KANSAS IN 1786. 183 



But this important point must be kept in view ; if it be intended to add sugar 

 to a must poor in that substance, the sugar ought to be of the same nature as that 

 pecuHar to the grape. Now, crystaUized beat-sugar supplies this want. In a 

 year when the sun's heat and light are defective, the grape is deficient in sugar 

 but rich in acid ; hence, the addition of beet or cane sugars supplements an ab- 

 sent sun \ that sugar ferments in the same conditions and produces the same alco- 

 hol as the natural sugar of the fermenting fruit. Glucose, that is syrup prepared 

 from maize or wheat, is wholly unsuitable. 



After a first fermentation, and a drawing off of the wme so resulting if more 

 sugar be added to the contents of the vat, an excellent second, and even a third 

 small wine can be prepared, called piquette. Vineyard proprietors with good 

 brands assert, the wine industry of France will lose its reputation, and will cease 

 to be remunerative, if facilities are afforded to manufacture wines, by conceding 

 latitude to add alcohol directly, or indirectly by the use of sugar to induce extra 

 alcoholic fermentations. 



HISTORICAL NOTES. 



KANSAS IN 1786. 



BY J. R. MEAD. 



Any facts bearing upon the early exploration, or history of Kansas or the 

 Missouri Valley, should be carefully collected and preserved in some form acces- 

 sible to the future historian; I therefore give the Review an item which possibly 

 may be of interest. 



In the spring of i860 I was in camp upon the north bank of the Smoky Hill 

 River, about two miles east of Cedar Bluff as then known in what is now the 

 county of Ellsworth, and some forty miles west of Salina, Kansas. The south bank 

 of the river was a steep bluff of sandstone from the summit of which the table land 

 extended back to the divide. While hunting buffalo upon this table-land I noticed 

 quite a deep ravine extending a mile or more back, with a number of lateral 

 branches, and apparently emptying into the river nearly opposite my camp. Not 

 having noticed any opening in the bluff I concluded to follow the ravine to its 

 outlet, and, to my surprise found it ended in a cave about two hundred feet from 

 the river which was as far back as the sandstone extended. On entering this cave 

 I found it had been formed by a small stream of water running from the table- 

 land over the bluff, and in time cutting a narrow, crooked channel from one to 

 two feet in width down to the level of the river, and in course of ages it had wid- 

 ened out at the bottom into considerable chambers, and the soil from the ravine 

 had washed through it into the river. 



