eral counties, among them the then unorganized county of Allamakee, and it is probable its name was officially given at that time. David Umstead was a member of the Second Constitutional Convention, in 1846. We have been to some pains to investigate this subject, but find nothing fully authoritative. Col. S. Č. Trowbridge, a resident of Iowa City, who came to Jowa in 1837 and surveyed and organized Johnson County, states positively that "the name Allamakee is an Indian name purely, all speculative theories to the contrary notwithstanding." TOPOGRAPHY. Allamakee County occupies the extreme northeastern corner of Iowa, with the Mississippi river on its eastern border, Minnesota on the north, and Winneshiek and Clayton counties on the west and south respectively. It is about twenty-nine miles in length from north to south; twenty miles from east to west at the northern line, and twenty-eight in extreme width through the center tier of townships, averaging about twenty-three; giving an area of 664 square miles. At the southern line of the County the Mississippi river is about 625 feet above the sea level. Along the river front the County is bordered its entire length with a bold outline of bluffs from 300 to 400 feet high, from the tops of which the surface gradually slopes upward until at Waukon, eighteen miles back, it reaches an altitude of 655 feet above the river at low water mark. The Upper Iowa River and its tributaries water the northern portion of the county; Village Creek and Paint Creek take their rise near its centre and flow eastward into the Mississippi. The former north and the latter south of east-while the Yellow River takes its course through the southern tier of townships. These streams have all cut their channel deeply into the rocks, especially the Upper Iowa, which flows through a narrow, winding valley, with bluffs on either side which have an elevation near its mouth but little less than those along the Mississippi. In many places the fall of these streams is quite rapid, furnishing the very best of water powers. Along the courses of the Iowa and lower part of Yellow Rivers, and a strip four to six miles wide on the river front, the surface of the country is of course, rough and badly broken, but much of this bluffy country is well wooded, as are also many of the valleys of the streams, as well as the uplands in some portions of the county. Back from the river the county rpresents a more attractive appearance to the agriculturist. The oak and hickory openings, the rich hazel-brush lands, the prairie with their deep, black loam, the warm and sometime sandy valleys, together with the rich alluvial deposits of the river bottoms, afford a diversity of soil well adapted for all his purposes. The prairies occupy the central and western portions ofthe county, as well as parts of the extreme northern and southern tiers of townships, and are unsurpassed for natural fertility and beauty. They are well watered with innumerable gushing springs of clear, cold and pure water, are dotted here and there with groves, and are just sufficiently rolling to afford excellent drainage, as also relief from the monotonous level of some prairie countries. In the valley of the Mississippi where the channel does not approach the base of the bluffs, are some extremely fertile bottom lands, and a net work of sloughs, lakes and islands; some of the sloughs being of sufficient size to at times allow the passage of large steamers, as is the case with Harper's channel along the front of Taylor Township. At some points the main channel is three or four miles from the bluffs, and again it skirts their very base. The principal tributaries of the Iowa are: on the north, Bear, Waterloo, and Clear Creeks; and on the south, Coon, Patterson, Mineral, Silver, and French Creeks. Those of the Yellow River are: from the north, the north fork, and Bear Creek; from the south, Hickory and Suttle Creeks. No less than seven of these creeks-including Village and Paint-have their sources in springs near the highest part of the county, surrounding Waukon, and flow thence in all directions except to the southwest. Some of these springs bubble up through the earth at the foot of a hill-slope, frequently covering a surface many feet square and forming a good-sized brook at once; others have a less pretentious origin; while there are numerous instances in the County where the water issues in a torrent from near the base of the cavernous face of a limestone cliff from twenty to fifty feet high, on a side-hill. GEOLOGY. It is to be regretted that no complete geological survey of this County has ever been made. Enough is now known, however, from the experience of practical observers, to show that, while our system of rocks is on the whole a simple one, as demonstrated by the early explorers, in its details it is far more complicated than they supposed, owing to interruption of the regular stratification; and as it is more studied and examined the more it exhibits surprising evidences of disturbance during its formation. As classified by geologists all the rocks of our county come under the head of Lower Silurian, and many of them are rich in fossils of mollusks peculiar to that age. These rocks are oldest in order and lowest in the earth's superstructure, the Potsdam Sandstone which is exposed in the valley of the Upper Iowa river, lying next above the rocks of the Azoic Age-the foundation of all. Above the Potsdam Sandstone in the following order are the Lower Magnesian Limestone, the St. Peter's Sandstone, the Trenton and Galena Limestones. The dip, or inclination of all these strata in this region is to the south, so that theoretically in entering the county from that direction one finds the last mentioned rock occupying the surface, and in passing northward he crosses in succession the surfaces occupied by the Trenton, St. Peter's, and the Lower Magnesian, meanwhile passing downward or backward in the order of their formation. And this is nearly correct practically, also. Prof. C. A. White, in his report on the Geological Survey of Iowa (unfortunately never completed) published in 1870, says: "The Upper Iowa rises in the region occupied by Devonian rocks and flows across the outcrops respectively of the Niagara, Galena, and Trenton Limestones, the St. Peter's Sandstone, the Lower Magnesian Limestone, and Potsdam Sandstone; into, and through all of which, except the last, it has successively cut its valley, the deepest valley in Iowa, reaching a depth in its lower part of more than four hundred feet from the highest ground in the vicinity. That portion of it which traverses Allamakee County has the Potsdam Sandstone composing the base of its valley sides, the Lower Magnesian Limestone forming the remainder of them. They are everywhere high and steep, the Limestone cliffs giving them a wild and rugged aspect. The farming lands of the higher surface, however, extend almost to the very verge of the valley. * * * * * * This stream has the greatest slope per mile of any in the State; consequently it furnishes immense water power. This river and its tributaries are the * * * only trout streams in the State." * * * * Potsdam Sandstone.