KANSAS.

KANSAS, one of the central States of the American Union, is bounded on the north by Nebraska, on the east by Missouri, on the south by the Indian Territory, and on the west by Colorado. It lies between the parallels of 37 and 40 degrees of north latitude, and 94 and 102 degrees of longitude west from Greenwich. It has an area of 80,000 square miles, or 51,200,000 acres. The Missouri River washes it on the north-east, and the Kansas and Osage, tributaries of the Missouri, and the Arkansas and its affluents, drain it. It was admitted into the Union as a State in 1861.

The land in Kansas has generally a limestone basis; and the soil, consisting of a dark vegetable mold, far superior to the ordinary prairie soil, is exceedingly fertile, and of great depth. It is represented as having an average depth of four feet, which, with its calcareous quality, and freedom from stone, makes it most desirable for agricultural purposes. The bottom lands along the bottoms of the rivers are equal to any in the world. The upland is composed of a continual succession of ridges and valleys, rising and falling with the regularity of ocean waves. The general direction of the ridges is north and south, except where their uniformity is broken by the courses of the streams, and the rivers are belted with timber. The upland country, diversified with hills and valleys, is rendered picturesque by groves, scattered unevenly and irregularly over the surface, sometimes on the hill-sides, but oftener in the valleys, consisting, in the former case, of the stately cotton-woods, and in the latter, of elms. Clumps of oak are found in some places. The timber of the bottom lands consists of oak, ash, elm, white and sugar-maple, and hickory. This country was formerly known among the overland travelers to Oregon and California as the region of "tall grass." The blade is coarse and rough at the edges, like the grass of Illinois. It ordinarily attains to the height of three feet, toward the close of summer; but where the land is moist, it grows more luxuriantly, and is said to become "tall enough to hide from view horse and rider." In June those rolling prairie lands are covered with gaudy flowers. The small streams are quite numerous, having their sources in springs; and though they may not entirely dry up, they are, nevertheless, "dry-weather streams," showing little more in September than pebbly beds, but swelled full, muddy, and turbulent in the spring. These streams have cut their channels down deep in the soil, forming ravines difficult to cross; but with their borders fringed with timber, and winding through the country in all directions, they add very much to the beauty of the landscape.

Immediately contiguous to the fertile plains of eastern Kansas is a narrow belt, averaging twenty miles in width, of an entirely different

character, having a sandstone basis. The country is not so rolling Spring-water is rarely found, but there are many large rivers, together with their head streams, which flow through this tract. As a general thing, the soil would be considered too light and sandy for profitable cultivation. The traveler will observe that the hickory timber has entirely disappeared, and the few trees which he will find "are mostly the blackjack, elm, cotton-wood, ash, and willow." This region, however, is said to possess some attractions for the tourist. It has been thus described: "Here the finest patches of buffalo-grass intermingle with stinted meads of tall grass and beds of pale-green moss, long and slender, which, with the oxlip, blue and white violet, and, near the streams, a sensitive plant of yellow-cup dotted with jet, and many another of the floral sisterhood, fragile and aromatic as the field-flowers of the Atlantic, all blooming in the lively green of the vernal season, form a mosaic as agreeably contrasted as any garden of art."

Further to the westward is a region which possesses considerable interest, and affords some advantages for keeping flocks and herds. It is not a belt of country stretching, like the other two, across the State, but consists rather of long reaches of fertile and well-watered land, lying upon the banks of the tributaries of the Arkansas River, and of the Smoky Hill Fork of the Kansas. The valleys of these streams are much depressed below the level of the surrounding and intervening plains. The river bluffs often sweep away from the banks in semicircular walls, to a distance of three and four miles, inclosing narrow sections of fertile bottom lands, covered with vegetable mold to the depth of many feet. These are studded with groves of willow and cotton-wood, and sometimes of ash, and, along the Arkansas, but rarely, groups of oak and mezquit. These alluvial lands are highly productive, but the plains are supposed to be worthless for cultivation, though finely adapted to pasturage, being covered with the buffalo-grass, "which has been described " 46 as a soft, slender, and a very nutritious blade, seven inches high when in perfection, but nearly every-where 80 cropped down by herds of buffalo and antelope as to look like a lawn over which the scythe has lately passed."

Beyond this is the vast tract known as the American Desert, extending from Nebraska through Kansas into Texas and New Mexico. There are no small streams, and but few rivers, flowing through this desolate region. The surface is almost a dead, uniform level, sweeping in every direction to the horizon, and is composed of a heavy gray and yellow clay, destitute of rocks and stone, with not a single tree, only here and there a grease-bush, or knob of cactus, and a few juiceless blades of bitter and unpalatable grass. The desert terminates to the westward in a range of hills composed of marl and limestone, which rise abruptly from the plain, and have precipitous sides and flat tops. This narrow belt of hill country is known as the range of "buttes."

