32 WESTERJSr SUPREMACY. 



94, 528, 000 in the two states, and even these lands, are an 

 excellent stock-range. Mr. E. V. Smalley says': "Cat- 

 tle come out of the Bad Lands in the spring as fat as 

 though they had been stall-fed all winter. " The United 

 States Surveyor-General says: " The proportion of waste 

 land in the territory (Dakota), owing to the absence of 

 swamps, mountain ranges, overflowed and sandy tracts, 

 is less than in any other state or territory in the Union." 

 There are 20,000 square miles of " Bad Lands " in North- 

 western Nebraska, rich in wonderful fossils, but econom- 

 ically worthless. It is often said that the Kansas 

 lands near the Colorado border are alkaline ; but Profes- 

 sor Mudge, State Geologist, says that, in fifteen years of 

 exploration, he has found but two springs containing 

 alkalies, and has never seen ten acres of land in one 

 place which has been injured by it. There is perhaps as 

 little waste land in Kansas as in Illinois. The ' ' Staked 

 Plain " of Texas is sometimes spoken of as a desert ; but 

 a Texan writer, who has lived there for years, says of it : 

 " While it is true that this vast territory which we are 

 describing is mainly a grazing country, it is also true 

 that it abounds in fertile valleys and rich locations of 

 large extent, which are as well watered and as fertile as 

 any in the nation." That portion of the "Staked Plain " 

 which is mountainous is rich in minerals. 



Driven from the plains east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 the " Great American Desert" seems to have become a 

 fugitive and vagabond on the face of the earth. It 

 was located for a time by the map makers in Utah, but 

 being persecuted there, it fled to Arizona, Nevada and 

 Southern California. I do not mean to imply that there 

 are no waste lands in Utah. Portions of the territory 

 are as worthless as some of its people. There are some 

 deserts, one west of the Great Salt Lake, which contains 

 several thousand square miles; but the Surveyor-Gen- 

 eral of the Territory says: "Notwithstanding the opin- 

 ion of many who deem our lands 'arid, desert, and 



1 The Century for August, 1882. 



