622
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
in prairie and woodland, along its whole course, sloped gently to the water's edge. On its west bank, Tyler, Ferson's and Mill Creeks were its principal tributaries, while from the east Popple Creek was the only stream of similar size contributing its waters. Yet, upon each bank, very many fine brooks and contiguous springs were feeding its whole course with their pure, cool waters. In ordinary times it was never a deep stream; but in those early days, when the whole surface of the land was covered with the tough prairie sod, like an almost impenetrable thatch, the heavy rains and, in spring, melting snows, poured volumes of water into all its tributaries, that frequently overflowed their banks and so filled the river that it became a torrent impassable to man or beast. And, when the ice broke after a severe winter and came sweeping down with the spring freshet, its force was irresistible, and the first bridges and dams were swept away like straws before the mad floods. Probably the river itself, and also each of these tributary streams, have diminished nearly one-half in size and flow of current. The winter cutting of thousands and hundreds of thousands of tons of ice from its frozen surface, and the erection of so many dams and bridges, together with the constant diversion of so much of its water for the use of the fine cities and towns along its bank, have so diminished its volume and current that it is now easily controlled. The river valley is very narrow, as the summit toward Lake Michigan is but eight or ten miles eastward, while, from ten or twelve miles westward, the drainage flows to the distant Rock River.
A number of lakes or ponds, covering from fifteen to eighty or more acres each, formerly existed along its western water-shed. Nelson's Lake on the line between the townships of Batavia and Blackberry, and Lily Lake, just east of the Campton and Virgil line, were probably the largest and deepest of them. Quite a body of deep water covered a portion of the northwest quarter of Section 8, and another larger, but shallower, lay on the east line of the southeast quarter of Section 16, both in Elgin Township. The latter was the source of the north branch of Ferson's Creek, and Lily Lake was the source of the south branch. There were many other smaller ponds in the county.
The greater absorption of the rainfall by the earth under cultivation, and a thorough system of open ditches and covered tiling, have completely drained these reservoirs, and the former sloughs; and today these low-lying lands are among the most productive in the county. Each township has one or more clear running spring brooks, and yet so well defined and straight is the summit between the Fox and Rock Rivers, that the dividing line of the two western tiers of townships of the county does not cross a single stream.
The banks of the river and of its principal tributaries were usually bordered with a fine growth of forest trees, the white, black, red and burr-oaks being most numerous; but there were also shag-bark and bitter hickories, white and black ash, sugar maples, black walnut and butternut, several varieties of elms, basswood, poplar, sycamore trees, and a few cedars. On the east bank of the river there was a body of magnificent timber, extending from the south line of the county northward to Batavia, called the "Big Woods," and a similar growth, reaching from Geneva to the north line of St. Charles Township, was called the "Little Woods." These tracts were covered with a growth of hardwood trees, standing so thickly and of such stately proportions as to fully justify their designation as "timber lands." There were many splendid oaks, maples and black walnuts, whose massive boles would square over two feet, which rose straight as arrows, with a height of thirty or forty feet to the first spreading branches which formed their lofty crowns, and whose huge limbs often produced logs sixteen feet in length that could be split into rails. For many years these timber lands produced large quantities of hewed and sawed timber, ties, planks and boards, for building dams, mills, bridges, plank-roads, railways and various other structures; while also supplying rails, stakes and posts for fencing, and fuel for the communities located along the river.
On the northeast quarter of Section 1, in Elgin Township, there was a small tract of very remarkable forest and plant growth known as the "Cedar Swamp." Each variety of the forest trees above mentioned reached their perfection here; and, in addition, there were great red and white cedars, not tall but with low immense trunks, and very large branches. From single points of view more than a dozen varieties of splendid
