656 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



Leaving the railroad at Dodge City (five miles from Fort Dodge), 

 Kansas, on the Arkansas Eiver, longitude 100^', the route was by long 

 marches to Camp Supply, Indian Territory, east of south, distant ninety- 

 one miles, and thence to Fort Elliott, Texas, a new post on the Sweet- 

 water, west of south, ninety-three miles distant, the latter, at which point 

 the survey commenced, being less than fifteen minutes west of the me- 

 ridian of Dodge City. South from Dodge, the road is over the character- 

 istic western prairie, crossing the Cimarron Eiver near the State line and 

 the north fork of the Canadian above Supply, and below it Wolf Creek, 

 along which the road runs for several miles, the Canadian itself, and the 

 Washita Eiver. Starting from Fort Elliott, from which we were absent 

 but six weeks (during which time over 600 miles were traveled), return- 

 ing June 22, the general course was southwest, striking Eed Eiver 

 about 100 miles distant, the main intermediate waters touched being 

 north fork of Eed Eiver and its main tributary, McClellan Creek, the 

 Salt Fork, a branch called White Fish Creek, and Mulberry Creek, 

 all emptying into the main river. Thence the scene of operations was 

 that part of the Staked Plain (Llano Estacado) embraced between 

 longitude 100° 30' to 102° and latitude 34° to 35° 30'. The surface of 

 the great plain, the elevation of which is 4,000 feet above the sea, is one 

 unvarying level, "flat beyond comparison", without an object on which 

 to rest the eye of the traveler. The vegetation consists of short gramma- 

 grass, here lower than usual, in accord with its desert surrounding, 

 whilst at long intervals appears a small "soap-weed" {Yucca angusti- 

 folia), so called from the use made of it by the natives in New and Old 

 Mexico, or a prickly-pear cactus {Opuntia missouriensis), both existing 

 here in a dwarfed or depauperate condition compared with their size 

 in more favored situations in the same or a higher latitude. 



The sources of the Eed Eiver are two small streams, the Tierra Blanca 

 and Palo Duro, which, after their union, bear the river's name. Wearing 

 for themselves, after proceeding a score or more of miles, deep beds by 

 cutting through the resisting strata, these caiions are truly oases in the 

 general surrounding waste. 



The streams in their upper parts have fertile banks, with gently rolling 

 land, which, covered with succulent grasses, are the famed resort of 

 wild animals, timber-fringed everywhere, sparsely above, below more 

 freely, with the trees of greater size and frequency. Birds are more fre- 

 quently seen along these streams than elsewhere, the avi-fauna here 

 finding its best expression. 



In crossing the very barren Staked Plain, we miss even the dog-vil- 

 lages, so characteristic of the prairies, and consequently find no Burrow- 

 ing Owls (Speotyto cunicularia hypogcm Cou-^s). In the rainy season, the 

 slightest depressions of the surface, almost unnoticed by the ordinary 

 traveler, become tilled with water. Without these water-holes, the 

 journey across the barren waste would be hazardous or impossible. 



Many years ago, the Mexican scouts affirm a passage practicable in 



