22 THE PLAINS. 



the immense depth of both first and second plains by one 

 of the most magnificent canons east of the mountains. 



The Canadian acts in the same way ; but, having to 

 cut through only the second plain, its canon, though fine, 

 is not comparable to that of the Cimarron. 



So long as these streams are in the second plain they 

 are rapid, deep, have high steep banks, narrow but 

 fertile bottoms, lands covered by a thick growth of cot- 

 ton-wood and other soft-wood trees, with bushes and 

 shrubs in great variety, with plums, grapes, cherries, 

 gooseberries, and some other wild fruits and berries. 



As soon as they emerge on the third plain their 

 character changes ; their current is less rapid, the banks 

 are low, the bed is wide, shallow, and filled with sand. 

 The bottom lands are very broad, without trees or shrub- 

 bery, except occasionally a small growth of willow, 

 scarcely larger than switches. The bottom is an alluvial 

 deposit of from one to six feet, underlaid by sand. When 

 the river rises and the current increases in power, this 

 sand is washed out from below, the bank falls in, and the 

 stream is never, for two consecutive years, in the same 

 bed, the current eating the alluvium on one side to 

 deposit great bars on the other. These in a very few 

 years gain a scanty vegetation, another slight deposit of 

 alluvial soil, to be again destroyed by another freak of 

 the ever- changing current. One of the most striking 

 peculiarities of these rivers is that they rise down- 

 ward. 



In April the Arkansas, at Fort Dodge, is a sandy bed, 

 a fourth of a mile in width, and with possibly an average of 

 three or four inches of water. In June, when the moun- 

 tains send forth their floods of melted snow, the river 

 swells, the current increases in power, and washes out 

 long channels in the sandy bed. When the banks show 

 a rise of two feet the waters cut channels in the sand five 

 or six feet deep, and covering probably a full third of the 

 distance from bank to bank. At these times the current 



