ECONOMICAL, GEOLOGY. 317 



State. They are also common on the Niobrara, on tributaries of 

 the Loup, and in other sections. As the sands of New Jersey have 

 been fertilized, and in many places transformed into gardens by 

 marl beds, so can the occasionally excessively sandy tracts of West- 

 ern Nebraska also be changed into rich lands when once the needs 

 of population make it necessary. 



Salt in large quantities exists in a few sections of the State. In 

 Lancaster County there are a number of salt marshes, the one near 

 Lincoln covering about six hundred acres. There are a number of 

 smaller ones near by. They are nearly level and in dry weather 

 are covered with incrustations of salt. They are mostly destitute 

 of vegetation. Fine sand and loam comprise the soil, underlaid, 

 however, by the reddish sandstones of the Dakota Group. In the 

 deposits of this marsh, and all the others that I have visited, are the 

 bones of elk, deer, antelope and buffalo, which no doubt were 

 mired in past times when they resorted here for salt. Over this 

 marsh the water oozes up at innumerable places, and great quanti- 

 ties of it flow off into Salt Creek. Wherever I have tested it the 

 brine contained within a fraction of ten per cent of salt. Oftener 

 more than less. Much of the brine over this marsh that has stood 

 for days and partly evaporated, contains from twenty to thirty per 

 cent of salt. A number of vats have been constructed here and the 

 manufacture of salt is carried on on a small scale. The business is 

 capable of immense development. Artesian wells that have been 

 put down at and near this place have struck brine at different 

 depths, the saltiness varying from five to twenty per cent. The 

 well on the Government Square is one thousand and fifty feet deep. 

 It passed through various strata which furnished brine and mineral 

 waters of remarkable quality. The mingling together of all the 

 streams that flow r constantly from this well, furnishes a mineral 

 water which for efficacy in healing some kind of diseases, is be- 

 lieved not to be surpassed by any medicinal waters of the land. At 

 the Commercial Hotel, in Lincoln, this artesian water is employed 

 in giving Turkish and other baths. Remarkable cures have already 

 been performed through its agency. 



In northwestern Nebraska, beyond the head-waters of the Elk- 

 horn, there is another region of salt springs and marshes far more 

 extensive than the one in Lancaster County. Unfortunately it is 

 beyond the railroad lines, and in a sparsely settled region. It has 

 not yet been thoroughly explored. In various other places brine 



