This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870. Excerpt: ... THE STATE OF INDIANA. ITS TOPOGRAPHY--CLIMATE--SOIL--AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS--LIVE STOCK-CHEAP FOOD-HARD WOODS--TIMBER-MINERALS (with a full Geological sketch) AND RAILWAY SYSTEM. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE STATE. Indiana lies in the great valley in the midst of the Central States, between the lakes and the Ohio. In area she comprises 23,350,000 acres, nearly all of which may be made available for mining, grazing or farming purposes. The surface is generally level and but slightly elevated above the lakes or rivers, rising at no point over five hundred feet above their plane, or more than one thousand feet above the sea. The State may be divided into three topographical sections, termed the Lake, the Ohio river and the Central sections. The Central section--which comprises nearly all of the State--is drained in a southwesterly direction by the "Wabash and its affluents, chief among which is "White River, which by its east and west forks drains the central and southern portions. This river system proves the State to be a wide shallow basin, reaching from a line about twenty miles northwest of and parallel to the "Wabash to the Ohio, whose abrupt bluffs, towering nearly five hundred feet along the south line, reach the highest elevation in the State, and through whose gorges short rapid streams find their way to the river below. The Lake section (subdivided into an east and west section) reaches from the Lake and north line nearly to the "Wabash and a similar region extends west and north some distance beyond Chicago. The western section is nearly on the Lake level, flat and swampy, traversed by long, low, sandy ridges covered with small trees, the spaces between the ridges being filled with swamps, or in the eastern section with small permanent lakes. The Kankake...