caught sight of a herd of over fifty buffaloes heading west. They followed all that afternoon but were unable to get near enough to bring the bison within range of their guns. The creeks and rivers were swollen by heavy June rains and the buffaloes had the advantage of the hunters. The buffaloes would plunge into the stream anywhere it crossed their trail and swim across while the hunters were compelled to find a shallow place where they could ford, as they had a team and covered wagon along, beside their saddle horses. At one good sized stream they found a favorable crossing over a beaver dam, which had been constructed by these busy animals in these early days. Another crossing was made in Indian canoes in which the baggage and perishable goods were transported to the other side and the horses swam the stream, being led behind the canoes. They followed the buffaloes to the identical spot where Hampton now stands, and when night came on the party gave up the chase which they intended to resume the next morning. They now felt sure of bagging the big game next morning and as a matter of precaution built no camp fire that night for fear it might scare away the buffaloes. They ate a scanty meal of cold corn bread, tethered their horses and lay down to sleep away the June night on the Hampton prairie with dreams of great sport in store for them the next day. When morning came, the buffaloes had disappeared, but the herd of elk were quarried near Tharp's Grove, and a fine day's sport the hunters had from there to Van Horn's Grove. During the day they killed seven elk, four of them with horns measuring six feet from tip to tip. CHAPTER V geologic features of franklin county—its rocks, streams and hills woods, fruits, soil and commercial clay to the student this is an interesting chapter. earlier geological work The area now within the confines of Franklin county was traversed previous to 1852 by parties under the direction of David Dale Owen in tracing the boundary between the Devonian and Carboniferous systems. Dr. C. A. White states that the Kinderhook limestone outcrops. along the Iowa river in Franklin county. Careful search at the present time failed to reveal any exposures of this formation along the Iowa in the county. In Volume II of White's report published the same year, a general review of the geology and natural resources of Franklin county is given. All the indurated rocks exposed in the area were by this author referred to the Kinderhook. The present study indicates the presence of Devonian rocks in West Fork and Ingham townships. Exposures of shales and limestones may be frequently observed in the neighborhood of the west fork of the Cedar river, which bear typical Devonian fossils, thus leaving no question as to their identity. The surface features of Franklin county are such that it can primarily be separated into two fairly distinct districts. The boundaries of these districts have been determined by the deposition of glacial detritus from the two ice sheets last to invade the territory. Essentially the eastern tier of townships and the two upper members, Ross and Mott, of the second row, are included in the area of Iowan drift. The remainder of the county, approximately five-eighths of its total area, is covered with the more recent Wisconsin glacial till, and its topography is, as a result, characteristically immature. The boundary line between these two provinces is somewhat irregular, but with few exceptions the differences in surface con figuration are so marked that there arises no question as to its location. Its course across the county is in general from west of north to east of south. Entering two and a quarter miles from the east border of Richland, and passing one mile to the west of the city of Hampton, it divides Reeve township diagonally nearly into halves and detaching somewhat more than one and one-half square miles. from the northeast corner of Grant, makes its exit into Hardin county two and one-quarter miles east of the western boundary of Osceola township. To the suspecting observer, who is already familiar with the trend of this dividing line in the counties to the north and south, there is much of suggestion as to its probable course in Franklin county to be obtained from the ordinary civil map which shows only legal boundaries, railroads and streams. Perusal of such a map will show the prevailing courses of the streams within the Wisconsin area to be eastward. Just before breaking through the moraine these streams, wtihout exception, assume a northeasterly direction, with many sharp turns and windings, as though seeking a vulnerable point of egress. Outside of the Wisconsin they at once assume the uniform south of easterly direction of flow. On closer inspection of each of these two areas, it will be found that they again break up into more or less well defined districts according to, and depending on, the particular type of land form predominating. The Iowan drift area may be considered in two parts, first, that portion whose surface features are due to the materials of the Iowan drift; and second, that part whose topography depends on the earlier erosion of the limestones and shales of the older formations and later modifications by loess deposition. The Wisconsin drift area is separable into the Altamont moraine and the more level portion of the drift surface to be designated the drift plain. iowan drift area About three-eighths of the county is covered with drift of Iowan age. But the materials of this sheet of