Probably the choicest lands within the borders of Kansas are those which lie along the river from which the State has taken its name. Mr. Greene, in his interesting book on the Kansas Region, gives the following description of the river: "The Kansas River at its delta is

six hundred yards wide, and for the first hundred above its average width is nearly the same; from Pottawatomie to Big Blue, it is four hundred yards; and from that to Fort Riley two hundred yards. This river is turbid, like the lower Mississippi. For one hundred and twenty-five miles from the mouth it is quite straight; above that it is crooked as the mad Missouri; but the current is less rapid; there are fewer snags, the banks are firmer, and not so often cut away for new channels. It is a good, navigable stream for three months in the year, and in very wet seasons for as many as five months. Ascending fifteen miles, to the entrance of Delaware Creek, the river is bordered with woodland and prairie; and from thence to Fort Riley both banks are heavily timbered, with here and there a high bottom of dry, rich alluvion. Along every few miles of this region fine arable bluffs project boldly into, or swell out gently from, the rippling waters that float dreamily by or glide on with arrowy sweep. On the north side there is a mound of remarkable beauty, from the western curve of which a brook, poetically named "The Stranger," pours in its pellucid tribute; and immediately above there is a great horse-shoe bend, where a tract of excellent bottom-land, high and dry, might, with much saving of labor, be inclosed by a fence of a few rods across the neck. Opposite, there is a gradually-rising grass-plat, ornamented with groups of trees, and rolling up into a bold and broad prairie. Still passing up the Kansas, from the foot of a low bluff on the north, Sugar Creek comes in, under spread of a grape thicket of several thousand acres, alternated with a rich walnut bottom. Near by an abundance of coal is found; and an undulating eminence, diversified with grove and prairie, affords an eligible site for a flourishing city. On the south, the Wakaroosa flows in, near the western limit of the Shawnee Reserve. The Wakaroosa, like most other Western streams, is in some places deeply indented, clearing its banks canal-like, and revealing a fat, black loam five feet in depth. Studding the banks of the rivulets, and in clumps on the prairies, are several varieties of the plum wild-cherry, the delicious pawpaw, persimmon, hazel-nut, and hickory, white and black walnut, coffee-bean, butternut, gooseberry, haw, and, of all nuts, the unapproachable pecan. The soil is well adapted to the culture of the apple, peach, pear, and currant; and produces exhuberant crops of wheat, hemp, corn, buckwheat, oats, rye, potatoes, tobacco, and all the vegetables of the Eastern States. Proceeding up the Kansas, the next region of mark is that adjacent to Grasshopper Creek. Here is a bluff of more than ordinary beauty, commanding a wide and pleasant prospect. From this to Mud Creek a prairie bottom spreads out its lap of natural treasures, alluring the industrious emigrant to pause and make himself a home. At the Hundred-mile Point, on the north side, rises a lofty, handsome bluff, like an island, from out a sea of timber, its summit decorated with inwoven foliage of the oak and walnut, while afar the thick rolls of prairie surge off to the horizon, with its narrow curtain of haze separating the bright green from the brighter blue. Along the left bank the prairie dips smooth and velvety to the river's rim. Pursuing the westward route, there is a rapid alternation

of meadow and grove, affording the largest facilities for farming. Next we have Uniontown, a village of log-cabins, a mile to the south of the river. Twenty-five miles above, the Vermillion River disgorges, with its umbrageous binding of timber, like a dark serpent, trailing out to the north. This stream is marked with many available mill-sites. And, in fact, it is upon the northern tributaries cf the Kansas, deeply indented and of descending volume, that the most frequent and valuable waterpower of the State is to be found. A short distance above, the Big Blue pours in its affluence of waters from the hills of Nebraska. From this point the southern acclivity of the Kansas Valley presses against the channel every four or five miles, inlocking intervals of enticing loveliness and snug little coves for tranquil neighborhoods; while on the northern bank there is a continuous bottom, five miles broad, stretching down stream for fifty miles-not so extensive, but in richness rivaling the American Bottom south of St. Louis, and more elevated and healthier, blessed with a salubrious atmosphere, and not subject, like that, to inundation. Immediately west of the Blue, a fine prairie slopes northward further than the eye can follow, and a lawn of several thousand acres is inclosed by a river-bend, with an isthmus of about a half a mile, while from an adjacent bluff ledges of burning-stone crop out.”

