of its kind in the whole World's Fair, with the exception
of one solitary slab in the Canadian department of the
mining building; and (3) some pretty dishes of white
and decorated faience, made of clay and silica, from Union
county the only article of white table-ware ever made
out of purely Illinois materials. As these materials were
the only substances analyzed at your expense, I give the
results of the analyses.
68
Ball Clay from Mrs. M. A. Kellner's clay pit, Mountain
Glen, Union county, 111., (No. 3,011 111. State Mus. Cat.).
Analysis by Knut Alinstrom:
Silicic acid 51 .71%
Titanic acid trace
Alumina 32 - 75
Oxide of iron !- 93
Lime - 53
Magnesia
Potash - 96
Soda 24
Water and organic matter 11.69
Total 100.00
Earthy Silica from the mine of the Chicago Floated
Silica Co., Union county, 111. (No. 3,009 111. State Mus.
Cat.). Analyzed by Harald Almstrom.
Silicic acid 97 .82%
Alumina and oxide of iron 1.08
Lime 0.50
Water and organic matter 0.42
Alkalies and loss.. 0.18
Total 100.00 .
The very handsome dishes were manufactured under
the direction of my esteemed friend, the Hon. Robert
Almstrom, director of the Rorstrand Porcelain Works at
Stockholm, Sweden, and I beg to use this opportunity
of officially thanking him for his courtesy and painstak-
ing labors, by which he has established as a fact the
long-doubted possibility of making white earthenware
from purely native Illinois materials.
The Stratigraphical Division consisted mainly of four
diagrams, representing sections across different portions
of the State, and accompanied with four sets of samples
of the strata out-cropping along the lines of these sec-
tions. These sections were as follows:
69
1. The Mississippi River Section. This section was con-
structed by using a profile of the bluffs from the north-
western corner of the State clear down to Cairo, which
profile was furnished by Prof. C. W. Rolfe, of the Univer-
sity of Illinois. The stratification was indicated mainly
in accordance with the "Mississippi River Section," in
Vol. I., Qeol. Surv. 111., with such local corrections as
were possible from data furnished by Profs. J. A. Udden
for Rock Island county, and J. M. Nickles for the south-
ern counties. Rock specimens, to illustrate this section,
were selected out of the collections in the State museum
in Springfield.
2. The Rock Island, LaSalle, Indiana State Line Section.
This was constructed by Prof. J. A. Udden, of Augus-
tana College, Rock Island, who was employed to survey
the line during the summer of 1892, at the same time
collecting a complete set of samples from out-cropping
strata, which samples were displayed at the Fair, along
with the section. Prof. Udden has furnished a report on
his work, which you will find hereafter.
3. A section along a line from East St. Louis, on the
Mississippi, to Shawneetown, on the Ohio, passing
through the greater part of the coal measure series; and,
4. A section along a line through Waterloo, Sparta,
Murphy sboro and Olmstead, thus crossing the Ozark
highland, with its conglomerate beds, and the tertiary
deposits in the extreme south of the State. These two
sections (3 and 4) were constructed by Prof. J. M.
Nickles, of Sparta, from surveys made by him during
the summer of 1892 and in the early spring of 1893. He
also collected samples of all the strata exposed along
the said lines.
To the stratigraphical division belonged also two sets
of diamond drill cores, arranged in vertical cases, with
grooves for the retention of the core in proper order,
and glass fronts. One of these sets contained all the
70
core that had been preserved from a boring at Braid-
wood, Will county, to a depth ,of 900 feet; it occupied
thirteen cases, five feet high, each with eight grooves.
The other set contained one sample of core, one to four
inches long, from each stratum penetrated in a boring
at Harvel, Montgomery county, to the depth of 775 feet.
Each set was accompanied with a diagramatic boring log.
In this division may also be counted the large geolo-
gical map which was placed on the south wall. It was
based on the map issued in 1876 by the Geological Sur-
vey of Illinois, as an appendix to volume VI. of the re-
ports; corrections were made, as far as possible, from
data in notes accumulated by myself in previous years,
and by Profs. Udden, Nickles and Nicholson, in the
course of their respective work in connection with the
World's Fair preparations. The tract of the great up-
heaval in Calhoun county had been surveyed in the
summer of 1891, by Dr. N. O. Hoist, State Geologist, of
Sweden, accompanied by Prof. Udden and myself. The
color schedule adopted for this map, as well as for the
above four sections, was in close accordance with the
suggestions made by the director of the United States
Geological Survey, Major J. W. Powell, in his tenth an-
nual report.
