444 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP THE TERRITORIES. 



future. The farmers near Brookville, Harker, and Ellsworth, as well 

 as those at some distance north and south, find even the raw soil of the 

 prairie productive the first season. Near where I write winter wheat 

 gives unusual promise on sod broken for the first time last summer. 



In general terms, the country from Abilene to Wilson (77 miles) may- 

 be classed as rich in soil and abounding in supplies of water, either in 

 streams or reached by shallow wells — a country both arable and pasto- 

 ral, and being rapidly taken up by immigrants. Abilene is prominent 

 as a point for cattle shipment, increasing year after year. During the 

 past season large numbers have also been shipped from Brookville ; and 

 in a year or two the herds will be coming to the track at Ellsworth and 

 Wilson. As the consumption of beef seems to be gaining on the sup- 

 ply, there must be continuous activity in the cattle trade, and its mag- 

 nitude will only be limited by the rate of increase of the animals. 



WEST OF NINETY-EIGHTH MERIDIAN. 



This meridian crosses the railway east of Fort Harker. At Wilson 

 Station, 239 miles by rail west of the State line of Missouri, we are 

 about 98° 30' west longitude. We are now in the border of the im- 

 mense cretaceous area, which, with more or less of superimposed drift, 

 stretches westward to the eastern flank of the " great divide," so often 

 described as extending east from the mountains between the waters of 

 the Platte and the Arkansas. West of the one hundred and fourth 

 meridian the cretaceous seems to be overlaid by tertiary formation, 

 with lignite beds over large areas, extending at greater or less depths to 

 the base of the mountains. 



In describing the general formation from 98° 30' west longitude to 

 104° as cretaceous, reference is had to what may be called the sub- 

 structure. On the surface, over large areas, there are deposits of sandy 

 clays and marls, with occasional solidification into porous strata of rocky 

 character ; in areas of limited extent looser sands and gravels, the latter 

 in places intermingled with water- worn boulders of three to ten pounds 

 weight, all apparently derived ages ago (yet recently in a geological 

 sense) from the mountain ranges to the west and northwest. 



In spots near Wilson, and at intervals westward to the one hundredth 

 meridian, the cretaceous rocks are on the surface, and they are shown 

 boldly in the bluffs of the' Smoky Hill, Saline, and other streams. But 

 further westward these rocks appear only in the bluffs of the streams, 

 until about the one hundred and second meridian, where, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Fort Wallace, some ledges of chalky limestone, variously 

 tinted, rest in ledges on the uplands distant from the water-courses. 



SOIL FOR SIX DEGREES OF LONGITUDE. 



From the ninety-eighth to the one hundred and fourth meridian we 

 have the traditional "desert." But there is no true desert on the 

 line of the Kansas Pacific Bailway. Between the one hundred and 

 fourth meridian and the mountains the soil is in general of the same 

 composition as that which at the base of the mountains has in many 

 localities been proved to be remarkably productive. East of the one 

 hundred and fourth meridian the external characters of the surface-earth 

 suggest greater fertility than west of that line, and the native vegeta- 

 tion sustains this suggestion. In many parts of the plains there is a 

 considerable mixture of vegetable mold with the surface deposits, par- 

 ticularly in the lower lands, and even in the most sandy and gravelly 

 districts vegetation suited to the local conditions is always present. 



