"The face of the country is nearly uniform from the state line to the base of the mountains. It is one continued succession of gently undulating ridges and valleys. The ridges are not uniformly north and south, or east and west; their general inclination is north and south, but they are thrown into various other directions by the course of the streams and the conformations of their valleys. Within the mountain chain there is to be found every variety of aspect peculiar to mountain districts. The first district of country, travelling westward from any point on the Missouri border, is marked by all the characteristics of the soil inside of that border. This district stretches from the northern to the southern boundary, and varies in width from eighty to one hundred and fifty and two hundred miles. It includes the sources of the Neosho, the Verdegris, the Marais des Cygnes, and other tributaries of the Osage, and the lower section of the Kanzas river. It is unrivalled for the fertility of its soil, the value of its timber and forest trees, the amenity and beauty of its broad prairies, the number of its crystal streams, and the salubrity of its climate. It is rather more scant of timber than is the country in the same range in Missouri, but it is identical and equal in soils and productions, and superior in purity and vitality of atmosphere. This fertile district does not gradually deteriorate as we progress westward to the second district, but ceases suddenly. Travelling from Independence westward, its boundary is Sandy Creek, a tributary of SOIL, ETC., OF KANZAS. 83 the Kanzas, and travelling on the Santa Fé trail, it is bounded by Council Grove. Within a belt of one hundred yards in width, from the northern to the southern boundary of the territory, the observer will find two distinct soils, marking the first and second districts. The hundred yard belt is not a right line from north to south, but is serpentine, and with a general direction north and south. "The second district presents to the eye a surface apparently of sand, but it must be impregnated largely with nutritive properties, for it is covered with grasses and rushes. In the valleys and hollows, where the soil is moist, the grass is abundant during the whole season; but upon the ridges it becomes stunted in June and July, and dry enough to burn after the middle of September. This district is essentially a pastoral region. There is no timber upon it, and not trees enough to serve as fire-wood for any great length of time. The only trees to be found at all are in the valley of the Kanzas, and they are chiefly cottonwood and willow. It is wholly unfit for agricultural purposes, and must remain so forever. Its geological structure is a sufficient indication of this fact. This district, from Sandy Creek, extends westward to a north and south line a few miles east of Fort Laramie,- say about three hundred and fifty miles. "The third district is a formation of marl and earthy limestone, and is a continuation southward of a similar district described in my former letter as existing in Nebraska. It is in this district that what are termed buttes most frequently occur. These buttes are elevations varying in width from a hundred feet to several hundred yards. They are not knolls or hills. Their surfaces are flat, and their sides are nearly perpendicular. They can be likened to nothing but the trap-doors on the stages of theatres when elevated above the floors. It seems as if the general surface had suddenly sunk down, leaving them scattered all over the plains. I have never heard a plausible guess made touching the causes of their existence, and imagine that geologists will be much troubled to account for them. It is of this formation that what are called by the traders, in consequence of a fancied resemblance to these objects, the Court-House, the Cathedral, and the Chimneys - noted objects on the road to Oregon and California - are made. This is, however, only a narrow, irregular belt, and is succeeded by a fourth district, intervening between it and the Black Hills. It is very fertile, and admirably adapted to grain and vegetables. It is wholly destitute of timber. "The fourth district is somewhat similar to the first, at least along the base of the Black Hills, where it has been enriched for ages by the debris. There is more wood upon it than in the last named, because the small affluents of the great streams are more numerous along the base of the Black Hills than anywhere else. The eastern portion of it is pastoral, like the second district; but the western portion, skirting the hills, consists of a broad bank of fertile SOIL, ETC., OF KANZAS. 85 soil, finely timbered and watered, and abounding in game, wild fruits and flowers. It is one of the most lovely and desirable regions upon the continent. "The fifth district is the space between the Black Hills and the main chain of the Rocky Mountains. Here nature has presented us with every variety of aspect and soil. There are stupendous mountains, the grandeur and sublimity of which create mingled emotions of awe and terror. There are beautiful valleys, embosomed by amphitheatres of hills, where Calypso and her nymphs might have delighted to ramble, variegated by hill and dale, traversed by sparkling rivulets, and adorned with placid lakes. Fruits and flowers spangle the greensward; vines hang in festoons from tree to tree; cascades spring in rainbow hues from the cliffs; pines and cedars, the growth of ages, spread their sombre shade upon the mountain-sides, and the stupendous peaks, shooting up into the skies, are crowned with a glittering coronet of snow. A few hours' travel leads us out of this scene of primeval beauty into one in intense contrast with it. Here we find a sterile expanse of many miles in extent, covered with waving lines of sand, producing only stunted artemisia and a few other miserable plants; the rivulets are lost as they descend from the bare ridges around their hollow murmurs may be heard beneath the feet; and the surrounding peaks are immense piles of bare granite, which seem to have been thrown, by some great convulsion, into inextricable confusion. Small settlements will, in the progress of time, be made in the rich valleys, and they will be happy little communities. "The Republican and the Smoky Hill Forks take their rise in the Rocky Mountains, and unite to form the Kanzas river in about latitude 39° and longitude 96°. It flows thence in a general course eastward, to its mouth, in latitude 39° and longitude 94°. The upper portions of its two great forks are timbered with poplar, cedar, pine and other trees of mountain origin; thence to the eastern line of the first district I have described, the growth is cotton-wood, willow and other smaller shrubs; and across the first district to the Missouri line, the growth is hickory, ash, walnut, oak and sugar-maple. The valley of the Kanzas is not over twenty to forty miles broad in the first district; it becomes narrower as the stream is ascended. It is a deep alluvion, and wonderfully productive in grain and vegetables. Flocks and herds must for- "The tributaries of the Kanzas are not numerous, and their valleys are narrow. The only portions which can be occupied now for agricultural purposes are the first district and the valley of the Kanzas. ever occupy the second district. toral, until the means of supplying it with fuel can be created. The fourth will be, in the course of time, partly agricultural and partly pastoral, and the like may be said of the fifth. "The first district has a limestone basis; the second is underlaid by sandstone; the basis of the third is not known, |