THE NEBRASKA SAND HILLS. 277 



or loops. Some of these loops are most perfect and beautiful as viewed 

 from far up in the hills. The streams of the region are all shallow, the 

 Loup varying from one to six feet in depth with a channel about fifty 

 yards wide. In many places such streams are extremely beautiful with 

 their winding channels of clear swift water and fringes of vegetation. 



The Dismal River is an important tributary to the Loup. Heading 

 in the swamp and lake region of Hooker, Grant and McPherson counties, 

 it continues eastward for about seventy-five or eighty miles, and pours 

 into the Loup at Dunning. This river is an especially welcome sight as 

 one suddenly comes upon it hidden in a deep valley (almost a gorge in 

 many places) after a long, slow, hot ride of thirty miles or more" over 

 the hills. The Dismal has cut in a number of places a very deep canyon 

 through the hills. Often -the sides of this canyon are almost perpen- 

 dicular, while elsewhere the banks are not so high or steep. Nbw and 

 then the stream leaps over a ledge of sandstone producing a waterfall a 

 few feet in height which adds to the beauty of the landscape. There 

 are in truth many spots along the Dismal that would make worthy sub- 

 jects for the landscape painter. 



Few would classify Nebraska among the states with lakes, but as a 

 matter of fact there are hundreds of lakes in the state. Many of these 

 lakes are in the Sand Hills, where they usually occur in groups of few 

 to- many in various parts of the region. The largest group occurs in 

 Cherry County, with fifty or more lakes. Some of these, such as Hack- 

 berry, Dad's, Clear, Willow, Dewey, Red Deer, etc., furnish excellent 

 sport to the fisherman and the hunter. Aquatic vegetation furnishes 

 abundant food for both fish and fowl. The lakes vary from small ponds 

 a hundred yards across to bodies of water a mile or more wide and four 

 to five miles long. 



There are many people who still think that the Sand Hill region is 

 a plantless waste of wandering dunes. This is far from fact, but never- 

 theless the vegetation of the region is sparse and there are also many 

 instances of actively moving sands, although by tar the greatest portion 

 of the area is effectively protected from wind erosion by the presence 

 of vegetation. Nowhere except in the moister habitats, as in the val- 

 leys, do the plants grow densely or close together. On the hills proper 

 the light-colored sand always shows between the individual plants. In 

 places one may cross over areas two hundred yards or more in width 

 and count all of the plants in his path on his fingers. 



Notwithstanding the sparseness of the vegetation there are very 

 many species represented in the Sand Hill flora, but in spite of this 

 great number of species that are found over the hills and ridges and in 

 the valleys, the most striking characteristic of Sand Hill vegetation is 

 its great monotony due to the domination of bunch-grasses, which are 

 the 'Controlling elements of the floral covering of the whole region. The 

 bunch-grasses are so named because from each root there arise many 



