4 Charles E. Bcssey 



while westward and northwestward the elevation is much greater, 

 reaching 1500 metres (4900 feet) in the northwest, and fully 

 1616 metres (5300 feet) towards its southwest boundary, near 

 the Wyoming line. 



The river system is a very simple one. Along the eastern 

 border is the turbid Missouri River, which receives the Nemaha 

 and Weeping Water (both short streams) south of the mouth 

 of the Platte River. The Platte River flows from the Rocky 

 Mountains as two streams, which unite in western Nebraska, 

 and is, like the Missouri River, a rapid and turbid stream. It 

 receives one tributary, Lodgepole River, in the western part of 

 the state, the much-branched Loup River (which drains the 

 Sandhills) in the centre, and the Elkhorn River toward the 

 northeasterly part. On the north is the Niobrara River which 

 comes from the Wyoming foothills, and in the ejctreme north- 

 west are branches of the White River, rising in the mountainous 

 country of Pine Ridge. On the south the Republican River 

 comes from the elevated plateau of eastern Colorado, traverses 

 the southern counties, and then passes into Kansas where 

 it joins the Kansas River, and finally reaches the Missouri River. 

 In the southeast, the Blue River drains a triangular area closely 

 adjacent to the Platte River, and flowing south empties into the 

 Kansas River. 



The surface features of the state are considerably varied, in- 

 cluding the wet and marshy "bottoms" of the Missouri River 

 valley, the steep "bluffs" which limit them on the westerly side, 

 the hilly and broken country still further inland, the rolling sur- 

 face of the prairies of the eastern portion of the state, the more 

 pronounced hills adjacent to the blufifs of the Platte valley, the 

 broad and nearly level valley of the Platte River, the steep and 

 irregular hills of the Sandhill country, the high plains, "bad 

 lands," buttes, and mountainous ridges of the extreme west. 



The soils of Nebraska show much of uniformity. Most of the 

 eastern portion is overlaid with loess, which becomes more sandy 

 westward toward the Sandhills, while still further west it be- 

 comes more clayey. These three general types of soil are more 

 or less modified locally, as by the increase of humus in the marshy 



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