The Paleontological Division consisted of an extensive
collection of fossils, selected from the Illinois State
Museum and supplemented with specimens from the pri-
vate collection of the former State Geologist, the late
Prof. A. H. Worthen, which collection you had pur-
chased for this purpose on my suggestion. That entire
collection was afterwards, as I understand, donated by
the State to the University of Illinois, at Champaign.
Some other specimens had been borrowed from private
parties, as, for instance, the large trunks of ulodendron,
etc., which were the property of Mr. P. A. Armstrong,
of Morris, III.
71
The specimens exhibited represented with fair com-
pleteness all the species of fossils recorded as having
been found within the boundaries of this State, together
with some such species as, from their occurrence in ad-
jacent States, may be expected to occur also in Illinois.
The great scientific importance of this collection, as
well as its value in exhibiting to the world what the
State of Illinois had done in this branch of science, may
be realized from the fact that it contained, among
other things, more than 1,000 "types" of new species
of fossils, which were first made known to the world by
the descriptions and figures of those very specimens,
published in the eight volumes of reports of the Geolo-
gical Survey of Illinois.
The collection was arranged systematically, according
to zoological and botanical classification. In order to
facilitate the study of the fauna or flora of any particu-
lar geological age, there wa,s stuck on, in the center of
each label, a small, circular tag, bearing the same color
pattern as the corresponding geolological terrane on the
map and sections above referred to, which was placed
close to the paleontological show cases. Wherever it is
impossible to display, in a geological museum, two par-
allel series of fossils one arranged biologically, one
stratigraphically I believe the above arrangment, in-
cluding the advantages of both, to be far preferable to
a single series arranged according to geological succes-
sion in time.
The abundant paleontological material at my disposal
from the two collections, viz.: the State Museum and
Prof. Worthen's private collection, was rather embarrass-
ing, as neither of them had been more than partially
classified, and that so long ago, that, considering the
rapid progress of paleontological science in the last de-
cades, a thorough revision was necessary. The specimens
72
were, therefore, first assorted and classified in a prelimi-
nary way, and each class of fossils was subsequently
submitted to critical examination by an eminent spec-
ialist. The corals were thus revised by Dr. Carl Roinin-
ger, of Ann Arbor, Michigan ; the crinoids by Mr. Charles
Wachsmuth, of Burlington, Iowa; the brachipod by Prof.
James Hall, the veteran State geologist of New York;
the mollusks by Mr. E. 0. Ulrich, of Newport, Kentucky;
the trilobites by Prof. J. M. Clarke, of the New York
State Museum, Albany, N. Y.; other crustacea3 by Prof.
Charles E. Beecher, of Yale Museum, New Haven, Conn.;
and all the coal measure plants by Mr. David White, of
the U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. Valuable
aid was also rendered, in several instances, by Prof. E.
D. Cope, of Philadelphia, and Dr. C. H. A. White, of the
U. S. National Museum.
Nearly all of the above gentlemen, besides carefully
revising the old labels and determining numerous speci-
mens hitherto undetermined, also presented brief reports
on the collections examined by them, mainly discussing
the geological and geographical distribution, within the
State, of the several species or genera contained in the
said collection. These reports were written, at my re-
quest, for the purpose of being inserted in an eventual
descriptive catalogue of the exhibits, and they were
turned over to you for such purpose on the day of my
resignation. It appears that, in the confusion unavoida-
bly accompanying the closing days of the exhibition, all
these papers were lost.
The State rests under deep obligation to the above dis-
tinguished paleontologists, who so cheerfully gave their
time and knowledge to a work from which they derived
no personal benefit, while it reflected great honor on the
State, and will prove a permanent benefit to all who will
fitudy these collections in the State Museum or at the
State University.
73
During two years from July, 1891, to July, 1893, I was
most ably assisted by Prof. Wm. F. Nicholson, who, on
your authorization, was appointed my assistant in any
or all of the work incumbent on me as curator of the
State Museum, or as director of the geological work for
the State for the Columbian Exposition. He filled his
position with skill.
Miss Fannie Fisher, who held the position of secretary
at the State Museum until her resignation from that office
in July, 1893, rendered excellent service as clerical as-
sistant.