-In his report on the Geology of Iowa, published in 1858, State Geologist James Hall says of this rock: "It attains its greatest exposure in Minnesota and Wisconsin, north of the limits of Iowa, and about the region of Lake Pepin. From this point the rock dips both to the northeast and southwest. The excavation of the Upper Iowa River has removed the Calciferous Sandstone (Lower Magnesian Limestone) so that in following up that river the Potsdam Sandstone forms its banks for more than twenty miles along its meandering course. Below the mouth of the Upper Iowa, this rock forms the bluffs along the Mississippi, extending for a greater or less distance up the ravines and valleys of the larger streams. The tops of the high bluffs near the river, however, soon become capped by the lower Magnesian, and the sandstone gradually declines from cliffs several hundred feet in height to the level of the river, beneath which it finally disappears at the foot of Pike's Hill, opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin River, and a short distance below McGregor's landing. * * * * * * It is usually a light drab color, sometimes nearly white, and not unfrequently stained brown by the oxide of iron which at some places appears in great abundance.' "Some slightly calcareous bands of this rock contain fragments of trilobites, and in numerous localities shells of Lingula are found. These fossiliferous bands appear in the vicinity of Lansing, where the bed containing trilobites lies some sixty feet above the river, In its general character this sandstone is a friable mass, usually crumbling on exposure to the frost and sun." "The passage of this sandstone into the overlying limestone is effected by numerous repetitions and alternations of the two rocks, giving rise to a series of beds along their junction, which from their chemical composition, might as well be reckoned to one rock as the other.” * * * Lower Magnesian Limestone.-Of this formation, Prof. Hall says: "The great dolomitic mass which overlies the Potsdam Sandstone in the Valley of the Mississippi is known throughout that region as the Lower Magnesian Limestone. This rock becomes a conspicuous member of the series where it forms the bluffs which overhang the Mississippi from Prairie du Chien far up the St. Croix. The undulations of the strata bring it to the surface in many valleys in Wisconsin where the Galena or Blue limestones occupy the elevated prairie (and this is also true on the west side of the river). Within the limits of Iowa the Lower Magnesian is most conspicious along the Upper Iowa River, it also crops out in the valleys of Paint Creek and Yellow River, but the amount of surface covered by it is quite small." * * "The rock is usually checkered with seams and joints on its exposed surfaces, and presents a very rude exterior. In some localities, however, it will produce a durable building material." "The materials of the rock appear to have been broken up while partially indurated; the interstices are often filled with sand, and fragments of friable sandstone are often found mingled with the broken rock itself. In some instances these fragments bear evidence of having been torn from masses of rock previously indurated. In many cases the breceiated character seem to be due in some degree to internal action among the materials of the rock itself." In some regions, "sudden depression occur, where the succeeding rock comes in at a much lower level than it occupies on either side. The appearance is that of sudden small faults or downthrows, as if the rock over a certain area were abruptly depressed before the deposition of the succeeding one. "The annexed section on Bear Creek, near New Galena, thirteen miles due west of the Mississippi, shows the character and relations of this rock to the over and underlying sandstones. "Soft friable red sandstone.... 12 feet Beds of passage from dolomite to sandstone. White crystalline dolomite, partly concealed, but showing itself at various points..... 168 feet 30 feet White sandstone, to level of Bear Creek.. 83 feet This shows "a thickness of one hundred and sixty-eight feet of the Lower Magnesian limestone, of which the lower one hundred and fourteen feet are concealed by a grassy slope. The upper fifty-four feet are exposed in a vertical cliff of hard white dolomite, irregularly stratified and somewhat concretionary in its structure. Of the upper-or St. Peter's-sandstone only twelve feet are here exhibited: it is a friable rock of red color." "The indications of the existence of organic life during the deposition of this limestone are few." Sulphuret of lead has been found in the Lower Magnesian in such quantities that formerly many persons were led to suppose that this rock might one day become of as much importance as the Galena limestone has been. We quote Prof. Hall: "The most important deposits of lead in this rock which have been observed within the limits of Iowa, are situated in the valley of Mineral Creek, a stream flowing north, through a valley lined with precipitous bluffs, into the Upper Iowa river, and about three miles south of a small settlement called New Galena: the diggings are on the southwest quarter of section 13, township 99, range 6 west. In this vicinity the Upper sandstone is well exposed on the top of the bluff, and a shaft has been sunk in it. Along the face of the bluff, in which a thickness of one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet of the Lower Magnesian limestone is exposed, a number of drifts have been extended.into the rock, a little below its junction with the sandstone, and considerable galena has been taken out. The ore appears to be associated with irregular strings and bunches of calcareous spar, ramifying through the rock, but nowhere assuming a regular form like that of a vein, or appearing to occupy a well developed fissure. * * * * * * It is said that between fifty and one hundred thousand pounds of lead had been obtained from these diggings; but it seems hardly possible that the operation should have been, on the whole, a profitable one; and, we see little to encourage farther expenditures at this point." * * * The "mine" was abandoned about that time, of which we shall speak further in another place; and although during the quarter of a century since then there have been a number of persons faithful to this idea of finding lead in paying quantities in the county, none as yet has been developed. Small quantities have been found from time to time, in various portions of the county -in Paint Creek, Jefferson, Ludlow and Union Prairie townships, on Portland Prairie, and notably in the valley of Yellow River and a small tributary three or four miles from the Mississippi. In the last mentioned locality specimens have been found as lately as 1881 which assayed 89 per cent. of lead, with 249.7 ounces of silver to the ton, and a trace of gold. Copper has also been observed in some of these specimens, as also in specimens from the |