drift are not alone responsible for the topographic features of more than one-third of this area. The Iowan till sheet is relatively thin wherever observed in the state, and it becomes more attenuated near its southern border, which crosses eastern Hardin county some nine miles south from the Franklin county line. The thickness of this deposit in Franklin county is, over considerable areas in Ross, West Fork, Reeve and Osceola townships, sufficient to disguise largely pre-existing features and to exert a ruling influence on the present topography. Away from the streams in the townships mentioned the land surface is in general level, often monotonously so for miles, the characteristic Iowan drift plain. This is especially true of portions of Ross and West Fork townships. The surface is occasionally broken by the trenching of the smaller streams whose valleys are seldom cut to any considerable depth however, without exposing the underlying shales or limestones. The landscape is occasionally varied by the presence of the usual large fresh granite boulders which characterize this drift. In the vicinity of the larger streams and in fact over a good share of Mott, and especially in Ingham and Geneva townships, the land surface is more hilly and rugged. This would be expected as a result of the down-cutting of the streams no matter what the material in which they had to work; but here the relief is due very largely to the outcropping or barely covered ledges of Kinderhook limestone. Along the west fork of the Cedar river the Devonian strata are responsible for many of the prominent topographic features. East of this river hills of limestone underlain with shales form the bounding walls of the valley, and outcrops are common in the northwest part of West Fork township. The area westward from this stream to the border of the Carboniferous rocks has the characteristic mild topography of the Lime creek shales, somewhat modified by the Iowan drift and loess, and is in contrast with the more pronounced reliefs imparted by the Kinderhook limestone as will be later noted. The practical absence of the earlier Kansan drift as a factor of topographic importance may be accounted for by erosion preceding the Iowan stage. The indurated rocks are therefore the chief determining factors, but these, while commonly outcropping on the hill slopes and along the borders of the river valleys, are universally capped with a thin layer of drift and a greater or less thickness of loess. The occurrence of loess overlying Iowan drift has been recorded by Calvin in Mitchell county, by Beyer in Marshall and by Savage in Tama and Fayette counties, and is known at various other points in the Iowan drift area. It is usually but a thin veneer and seldom sufficient to exert a controlling influence on topography. In the portion of the Iowan drift area in Franklin county just outlined, however, the characteristics of typical loess topography are unmistakable. While the Iowan is in most places in this county covered with a loess-like material, it is here only that its presence becomes conspicuously noticeable. A series of loess-covered hills, growing in prominence northwestward, extends from the county line in east Ingham to the southeast corner of Ross township. The hills are supported by limestone and represent the extreme northeasterly outliers of the Kinderhook. The more prominent eminences rise frequently fifty to sixty feet above water in the streams. A similar series of hills extends across northern Geneva into the southern part of Mott township. They are also to be found south of Mayne creek in Geneva and north Osceola townships. In general, the larger streams are skirted by loess-erosional hills of this type. In some respects these land forms resemble the paha described by McGee as occurring in Delaware, Fayette, Bremer, Benton and other counties in this section of the state. The nuclei of such elevations are of indurated rocks, they are always crowned with loess and stand at times considerably above the level of the surrounding drift plain. wisconsin drift area Essentially five-eighths of the area of the county is included in the region occupied by the Wisconsin drift. This region displays two types of surface, the hilly, knobby tracts of the Altamont and Gary moraines and the relatively level drift plain. The Moraines.—The eastern border of the Wisconsin area is in general marked by a belt of hilly country varying in width from two to seven miles. In Richland and north Marion townships it has an average width of four to five miles, broadening southward so as to include practically the southern half of Marion and nearly three square miles in the southwest corner of Mott township. This outer zone of hills narrows in its course to the southeast across Reeve, and in Grant and Osceola townships is but two and a half to three miles wide. The hills in this morainal area are not prominent, and the topography grows milder to the westward, gradually merging into the drift plain. This is especially true in Richland, Marion and Grant townships. Passing from the Iowan to the Wisconsin drift there is a rise in elevation of from twenty to eighty or ninety feet, the most noticeable relief being in the northern part of Reeve township. Here the rise is rapid to the summits of conspicuous ridges of drift that were deposited close to the ice border, and beyond which a fairly high slope leads to the level of the drift plain in north Hamilton township. Throughout this morainal tract the surface is one of |