BY A. GIBB MAITLAND, C.E., F.G.S. 35 



*' County, in South-eastern Colorado, traverses portions of 

 " Stanton, Hamilton, and Kearney Counties, in Kansas, and is 

 " lost in a line of sandhills south of the Arkansas River. With 

 " its tributaries, it affords drainage for a scope of country over 

 " 100 miles long, and averaging probably 40 miles wide. This 

 " creek affords perhaps the most visible means of losing water 

 " throughout its course, instead of retaining it, of any of the 

 " numerous streams of its class. From first to last it cuts 

 " through ledges of a hard stone, containing so much iron that 

 " the exposed and weathered surfaces are of a dark colour. 

 "■ This stone lies in strata which uniformily dip away from the 

 " bed of the stream towards the south-east, and which rest upon 

 " a porous sandstone, in and from which the artesian wells of 

 " Morton and Hamilton Counties, Kansas, secure their flow.'"'' 



This sandstone readily permits the passage of water, and 

 the Bear Creek Section at the Five-Mile Waterholes, Baca 

 County, Colorado, shows how readily the water of this stream 

 constantly escapes from its channel into the porous sandstone. 

 Only in times of copious local rains does any water flow visibly 

 through the whole course of the stream down into its basin in 

 the sandhills. 



Another typical instance may be quoted: — " Between the 

 " Pecos and the Rio Grande there is a great area of country 

 " having no surface drainage seawards. I refer to the area 

 " lying between the Organ and San Andreas Range on the west, 

 " the Wliite Mountains and small outlies on the north, the 

 " Sacramento and Guadolupe Mountains on the east, and the 

 " Hueco and El Paso Mountains on the south. Between these 

 " mountains is a great basin, which for the want of a better 

 " name, I shall call the Gypsum Plains. The length of this 

 " basin is 125 miles or more, and the width varies from 10 to 30 

 " miles. From Sierra Blanca, which attains an elevation of 

 " 11,892ft., and is snowcapped the greater part of the year, and 

 " from other portions of the White Mountain Range, there are 

 " several brooks of good size flowing into the enclosed basin. 

 " The principal ones are the Tula Rosa Creek, Bonito Creek, 

 " and the Three Rivers. Each of these, after emerging from the 



* The Underwaters of the Great Plains; J.W.Gregory. Washington. By authority: 

 1892. pp. 40-41. 



