62 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



of the Niobrara. Snake River is the next tributary of importance. 

 Its mouth is near longitude 100 45'. Its bed is thirty-five yards 

 wide, and it has a narrow valley. Its bluffs are covered with pine. 

 Beyond Snake River there are no large branches coming in from 

 the south. 



The Keya Paha is the first large tributary above its mouth on 

 the north side of the Niobrara. It is about 125 miles long. Where 

 I crossed it, fifty miles above its mouth, is has a fine valley, three- 

 fourths of a mile wide, with a good soil, and some cottonwood 

 timber. The bed of the river, like that of the Niobrara, is sandy, 

 but its waters are clear, and delicious to the taste. At its mouth it 

 is about fifty-five yards wide. The next tributary from the north- 

 west is Rapid Creek, which, however, is only nine yards wide at 

 its mouth. It connects with the Niobrara in longitude 100 23'. 

 Its valley is in some places half a mile wide, and the soil is, judging 

 from the vegetation, quite fertile. A few small trees fringe its 

 banks. It is about fifty-five miles long. Reunion Creek, which 

 flows into the Niobrara at longitude 101 18', has hardly any bot- 

 tom, and flows between lofty rock bluffs, very hard to ascend or de- 

 scend. At its mouth it is fifty-eight yards wide, and has clear, cold, 

 rapid-running water. 



At longitude 101 30' a creek flows into the Niobrara, a little 

 more than half the size of Rapid Creek, which it closely resem- 

 bles. Above this there are a great number of small rivulets, 

 which flow into the Niobrara, many of which are dry except in 

 rainy weather- They, however, indicate the former abundance of 

 water here, and will, with the growing moisture and rainfall of the 

 State, again, no doubt, become permanent fresh-water streams. 

 The peculiarities of the exceptional characters of the Niobrara 

 region are given in a former paragraph under this head. 



The White River flows through Northwestern Nebraska It 

 enters the State from Wyoming, flows eastward and northeast- 

 ward, north of the Niobrara, until it enters Dakota Territory, 

 a little east of longitude 103. It has its source not far from that 

 of the Niobrara, near a sudden descent of 500 feet, south of Hat 

 Creek Station, on the road from Fort Laramie. This abrupt de- 

 scent, when approached from the south, is not suspected until it is 

 reached. Sometimes this descent is a slope that a team can climb, 

 and again it changes to a bare wall five hundred feet high. Nu- 

 merous brooks flow down the gullies and ravines formed on the 



