GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 25 



The crops are very promising ; corn and potatoes are excellent, and 

 tlie grasshoppers have left a full half-crop of wheat. 



The grass-land is about the same as in Eichardson County, yielding 

 from two to three tons per acre. Tree-planting has received but little 

 attention as yet, but many of the settlers are fully alive to its impor- 

 tance. A few hedges have been planted, and fruit-trees are attracting 

 some attention. The best of success attends all efforts in that direction. 

 Mr. Hollingshead, of Pawnee City, will have this year one hundred and 

 fifty bushels of peaches. 



Water is abundant all over the county, so that there is scarcely a 

 section of land without a running stream or a flowing spring. 



Water is obtained by digging, at moderate depth, ^ear the streams, 

 in almost all cases, water is reached near the water-level in the alluvial 

 formations, and when the basis rocks are penetrated on the higher 

 elevations, the clay-beds act as reservoirs for holding water, and yield 

 a most abundant supply when struck. 



I have not seen or heard of a well or spring of poor water in the 

 county, and most wells have a continual supply of from six to ten 

 feet. 



For the raising of fine, healthy stock, horses, cattle, sheep, &c., it 

 seems to me that this county is unsurpassed. 



GAGE COUNTY. / 



Leaving Pawnee City we took a course nearly southwest across the 

 open, high prairie, crossing the divide between the valley of the Nema- 

 ha and that of the Big Blue. Very few exposures were to be seen for 

 ten miles or more. 



The surface is rolling, covered with a heavy deposit of alluvium, so 

 that the' underlying basis rocks are concealed from view, even along the 

 little streams. 



The soil is very rich and deep, producing from one and a half to three 

 tons of hay to the acre. All the crops look remarkably well. In jiass- 

 ing over this divide I saw the first long interval of waterless and tree- 

 less i^rairie, and one that reminded me of the dry plains farther west. 

 There was no living water and no houses to be seen for seven miles. 

 The timber is also very scarce, not enough even for the thin settle- 

 ments. 



About seven miles before reaching the Otoe agency a bed of lime- 

 stone crops out of the hills, forming a sort of terrace about fifty feet 

 above the beds of the streams. This hard bed of rock gives to the 

 country a more abruptly rugged character ; the little branches have 

 steeper banks, and there is a greater variety to the scenery. . There is 

 a belt of land, ten to twelve miles in width, between the Nemaha and 

 Big Blue, that is doubtless underlaid by the more yielding clays and 

 sands of the Carboniferous period, and therefore the effect of erosion 

 seems to have been to produce gentle slopes or lawns, as it were, beau- 

 tiful but monotonous, effectually concealing, down to the water edge of 

 the streams, all the basis rocks. 



At the Otoe agency the bed of limestone before alluded to is exposed. 

 It is a cherty limestone, breaking into small fragments. There are one 

 or two layers, six to twelve inches in thickness, of good limestone for 

 buildings. At various localities within two miles of this place I ob-. 

 tained a pretty fair section of the rocks : 



7. Superficial deposits of soil and yellow mud. 