The extreme delay in completing the installment of
exhibits, and particularly in preparing new labels and
substituting them for the old ones, was due mainly to
the entire lack of adequate office accommodation for the
geological department in the Illinois State Building.
Yours respectfully,
JOSUA LlNDAHL.
ATJGUSTANA COLLEGE,
KOCK ISLAND, ILL.,
May 9, 1894.
GLACIAL
AHD
SOIL MAP OF IL
BY
FRANK LEVERE.TT
t
4-
UGLND
^Iv... MoRMMic BELTS
.^- GRAVtLLY RlD&ES
(IM OLDER DRIFT)
- BORDER OF OLDER DRIFT
^+* OLDER DRIFT WITHOUT
'*"' SILT CAPPIH6.
PERVl'OUS SILT (SHWED FOR DEPTH)
WHITE CUftY OR IMPERVIOUS SILT
- SANDY DISTRICTS
S GLA,C>d,L GROOVES
GLACIAL AND SOIL MAP OF ILLINOIS.
SOILS OF ILLINOIS.
BY FRANK LEVERETT, ASSISTANT U. S. GEOLOGIST.
Explanation of the Map.
f'HE morainic belts mark margins of the ice-sheet at
_ points where the onward flow and the wastage were
nearly balanced for a considerable period of time. The
drift in these belts is massed into ridges and knolls,
while between them the surface is usually very level. The
principal morainic ridges rise 50 to 75 feet, and occasion-
ally 100 feet, above the bordering plains. Some moraines
(especially those near Fox river in the northern portion
of the State) are made up of a great many small knolls
and ridges inclosing basins and small lakes. Other mo-
raines (especially those in the central and eastern portion
of the State) consist of a single great ridge, seldom less
than a mile, and in some instances several miles, in
breadth, whose surface is but gently undulating.
In the older drift area there are very few knolls and
ridges. Such as occur usually contain much gravel and
sand, but. in some instances a stony clay constitutes
the bulk of the ridge or knoll. A belt of these ridges
and knolls follows the west side of the Kaskaskia river,
and marks the division line between the white clay soils
and the black soil of pervious silt. Why it does so is
not as yet known, nor is the origin of these ridges
clearly understood. They seem to be a joint product of
the ice-sheet and its associated streams of water.
The portion of the older drift in northern Illinois,
which has no silt covering, is, in part, lower than the
districts bordering it, which are covered with the silt.
77
78
The silt depositing waters seem to have been excluded
from this district because the ice-sheet still covered it
while these waters were at their highest stage. This ap-
pears to be the newest portion of the older drift.
The several classes of silts found on the surface of the
older drift are so fully discussed in the text, that further
explanation seems unnecessary/except perhaps the state-
ment that, where heavily shaded, the silt is thicker than
where lightly shaded.
The sandy districts are characterized by ridges and
knolls, drifted (in part, at least,) by the action of the
wind. An attempt is made to represent this aggregation
by unequal shading of the district thus covered.
The glacial grooves indicate the direction of the ice
movement. They are usually nearly at right angles with
the trend of the adjoining morainic belt, or if on the
older drift, they are directed towards the margin of the
ice-sheet which deposited that drift.
The old outlet of Lake Michigan, down the DesPlaines
and Illinois, and the width of the channel, is represented
in blank, as is also the portion of Cook county covered
by the old lake.
Natural gas has been obtained from the drift in suffi-
cient amount for use, as fuel, in a few dwellings in several
different localities in the State, the principal districts
being in Bureau, LaSalle, Livingston and DeWitt coun-
ties. Being from this source, they are necessarily of low
pressure and small volume. The gas accumulates in sand
beds between beds of clay, and is derived either from the
vegetable material in buried soils in the drift, or from
passage upward from the shales underlying the drift.
Flowing wells are often obtained from the drift on the
plains bordering the morainic ridges. The principal dis-
trict is in Irpquois and Ford counties, where several
hundred wells have been obtained without entering the
rock. In this district, the water supply is apparently
from the elevated ridges on the south, and not, as popu-
larly supposed, from the Kankakee marsh on the north.
For convenience of reference, we ha^e condensed into
the form of a tabular statement the origin or mode ofi
deposition, and the areal distribution of the several
classes of soil. The accompanying map will aid in un-
derstanding the distribution.
Table of Soils of Illinois.
YARIETY.
ORIGIN OR
MODE or DE-
POSITION.
