THE SANTA FE ROUTE. 31 
trough which this stream cut in the underlying shales and sandstones 
at an earlier stage in its development. The river belongs to the 
class of large streams in the west which have excavated wide, shallow 
valleys across the country and now, owing to their heavily loaded 
condition at times of freshets, are gradually filling them again. The 
result is a wide level plain, floored with river-borne materials, through 
which the stream meanders with irregular course and very slight 
declivity. In the Arkansas Valley from Kinsley, where the altitude 
is 2,160 feet, to the bridge at Hutchinson, where the altitude is 
1,500 feet, the fall is 660 feet. As the distance between these points 
is somewhat less than 100 miles the rate of fall is only about 6.6 feet 
to the mile, which is normal for a river of moderate size. 
From Hutchinson to Sterling the level alluvial flat is an almost 
continuous wheat field. A large amount of broom corn is also raised. 
About 5 miles northeast the railway is paralleled by the low ridge of 
sand dunes mentioned on page 27. 
Nickerson, named for Thomas Nickerson, an official of the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., is on the broad flat about a mile 
from the river bank. Sterling, the next station, is 
Nickerson, about 2 miles north of the river. In the eastern part 
Elevation 1,59 feet. of Sterling, north of the railway, a large salt refinery 
‘cas ‘City Getinlieg, 35 obtaining salt by forcing water down a pipe sunk 
deep into the salt-bearing strata and pumping out the 
Sterling. saturated solution, as in the plants at Hutchinson. 
Elevation 1,637 feet. Here a line of the Missouri Pacific Railway, which 
nase ot ae runs parallel to the Santa Fe from Hutchinson, 
crosses it and goes northward to Lyons and beyond. 
In the vicinity of Alden the valley flat is nearly 15 miles wide, 
extending north almost to Lyons. Near Raymond, however, a ridge 
of the upland approaches the river from the north 
pee and narrows the valley greatly. At the base of this 
Elevation Lez feet. ridge appear brown ledges of the Dakota sandstone 
Ee ee sinc eee along the foot of the hills not far 
north of the track to a point some distance beyond 
Raymond. Raymond. This sandstone is a very porous rock 
wesieseeae 723 feet. and wherever it occurs underground is an important 
eee ies in thou- 
Kuusas City 264 miles, Water bearer that yields valuable suppli 
sands of wells in the Middle West. The sandstone is 
near the surface in a wide area along the Arkansas Valley from the 
vicinity of Sterling to Ford, but owing to the covering of sand and 
gravel outcrops of the sdoiiitoas are rare. Some of those which 
occur have fantastic forms such as that shown in Plate III, A (p. 19). 
In this region the beds lie nearly level, for the gentle westward dips 
which exist in the region east of Hutchinson gradually give place in 
