NORTH-EASTERN KANZAS.

87

nor is that of the fourth and fifth determined with any reliable accuracy. The great coal-fields of Missouri, south of the Missouri, extend thirty or forty miles into Kanzas. I incline to the belief that detached or fragmentary coal will be found in much abundance in the north-eastern corner of the territory. In the fourth and fifth districts there is doubtless an abundance of it, besides water-power superior to any in the world."

Of the geological character of the north-eastern part of Kanzas, and the neighboring section of Nebraska, Prof. James writes:

"The country between the Kanzas and Platte is drained. principally by Wolf river and the great Nemaha. These rivers, like the Nodowa and Nishnebottona, which enter the Missouri nearly opposite them, from the north-east, rise in the prairies, at an elevation, probably, of forty or fifty feet above the level of the Missouri. As they descend, their valleys, becoming gradually wider, embosom a few trees, and at length, near their entrance into the Missouri valley, are forests of considerable extent. The surface of these prairies presents a constant succession of small rounded hills, becoming larger and more abrupt as you approach the beds of the rivers. The soil is deep, reposing usually on horizontal beds of argillaceous sandstone and secondary limestone. In all the limestones along the Missouri, we observe a tendency to crystalline structure, and they have often a reddish or yellowish-white color. There is, however, something in the

arrangement and in the aspect of the crystals to distinguish these sparry varieties from the primitive granular limestone, to which they have something of general resemblance. The horizontal disposition of the strata of this limestone, the great number of organic relics contained in it, and its intimate connection with coal strata, indicate, with sufficient clearness, its relation to the secondary rocks. No person who shall examine this stratum with the least attention, either about the Nemaha or the Kanzas, or in the mining district at the sources of the Gasconade, the Merameg and the St. Francis, will, for a moment, mistake it for any of those varieties of transition or primitive limestone, which, in some respects, it so closely resembles. The crystalline varieties, no less than the compact blue limestones, embrace numerous masses of chert or hornstone. This occurs of various colors, and these are arranged in spots or stripes. Some specimens have several distinct colors, arranged in zigzag lines, somewhat resembling the fortification agate. The hunters use fragments of this stone for gun-flints; the savages also formerly employed it in the manufacture of arrowpoints and other implements.*

"The soil superimposed upon these strata of limestone is a calcareous loam. Near the rivers it is intermixed with sand; this is also the case with the soil of the high prairies about the Kanzas village. In ascending the Kanzas river,

*Jessup's MS. Report.

NORTH-EASTERN KANZAS.

89

one hundred or one hundred and twenty miles from the Missouri, you discover numerous indications, both in the soil and in its animal and vegetable productions, of an approach to that great sandy desert, which stretches eastward from the base of the Rocky Mountains. You meet there with the orbicular lizard or 'horned frog,' an inhabitant of the arid plains of New Mexico. You distinguish, also, some cacti, as well as many of those plants allied to cheropodium and salsola, which delight in a thirsty, muriatiferous soil. The catalogue of the forest-trees belonging to the valleys of this region is not very copious. The cotton-wood and the plane-tree everywhere form conspicuous features of the forests. With these are intermixed the tall and graceful acacia, the honey-locust and the bonduc or coffee-tree, and several species of juglans, carya and fraxinus (walnut, hickory and ash), with pinnated or many-parted leaves. Trees of the family of the coniferæ are not of frequent occurrence on the Missouri. About the summits of rocky cliffs are, here and there, a few cedars or junipers, the only trees that retain their verdure during the winter.

"The prairies, for many miles on each side of the Missouri, produce abundance of good pasturage; but, as far as our observation has extended, the best soil is a margin of from ten to twelve miles in breadth, along the west bank of the river. In the summer very little water is to be found in the prairies, all the smaller streams failing, even though the season be not unusually dry. On account of the want

of wood and of water, the settlements will be, for a long time, confined to the immediate valleys of the Missouri, the Kanzas, and the larger rivers; but it is probable forests will hereafter be cultivated in those vast woodless regions, which now form so great a proportion of the country, and wells may be made to supply the deficiency of running water."*

In describing the southern part of the territory of Nebraska, we have already spoken of the fertile "divide " between the waters of the Kanzas and those of the Nebraska river. The following notes from Col. Fremont's journey of 1842 will describe that portion of it which falls in Kanzas. Col. Fremont followed up the valley of the Kanzas, about a hundred miles, and then crossed to the usual emigrant trail in the valley of the Nebraska river.

"From the belt of wood which borders the Kanzas, in which we had passed several good-looking Indian farms, we suddenly emerged on the prairies, which received us, at the outset, with some of their striking characteristics. We encamped in a remarkably beautiful situation on the Kanzas bluffs, which commanded a fine view of the river-valley, here from three to four miles wide. The central portion was occupied by a broad belt of heavy timber, and nearer the hills the prairies were of the richest verdure.

“We reached the ford of the Kanzas late in the after

*Long's Expedition, vol. 1., pp. 137-139.

noon of June 14th, where the river was two hundred and thirty yards wide, and commenced immediate preparations for crossing. I had expected to find the river fordable, but it had been swollen by the late rains, and was sweeping by with an angry current, yellow and turbid as the Missouri. Up to this point the road we had travelled was a remarkably fine one, well beaten and level, the usual road of a prairie country. By our route the ford was one hundred miles from the mouth of the Kanzas river.

"It proved necessary, however, to swim the river, and to carry the stores across by a boat.

“The dense timber, in which we had encamped, interfered with astronomical observations, and our wet and damaged stores required exposure to the sun. Accordingly the tents were struck the next morning, and, leaving camp at six o'clock, we moved about seven miles up the river, to a handsome, open prairie, some twenty feet above the water, where the fine grass afforded a luxurious repast to our horses.

"We left this camp on the 18th, journeying along the foot of the hills which border the Kanzas valley, generally about three miles wide, and extremely rich. We halted for dinner, after a march of about thirteen miles, on the banks of one of the many little tributaries to the Kanzas, which look like trenches in the prairie, and are usually well timbered. After crossing this stream, I rode off some miles to the left, attracted by the appearance of a cluster of huts,