The valley of the Grand River-a branch of the Arkansas-possesses a great many attractions for agriculturists. Commencing south of Fort Riley, the valley extends south-easterly, almost to the boundary of the State. Indeed, the advantages offered to the emigrant in the regions upon the Grand and Osage Rivers are fully equal to any in Kansas. The country is beautifully rolling, and inclines gently toward the south. In addition to the richness and depth of the soil, every acre of land is suitable for cultivation, being entirely free from swamps and bluffs. The timber is the best and most abundant in the State, consisting of a large growth of hickory, oak, elm, sycamore, mulberry, and sassafras, with numerous groves of maple, and here and there a clump of beeches. In both valleys there are quarries of excellent limestone, and apparently inexhaustible. Bituminous coal has been found in several localities, leading to the supposition that a coal-field underlies all that part of the State. The valley of the Grand River is well known for its numerous springs of pure and sparkling water; wells have to be sunk only some twelve feet to obtain an unfailing supply. In the vicinity of Council Grove, and, indeed, in most parts of Kansas, the soil rests upon a regular substratum of hard pan, and is thus enabled to retain a supply of moisture for the nourishment of crops in the severest droughts. The clay is very compact, and dries readily into adobe, or sun-made brick, such as is commonly used in Mexican structures. Council Grove takes its name from a grove, or forest rather, three miles in width and fifteen miles long, consisting, in most part, of gigantic walnuts, hickories, and oaks. And there, in 1825, a treaty was ratified between the United States and the Indians, granting a right of way from Missouri to Texas. And in the early Santa Fe trade, it was customary for parties to assemble at the grove, and organize their caravans, by appointing officers and adopting a code of laws. From thence to Santa Fe, timber is not to be

had, and caravans always carried a sufficient quantity with them for repairs. For that purpose, logs were lashed underneath the wagons, and sometimes were carried to Santa Fe and back again. On the road, further westward, the undulations of the land gradually subside into one uniform level, known as the Grand Prairie, which is of an average width of five hundred miles; and at the base of the Rocky Mountains, that prairie is said to be a thousand miles wide. The Grand Prairie is the great buffalo pasture of the West. As Mr. Green says: "The commercial value to Kansas of the prairie cattle may be inferred from the simple statement of the item that one hundred thousand buffalo rugs are now exported annually."

The Santa Fe road strikes the Arkansas at the Big Bend. The river is there about a quarter of a mile broad. The Upper Arkansas has been thus described: "From the adjacent heights the ledges of wave-like yellow sand, along the southern bank, look like wind-driven piles of wheat, beneath which, through a low and wide trench, the majestic waters sweep placid as 'the river of a dream.' Rio Napeste, as the Mexicans name it, will probably measure two thousand miles in length from its sources to the frontiers of Arkansas. The channel is wide and

shallow, with banks in many places not five feet above low-water mark. It varies from a quarter to three-quarters of a mile in width, and at certain points can be forded, except in time of freshet; but care is requisite to avoid quick-sands, and the current has a velocity and coolness that would not be anticipated from the smoothness of the surface." It has been suggested that, without very great expense, the Arkansas might be made navigable for small steamboats to the mountains. One of its branches, the Grand River, is navigable to as great a distance as the Hudson. With the seat of empire steadily removing westward, the time may come when steam navigation on the Arkansas shall reach from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, a distance twice the length of the Ohio River.

Beyond Walnut Creek, a tributary of the Arkansas, at the head of a prairie slope, which rises from the very edge of the water, stands the Pawnee Rock, five miles from the river, celebrated in Indian story, overlooking a boundless expanse of country, its front and sides of highly ferruginous sandstone, covered over with the names and memorials of prairie voyagers. The atmosphere is dry. There are no marshes in the valley of the river, and no fogs arising from the stream. The mirage is astonishing, and ofttimes ludicrous enough. A facetious traveler, having encamped at the foot of the rock, "saw the elephant" himself, and thus describes it: "Our party were amused with a series of these grotesque transformations on the part of a buffalo, intent upon having a drink from the Arkansas. As the staid fellow unwittingly plodded along, his hump shot into a pyramid; then jauntily cocking it one side, like the beaver of a lop-eared dandy, and descending a knoll, he turned a flipflap somerset, swallowed himself, and came out a very elegant giraffe, which shortly settled into a brown and shapeless heap; and in another second, reässumed its ancient buffalonian aspect, only to undergo momentary changes as ludicrous as before."