Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1853-07-13
From the Madison State Journal.
SOufHR-vvester WISCONSIN,.

SOtkERs w GSEcTA WISCONSIN,
GENTS With permission, / propose
to furnish few sho rt sketches in rela-
ton to the lead region, pointing out some
of its more prominent peculiarities as
contrasted with other sections of the
State, mound or mountain scenery, re-
sources, capacities, SC. The country
described embraces the counties Of
Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, and parts of
Green and Dane-a portion of the state
which though longest settled is, ] fear,
little known to the mass Of our. citi-
zens, and its value duly appreciated by
but few.
The southwestern counties Of Wis
|consin, embracing the lead region, have
certain physical peculiarities of surface
and scenery, strikingly different from
the balance of the state. This differ
Ience does not consist in any marked
change in the character of the vegeta-
ton, for that is essensially the same as
that of the interior generally-made up
of the native growth of prairies and O.
openings but in the contour of the sur
face. 1t is not mountainous country,
land yet has mountains-it has none of
those long plains and wide-spreading ba-
sins of the more eastern counties-none
of the broad bottoms of their streams or
the low marshes of their ancient or ex-
isting lakes. 1t is furrowed with rid
Iges, yet they have great uniformity of
direction, in general corresponding with
the cardinal points-unlike the confused
ridges of other sections, which have lit
tie uniformity in shape, and less in or
der or arrangement. It's hills are not
hills in the true sense of the term, but
the remains of once horizontal depos-
Iites now cut up and separated by rills
and streamlets, entirely unlike the hills
of sand and gravel in other localities
There is not gravel hill or bowlder in
Jail this mining region. Its rivers, too,
differ widely in appearance from most
others in the state. Their valleys are
verticle sections cut through the rocky
Ideposites, often to depth of two or
three hundred feet, bounded by solid and
nearly perpendicular walls intersected
with numerous ravines, and are never
of any great width, the bottoms in no
case, it is believed, exceeding much d
bove mile, and usually not a fourth
that distance to indicate their former ex-
istence; nor are there any marshes, or
bodies of standing or stagnant water
In all these respects it is unlike the bal
ance Of Wisconsin. Its surface is a
great watershed, from whose graceful
slopes descending torrents of rain are
hurried in wild speed to mingle with
the vast volume of the great river of
the west.
The soil of all this region possesses
al the elen2onte of endless fertility A
heavy surface soil of loam--the remains
of ages of rank vegetation-a sub-soil
OF clay, impregnated with every fertal-
izing property-crumbling rocks and
hills, adding their richness with every
rain, to the lower levels and valleys
nothing remains to adapt it to every va
Iriety Of profitable agriculture, and to
retain it in perpetual fertility. It's pres
ent settlers are not often driven to the
necessity of digging deep wells. Count
less springs water almost every section
of the country, and in this respect it is
|incomparably ahead Of any other portion
'of the state. IF to this is added, that
the great mining and farming interests
may be carried on in concert, the future
wealth of this portion Of the state may
be surmised but hot at present calculs-
ted. T.