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the south side, the hills become much higher than those along the 
Middle Loup. At Plummer Ford they are about 150 meters high. 
Between Mr. Cruinb’s horse ranch and the forks, the valley becomes ¢ 
narrow canyon, perhaps 200 meters deep, the road running on the hill- 
side about 100 meters above the river, At the forks and along the 
South Dismal, the sand hills on the south side are at some distance 
trom the river, leaving a dry sandy prairie 3 kilometers in width. 
THE BARREN SAND HILLS. 
I have used the term * barren”, not because these sand hills are 
without vegetation, but because they are at present of very little use 
toman. Save near the Middle Loup Valley, where the hills are less 
sandy and are intermixed with small dry valleys, the district between 
Thedford and Dismal River is made up of sand hill after sand hill 
with scarcely a grassy valley between. This region contains nothing 
but the true sand-hill vegetation, Seen from one of the highest points, 
the hills appear like billows of the ocean. In the eastern part of 
Thomas County, as well as north of Middle Loup, the country assumes 
more and more the character of the next district. 
THE DRY VALLEY SAND HILLS, 
This district consists of sand hills, mostly running east and west, 
intermixed with long continuous valleys with more or less perfect 
underground drainage. These valleys are sometimes 0.5 kilometer or 
more wide, the soil as a rule a sandy loam. Many of them are under 
cultivation, and in seasons of sufficient rainfall they yield good crops. 
Other valleys are utilized for pasture, and in wet seasons can be mowed 
for hay. The larger part of Hooker County is composed of such sand 
hills and valleys. 
THE WET VALLEY SAND HILLS. 
The arrangement of the sand hills is here more irregular, but the 
general trend, like that of the dry valley sand hills, is east and west. 
The hills are generally very high and steep, and it is difficult, some- 
times nearly impossible, to cross from one valley to another in a north 
and south direction. East and west the valleys are somewhat con- 
nected, but the drainage from one to another is imperfect or wholly 
wanting. In shape the valleys are more or less elongated-triangular, 
with the apex toward the west and the base toward the east. In one 
or the other, or sometimes in both, of the eastern corners there is a 
smaller or larger pond or slough, invariably called a lake. Sometimes 
the two lakes are connected and form a single body of water occupying 
the whole of the eastern end. In most cases the highest hill was north 
of the lake; the next highest, east; and the lowest, south. Frequently 
each of the corners of the valley was connected east and west by a 
depression in the hills with adjacent valleys, the western end with a 
higher, the two eastern with lower ones. The accompanying figure 
shows schematically the form of the wet valleys northwest of Whitman. 
