44 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



glacial action, that tlie upper layer can be quarried out and used for 

 caps and sills, without any further finish to them, and the process seems 

 to have been carried on with wonderful uniformity, for the upper sur- 

 face seems to be as level as it could be wrought with a plumb-line. 



There are a few small grooves or scratches on the surface, and by 

 means of a surveyor's compass I ascertained with a good degree of pre- 

 cision the direction, which was generally 27° east of north. 



There were some exceptions, as can be seen in the illustration, which 

 is an exact copy from the rock. The variation of the needle here is 

 about 11° 45'. The whole process here seems to have been a smoothing 

 one, with a few small pebbles perhaps in the bottom of the glacier. 



The accompanying illustration will show the character of the scratches, 

 and the fact, also, that there are indications of two sets , the scratches 

 crossing each other at different angles. 



I will now quote two or three paragraphs from a memoir published 

 in 1862, which had a very limited circulation, and is now out of print: 



" IsTear the mouth of the Elkhorn the sandstone presents much the 

 same character as before described. At this point it reaches nearly to 

 tlie water's edge, showing that the dip of the formations in this region 

 is toward the northwest. Here formation No. 1 is at least eighty feet 

 in thickness, about fifteen feet of carboniferous limestone being exposed 

 beneath. The latter soon passes beneath the water-level of the river, 

 and the sandstone occupies the country. 



'' The bottoms along the Lower Platte are quite broad, and extremely 

 fertile, i)ossessing a rich soil, and admirably adapted to the wants of 

 the farmer. Fine crystal springs issue from the limestone banks ; a 

 sufficiency of timber skirts the river or clothes the bluffs-; the climate 

 is quite dry and healthy, and if it were not for the extreme cold of win- 

 ter, this region would be one of the most desirable agricultural districts 

 in the West. 



f' The timber of the uplands consists chiefly of ash, elm, oak, soft 

 maple, box-wood, &c., while along the bottoms the cotton-wood forms 

 nine-tenths of the woodlands. The land, when in a state of nature, sup- 

 ports a most luxuriant vegetation, and, when cultivated by the farmer, 

 brings forth very abundant crops. 



" The valley of the Elkhorn is similar to that of the Platte, and the 

 land is at this time mostly taken up by actual settlers. The bluffs 

 are formed of sandstone, No. 1, often presenting lofty vertical walls, 

 which, from the yielding nature of the rock, are of great service to the 

 Indian upon which to record his hieroglyphic history." 



On my return to Bellevue I passed over the upland prairie, several 

 miles north of the Platte. Already nearly every valuable claim was 

 occupied by the persevering pioneer, and, as far as the eye could reach, 

 the plain was dotted over with farm houses, giving it much the appear- 

 ance of an old-settled country. Very little timber, however, is to be 

 seen, except that which skirts the small tributaries of the Platte. The 

 soil of which the surface is composed is of a rich vegetable mold, 

 the result of the annual decay of a luxuriant vegetation, underlaid by 

 a yellowish siliceous marl, and is admirably adapted for the cultivation 

 of all kinds of cereal grains and for grazing purposes. 



When the prairie-turf is broken up by the plouw, and allowed to 

 decay, the land becomes like a garden. The soil is so loose that it is 

 tilled with great ease, but, from this very fact, it is liable to suffer ex- 

 tensively from the wash of the heavy drenching rains of May and June. 



The crops of wheat, oats, and corn in both of these counties the pres- 

 ent year show unmistakably the very great capacity of the soil, thirty- 