~V .
AREAL DISTRIBUTIQN.
i J?t &/ % .y
Residuary.
Decay of the
underlying
rocks.
Driftless portion of the State where-
ever the loess as well as the glacial
drift is absent.
Glacial clay.
Glacial.
Mainly in the northeastern quarter
of the State, where' loess and silts
are generally absent. The Shelby-
ville moraine -forms the southern
boundary, and chiefly the western
boundary, but in northern Illinois
glacial clays form the soil on the
older drift area between the Shel-
by ville m'oraine and the loess of
the Mississippi Valley.
Gravelly.
Glacial over-
wash.
Streams,
Lakes.
With the glacial clay in the north-
eastern part of the State, and along
streams leading away from the
Shelbyville and later moraines.
This variety of soil include* gravel
knolls and ridges, overwash gravel
plains, terraces and raised beaches.
80
Table of Soils of Illinois Continued.
ORIGIN OR
VARIETY.
MODE OF DE-
AREAX DISTRIBUTION.
POSITION.
Mainly in basins along the Kanka-
Glacial drain-
kee, Green and lower Illinois
rivers ; old lake bottom and raised
Sandy.
age.
Streams,
T .olrpa
beaches near Chicago ; also on bot-
tom lands, and fringing in many
JLJuJxCO)
^H7i nHo
places the low bluffs of streams,
VV 1UU.O.
and locally developed on areas of
glacial formations.
Along the Mississippi, lower Illinois,
Silts pervious
to water (chief-
ly the typical
loess).
Mainly by
slowly flow-
ing waters ;
perhaps, in
part, wind.
lower Wabash and lower Ohio
rivers; also between the Illinois
and the Mississipi from the Green
river basin south to the latitude
ofPeoria, and in the basin of the
Big Bureau Creek, in Bureau
county.
Silts slowly
pervious to
water.
Mainly by
slowly flow-
ing waters ;
perhaps, in
part, wind.
Mainly in West Central Illinois,
west of a line connecting Alton,
Litchfleld, Pana, Decatur and
Peoria ; also on the eastern border
of the Mississippi Valley loess belt,
in the northern part of the State.
Silts nearly
impervious to
water. (Two
kinds, name-
ly white clays
and gumbo.)
Nearly still
waters; per-
haps wind
in part.
/
White clays cover much of southern
Illinois south of Shelbyville mo-
raine, as far west as the Mississippi
loess, east to the Wabash loess and
south to the Ohio river loess.
Gumbo is found on some bottom
lands along the main rivers.
Locally over the greater part of the
State wherever drainage is imper-
Vegetal ac-
fect. Peat is rare south of the lati-
Peaty and
marly.
cumulations,
and shell de-
tude of Springfield, but it abounds
in the northeastern quarter of the
posits.
State, in bogs. Marl deposits are
less extensive than peat, but are
fully as widespread.
81
1. Sources of Soil Material.
The principal sources from which the soils of the State
are derived are the glacial drift and the loess, with its
associated silts of glacial age. The underlying rocks
are indirectly a source of much material since their de-
composed surface portions were incorporated in the
drift, but they constitute a minor source, so far as
direct contribution is concerned. Lakes and streams at-
tending the melting of the ice sheet have contributed
material in considerable amount, and it is thought that
the wind, also, has been influential in distributing fine
material over portions of the surface of the State. The
present streams are also a source for soils in the districts
over which they spread in their flood stages.'
We may, perhaps, better appreciate the sources of the
soils and the cause for their variation by a brief review
of the recent geological events.
It is now well known, by the presence of glacial striae
and a deposit of glacial drift, that at one time a sheet
of ice covered the entire State, excepting a few counties
in the southern end ; portions of Jo Daviess, Carroll and
Stephenson counties, in the northwest corner, and a nar-
row belt in Calhoun and Pike counties, in the western
portion of the State. (See Glacial and Soil Map.) When
the ice sheet withdrew (because of the excess of wastage
over onward flow), the stony clays and other material
which it had deposited became weathered at surface into
soil. Organic matter was added by life which flourished
upon this soil, and in flat tracts it became blackened by
humus to an average depth of several inches.
After a long period, apparently several thousand years,
this soil became extensively covered by silt deposits, known
as the loess and white clay, yet it may still be seen be-
neath these deposits, its dark color being in striking
contrast with the light-colored silt. These silts now form
-6
82
the surface over much of western and southern Illinois.
