394 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



seemed to be raised slightly ; and the high divide in Russell county, 

 just south of the Smoky Hill river, and about 25 miles distant, 

 was plainly to be seen above the ordinary horizon. Great Bend, 

 to the west, was in plain view ; though ordinarily only the tower of the 

 court-house could be seen. Looking farther up the valley and some- 

 what to the south of Great Bend, the few houses at Pawnee Rock, 

 24 miles distant, could be seen and readily distinguished by the 

 smoke rising from the chimneys. Some one said : "Look over toward 

 the salt marsh." That was about 10 miles distant to the south. The 

 few low sand-dunes between Ellinwood and the salt marsh dwindled 

 into insignificance. A few houses in a group, with columns of smoke 

 rising from the flues, a small grove of trees and a church or school- 

 house could be seen. There were no houses on the salt marsh, and 

 none in the sand-hills south of Ellinwood ; nothing but a dugout or 

 two and surely no schoolhouse. There were probably not less than 

 twenty people standing in the streets of Ellinwood looking at the 

 scene. Presently some one who had been to Stafford began to recog- 

 nize places and declared he could identify various buildings. This 

 though doubted at first was soon accepted. Then, for a few minutes, 

 other houses and a church further west came into view. Judging 

 from the position and direction the group of houses was considered 

 to be the village of Zion Valley, a Mormon settlement then existing 

 south of- Rattlesnake creek, in Stafford county. Farther west only 

 sand-hills could be seen. 



The distance to Stafford in an air-line was 27 miles ; to Zion Val- 

 ley, 29 miles. The intervening highest ground in the direction of 

 Stafford was about 80 feet above the level of the river at Ellinwood, 

 17 miles south of Ellinwood and 10 miles north of Stafford. Stafford 

 itself was and is about 70 feet above the level of the Arkansas river 

 at Ellinwood. The highest ground between Ellinwood and Zion Val- 

 ley was about 100 feet above the Ellinwood level, 19 miles south of 

 Ellinwood and 10 miles north of Zion Valley. These highest points 

 are ordinarily hidden from view at Ellinwood, by dunes 50 to 70 feet 

 high about 6 miles south of Ellinwood. The elevation of Zion Val- 

 ley was about 110 feet above the Ellinwood level. And still, to all 

 appearances, the hills and the town of Zion Valley scarcely looked 

 higher than Stafford and the hills in front of it. 



Considering the curvature of the earth and the height of the inter- 

 vening hills, the necessary apparent elevation of Stafford above its 

 normal position in order to be seen at Ellinwood would be about 490 

 feet, equivalent to an elevation of 12' of arc. This is equal to two- 

 fifths the diameter of the full moon at rising. The elevation of distant 

 objects appeared to be more than that ; though probably was not. In 

 fact, the entire horizon appeared to be elevated more than half the 



