68 WRITINGS OP JOSEPH HENRY. [1855- 



which takes place at the summit of the ridges. The rivers 

 are sunk deeply below the general surface of the plain, and 

 give no indication of their existence from a distance, except 

 the appearance of the tops of the cotton-wood trees which 

 skirt their borders. The surface towards the southeast is 

 slightly diversified by a low range of mountains, denomi- 

 nated the Ozark, which probably have some slight influence 

 on the local climate of Kansas. 



General Character of the Surface. — The general character 

 of the soil between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic 

 is that of great fertility, and as a whole, in its natural con- 

 dition, with some exceptions at the west, is well supplied 

 with timber. The portion also on the western side of the 

 Mississippi as far as the 98th meridian, (including the States 

 of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minne- 

 sota, and portions of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska,) 

 is fertile, though abounding in prairies and subject occa- 

 sionally to droughts. But the whole space to the west, 

 between the 98th meridian and the Rocky Mountains, denom- 

 inated the Great American Plains, is a barren waste, over 

 which the eye may roam to the extent of the visible horizon 

 with scarcely an object to break the monotony. From the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the exception of the 

 rich but narrow belt along the ocean, the country may also be 

 considered, in comparison with other portions of the United 

 States, a wilderness unfitted for the uses of the husbandman; 

 although in some of the mountain valleys, as at Salt Lake, 

 by means of irrigation a precarious supply of food may be 

 obtained sufficient to sustain a considerable population, pro- 

 vided they can be induced to submit to privations from 

 which American citizens generally would shrink. The por- 

 tions of the mountain system further south are equally in- 

 hospitable, though they have been represented to be of a 

 different character. In traversing this region whole days 

 are frequently passed without meeting a rivulet or spring 

 of water to slake the thirst of the weary traveller. Dr. 

 Letherman, surgeon of the United States army, at Fort De- 

 fiance, describes the entire country along the parallel of 35° 



