GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 445 



Made up of disintegrated rocks and clays of cretaceous age, inter- 

 mingled with, and in places overlaid by deposits of later drift, the gen- 

 eral surface of the Plains east of the one hundred and fourth meridian 

 may be described as composed of clay and sandy loam, with occasional 

 but very limited spots of gravel — the whole impregnated with lime, gyp- 

 sum, soda, magnesia, phosphoric acid, potash, and nitre ; all fertilizers 

 and true to their mission whenever the compacted surface is broken up 

 so as to let in the air and moisture. 



I repeat, that if we may judge by the native vegetation, the Plains 

 may be described as productive over their whole extent, as traversed by 

 this railway. There are zones and belts of greater and less fertility ; but 

 the language of Fremont, " broad, grassy plains," is as true in description 

 as it is inconsistent with the idea of a " desert." " Broad, grassy plains," 

 sustaining by their native plants animal life as ponderous as the buffalo 

 herd, must have uses for mankind not belonging to a desert. 



In some limited portions of this vast region there is only a scanty 

 growth of the short, curly buffalo-grass (Sesleria dactyloides) with more 

 or less of sage, cactus, and yucca. In large districts there is a general 

 prevalence of grama-grass, ( Chondrosium fccneiim,) and eastward of the 

 one hundred and first meridian we find a considerable intrusion of the 

 Kansas " blue-joint," which notably increases as we approach the fron- 

 tier settlements in the neighborhood of Wilson and Ellsworth. In all 

 parts of the Plains there are spots of greater or less extent where the 

 nutritious bunch-grass finds a congenial soil, and presents its rich pastur- 

 age. In the most arid and apparently most sterile portions of the 

 country along this railway, cattle and mules and horses find subsistence 

 and keep in good condition, where the flippant writer for the press, in 

 a hurried journey by rail, has seen only "desolation," or has been 

 nauseated by imaginary " alkali." 



The cactus appears sparsely about the ninety-eighth meridian, per- 

 haps some distance eastward, (Mammilaria and OpuntiaJ and is more 

 abundant as we go westward, nowhere occupying the ground to the ex- 

 clusion of grasses and other herbage. "A plant which is extremely 

 useful to the Mexicans as a substitute for soap, by them called palmillo, 

 by us Adam's needle or Spanish bayonet," (Abert,) the botanical name 

 Yucca augustif oleum, appears but sparingly until we pass the one hun- 

 dred and second meridian, but gains in number and vigor thence to the 

 mountains. Artemisia appears in the western regions, but not in the 

 abundance displayed in the Laramie Plains. 



It is rare that any saline efflorescence is observed, until we get to the 

 vale of the Big Sandy, a tributary of the Arkansas, reached by the rail- 

 way at Kit Carson, near one hundred and third meridian. In the dry 

 seasons pools of brackish water stand in the bed of this stream, and 

 along its banks the white crystallization may be seen at intervals. The 

 Smoky Hill Biver probably owes its repute as an " alkali " stream to the 

 disintegrated chalk washed down from the layers of white or chalky 

 limestone along its banks. In the bars of Big Creek, a living stream 

 crossed by the railway near the one hundredth meridian, and which 

 empties into the Smoky east of Fort Hays, the white limestone pebbles 

 have no doubt passed with many observers as "alkali." 



The proportion of the soil of the plains rendered unfit for production 

 by "alkali" is not equal to the proportion of Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio 

 rendered unfit by swamps and marshes. In fact, except in a very few 

 basins, or depressions, a few acres in extent, where the drainage of sur- 

 rounding areas is partly absorbed and partly evaporated, the soil is no- 

 where impregnated with alkaline matter to an extent to unfit it for gen- 



