THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 63 



a limited extent at least what an influence man has on bird life, and 

 perhaps also animal life in a general way, over the country. It shows 

 on the one side what a man with a gun can do in a very short time 

 in the way of destroying and removing God's creatures from the face 

 of the earth, — creatures which have been created for the special purpose 

 of equalizing things and making life worth living. It also shows, on 

 the other hand, what a little labor in the way of tree-planting will do 

 towards attracting and providing homes for others. 



SOME GENEEAL KEMAKKS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE IN 

 NORTHWEST NEBRASKA 



MEBRITT CARY, NEI.IGH 



Northwest Nebraska, as the term is applied in the present paper, 

 refers to the region north of the F. E. & M. V. R. R. from Crawford 

 to Van Tassel Ranch., and west of the B. & M. R. R. from Crawford 

 to the Nebraska- South Dakota line, near Ardmore, S. D. Within these 

 confines are embraced the highest and most rugged portions of Pine 

 Ridge, practically all of the Hat Creek Basin, and a much smaller 

 region lying on either side of White River, — a total area of some 700 

 square miles. 



GKXERAL TOPOGRAPHY 



In the varied configuration and highly diversified character of the 

 region as a whole, as well as in the dearth of vegetation of one section 

 contrasted with the luxuriance of another, and in the great variation 

 in the amount of moisture, — as a matter of fact, in all those factors 

 Avhich have a direct bearing upon the distribiition of animal life, — 

 northwest Nebraska presents extremes which certainly cannot be 

 equaled in any other section of our own state, and which, I dare say, 

 are seldom met with in any other portion of the country having corre- 

 sponding altitudes. The region presents two strongly contrasted types 

 of country, each having numbers of bird, mammal, and plant forms 

 peculiar to itself. These will be treated separately under the headings 

 "Pine Ridge" and "Hat Creek Basin." 



Pine Ridge. — Pine Ridge is, as its name signifies, a high ridge of 

 land supporting a growth of Pinus ponderosa. It is highest and A^-idest 

 at its Avestern end where it is a plateau Avith an altitude of 5300 feet, 

 forming the Avatershed or diA-ide betAA-een the Running Water on the 

 south and Hat Creek on the north. The northern escarpment of Pfne 

 Ridge enters Nebraska from W^A'oming at SquaAA- Butte, a point some 

 fifteen miles south of the South Dakota line, and extends, Avith a 

 general southeast trend, to CraAvford.* Its southern slope is practically 



* From Crawford the general course of Pine Ridge is to the northeast, entering South 

 Dakota from Sheridau Couuty. The eastern portion of the ridge is much lower, with 

 a corresponding decrease in the amount of pine timber. 



