Memoirs of Waukesha County. From the earliest historical times to the present with chapters on various subjects, including each of the different towns, and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in the county, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information.

              MEMOIRS  OF  WAUKESHA  COUNTY 49
mation of the Kettle moraine of the glacial peripd, and the numerous mounds of the pre-historic man.
The geological formation of the region will have already suggested its general contour, which is hilly in the western part, in the region of the Kettle moraine and more level in the eastern part, where the surface is that of the ground moraine, with occasional outcroppings of the underlying rock, which diversifies the landscape by abrupt and rugged features.
Summit Center was formerly supposed to be the highest point be¬ tween the Bark and Rock rivers, but more recent observations have determined that point to be Government Hill, in section 29, in the town of Delafield, which is 611 feet above Lake Michigan.
The parallels of 43° north latitude and 88° west longitude cross near the city of Waukesha; these distances being translated into miles makes the distance north of the equator about 3,000 miles and west of the Greenwich line, 6,130 miles. The climate which this location suggests is not materially different from other portions of the state in the same latitude, except that it is somewhat modified by its nearness to Lake Michigan and comes within the area of its influence. This influence tends toward the diminution of the extremes of both heat and cold, and to a slightly drier atmosphere than points farther inland. The mean temperature for the summer is 68° and for the winter 21^ the mean temperature for the year being 45°. The extreme^ of both heat and cold show great variation. In January and February of 1885 the mercury in Fahrenheit thermometers stood below zero on every morning except the last day of February. *
The soil of Waukesha county, as may be suggested by the geological review, is the combined result of glacial drift and the grinding action of the glacial forces upon the original rock. The combination has given to the section a varied, and in the main, a rich soil. The decom¬ position of the limestone, originally a marine deposit, and the dis¬ integration of drift clays and marls form the principal constituents. There are occasional beds of pure clay which have a commercial value and are used in the manufacture of brick and tile, but most of the clays are mixedi. Where the limestone disintegrations are compar¬ atively pure the soil originally supported the forests of hard wood and is valuable for the production of grains. A drift soil of calcareous sand is another combination which becomes more valuable under culti¬ vation, as the subsoil contains a large percentage of dolomite. The soils of the meadows, formerly swamps, is chiefly vegetable mould and is usually very rich. By natural and artificial drainage much valuable pasture and meado\v land has been obtained whose surface soil is com¬ posed of humus origin. The knolls of coarse gravel, belonging to the Kettle moraine district, are usually hard and comparatively barren, although most of them may be utilized for pasturage.
The opinion expressed in 1827, by James Duane Doty, in a govern¬ ment report of the region, has been found to be substantiated by the agricultural community that has in the seventy intervening years claimed and cultivated it. He says: "That country is also known to be fertile which borders upon the Fox (Neenah) river and Winnebago