sum- mers. that occur west of the Great Lakes, than are experienced in the same latitude east of these great bodies of water :- a curving north of the summer isotherm. (P. R. Hoy.) Owing to the fact that the names of insects occurring in Wisconsin, which are enumer- ated in Vol. I of the Geological Survey are all in Latin, and there are only names for the most obvious forms in use among the people at large, I had concluded to arrange this matter differently, and follow in the main the plan of a little treatise on "Our Com- mon Insects " by A. S. Packard, Jr., which seemed much better adapted to the purposes of a book like this. But there is neither system nor consistency in its arrangements, and except for philo- sophically inclined entomologists the book is of but little use .. I then procured " Insects at Home," which styles itself a "popu- lar account of all those insects which are useful or destructive." It is a ponderous book, and certainly a very useful book for those who can devote three-fourths of a long life to the subject; but for me it had the one great fault, that only English specimens were treated of. I marked out a long list, but the longer it became, the more I .was bewildered, and then I gave it up. Of course, there are numerous insects common to all latitudes of -the temperate. zone, but which of them, besides the most familiar ones, were to be found in our region was so much more difficult to find out, as almost.every naturalist seems to have a peculiar system of nomen- clature, with the one aggravation, that common or popular names seemed to be equally abhorred by all of them. It occurred to me that I could make a system of my own for my own purpose and that this would be rather more comprehensible than those I had
50
NATURAL HISTORY.
taken so much time and trouble to adopt. There was once a botanist of renown who proposed to divide all plants into two classes, viz: Those which smell sweet, and those who do not. Similarly I propose to divide the immense swarm of insects into two classes, Useful and Noxious. I am well aware of the difficul- ties of arranging the different species into the two classes and may state two objections to the system.
The first is that genera must be divided, since one species of a certain genus may be useful, while others are decidedly noxious. The second is, that the first class will be infinitely small compared with the second in every respect, not only in the number of species, but still much more in the number of individuals. The recom- mendation of the system is, however, this, that most people natur- ally make the same distinction, and prefer not to recognize others.
BENEFICIAL INSECTS.
They may be divided into two divisions:
A. Such as are beneficial by the productions of their labor;
B. Such as are useful by destroying noxious insects.
A. Insects beneficial by their labor.
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