A few counties in the northern part of the State are par-
tially covered by them. To what extent the central
and northeastern portions of the State became silt-
covered is unknown, since, as shown below, these portions
of the State were subsequently covered by a thick sheet
of glacial drift. The loess and associated silts also cover
nearly the whole of the unglaciated portion of southern
Illinois; the unglaciated districts bordering the Missis-
sippi in northwestern Illinois, and the entire unglaciated
district in Pike and Calhoun counties in western Illinois.
Since the silt deposits are usualty so thick that the
soils are derived from them, and not from the underlying
rocks, the portion of the State where the soil is derived
directly from the undertying rocks is of much less extent
than the uuglaciated districts. It embraces only portions
of the elevated ridge traversing Union, Johnson and
Pope counties, in southern Illinois, and portions of Jo
Daviess, Stephenson and Carroll counties, in northwest-
ern Illinois (to which should, of course, be added hillside
exposures or other points within the glaciated district,
where rock comes to the surface.)
It is generally thought that the deposits of loess and
silt were made by water, though some geologists are
inclined to attribute their wide distribution over the up-
lands, between streams, to the supplementary agency
of wind. That water had a great share in the deposi-
tion seems probable, from the fact that the deposits are
much thicker along the principal waterways, such as the
Wabash, Illinois and Mississippi, than they are in the
districts remote from the streams. There is also a change
from a porous to a very compact, nearly impervious,
material in passing away from the streams, such as would
be expected on the aqueous theory, the finer material
having been removed along the current and retained in
83
the slack water of the border districts. The analyses of
Illinois soils, made by Prof. J. A. Udden, under the
direction of Prof. Milton Whitney, show that the loess,
or pervious silt, contains no coarser particles than are
found in the impervious silt, but that it is less heavily
charged with very fine particles. It can scarcely be
doubted that the removal of the fine particles is due to
a current which followed the present main waterways.
We would remark here that these analyses bring out the
further important fact that the physical condition of
porosity is a very important factor in determining fertility.
Prof. Whitney has found this a principle of wide applica-
tion in districts which vary greatly in the chemical or
mineralogical constitution of the soils. The loess deposits
along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers show considerable
variation in thickness, the range being from about 20
feet up to fully 100 feet. On the Wabash they are
somewhat thinner, being usually but 15 to 20 feet, and
in some places much less. Within five or ten miles back
from the stream the thickness of the loess decreases as
a rule to but 8 or 10 feet, and seldom is greater than
15 feet. In southern Illinois, where this deposit is called
a white clay, its thickness is only from 3 to 6 feet.
Subsequent to the deposition of the loess and associated
silts the ice sheet again invaded Illinois, but fell short
by over 100 miles of reaching as far south as in the
earlier invasion. The limit of this later invasion is
marked by the Shelbyville moraine, shown on the soil
map. The amount of drift deposited is much greater
than that during the first invasion, the thickness at the
border of the later drift area being 100 to 150 feet or
more, while in the earlier drift it seldom exceeds 40 feet,
and is usually but 15 to 20 feet. The rise to this later
drift sheet, in passing north or east from the earlier
drift area, is well shown on the topographic map of the
State, prepared by Prof. Rolfe.
84
Along some of the valleys which lead away from this
newer drift district there are terraces of coarse gravel
and cobble which bear clear evidence that they were
formed by streams whose sources were in the ice-sheet.
These deposits were apparently made in the bed of the
glacial stream. At higher levels along the bluffs of these
valleys sandy deposits occur, which are thought to
mark the flood plain. In some instances the sand ap-
pears to have been drifted by wind to higher altitudes
than were reached by the water. Such sandy deposits
are to be seen along the valleys of the following rivers:
Kishwaukee, Green, Illinois, Sangamon, and Embarras.
In its retreat this later ice-sheet had periods of halt-
ing (because of a balance between wastage and onflow).
These were in several instances sufficiently long to build
up prominent ridges of drift (moraines). Because of this
method of formation, one passes into newer and newer
country in crossing these ridges from southwest to
northeast, the newest glacial ridge in the State being
along the shore of Lake Michigan, north of Chicago. It
should, perhaps, be stated that the ice-sheet apparently
made some important readvances after beginning a
general retreat, for its morainic ridges are far from
concentric, and indicate that shiftings in the movement