Excerpt from The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois: Containing a History of the Counties, Their Cities, Towns, &C.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General Statistics; Map of Menard and Mason Counties; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated Its lakes are fresh water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.