10 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



increase of elevation going north and west on the eastern boundary 

 of the State along the Missouri is much less. Taking the mouth of 

 the Nemaha as our starting point, whose elevation is 878 feet, and 

 comparing it with the elevation of the Missouri bottom at Omaha, 

 which is 1,002 feet we have a difference of 124 feet, or a rise of one 

 and a fourth feet to the mile. The fall between Omaha and Dako- 

 ta City is even less than this. 



In western Nebraska the difference in elevation between the 

 south line of the State and the Union Pacific Railroad approxi- 

 mates to 352 feet. On the west line of the State the ascent con- 

 tinues going north until at Scott's Bluffs an elevation of 6,051 feet 

 is reached. Although this is only approximately correct, as I took 

 the observations with a barometer, yet there is little doubt that this is 

 the highest point in the State. From here there is a gradual de- 

 scending slope to the north line of the State with some intervening 

 inequalities and depressions in the valleys of the Niobrara, the 

 White Earth, and Indian Creek. From the Republican River on 

 the West line of the State to Big Springs in the same meridian on 

 the Union Pacific Railroad there is an ascent of 352 feet. From 

 this latter place there is a still further rise of 283 feet to the Niobra- 

 ra River, or a total ascent along this line from south to north of 635 . 

 feet, against a corresponding difference of less than 200 feet along 

 the eastern border of the State. It will also be remembered that 

 the lowest part of the State is its southeast corner, and the highest 

 part is a point north of the Union Pacific Railroad on Scott's Bluffs. 

 Take the State therefore as a whole and it will be seen that it slopes 

 tnainly toward the east and in a minor degree toward the south. 

 The only exception to this rule is the extreme western line of the 

 State, where the Colorado notch has taken from Nebraska territory 

 a section which legitimately should belong to her. Because of this 

 shortening of our southwestern border, Pine Bluffs, the last station of 

 the Union Pacific Railroad in Nebraska is near the south line of the 

 State. From here the ascent toward the north continues only for 

 about thirty-six miles to Scott's Bluffs from which there is a grad- 

 ual descent to Indian Creek near the northwest corner of the State. 

 But eastward from this point the descent is generally south and 

 still more east. As would be expected from such relief forms the 

 great majority of the tributaries of the main streams, except those of 

 the Niobrara, flow towards the southeast. Prof. Wilber has re- 

 marked that lines drawn along the main divides of the State on any 



