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44 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 



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I greeted as old friendSj were larger and brighter tlian I had 

 ever before seen them, giving most convincing proof of the 

 fertility of the land. 



The colours seemed also to follow the same kind of general 

 regularity ; at one part all would be white, at another yellow ; 

 covering often many square miles, all would be pink, more 

 rarely blue, and sometimes purple. 



I think, most assuredly, if we consider even what I have 

 said, there cannot be a doubt that all this region, extending 

 beyond the 99th meridian, and almost to the 100th in Kansas, 

 is susceptible of cultivation throughout without irrigation, 

 and is likely to yield abundant crops and large profits to the 

 farmer. 



Kot many miles west of Fort Hayes, vegetation begins to 

 suffer from the diminution in the rain-fall, and the general 

 fertility which I have been describing gradually disappears. 

 Streams become less frequent, and diy ari-oyos take their 

 place. Scrub bushes even are hard to find, and the only fuel 

 to be had during marches of twenty miles or more, is the dry 

 chips of the buffalo dnnoj. Both to the north and south, this 



line of demarcation exists between the well-watered plains to 

 the eastward, and the more arid regions separating them from 

 the Eocky Mountains. To the north, the line deflects east- 

 ward, and to the south it diverges to the west, so that a 

 greater portion of ^N^ebraska is dry and unproductive than of 



; while Kansas, taken as a whole, is less fertile 

 throughout than the Indian territory south of it. 



There are places where this dry belt is very narrow, and 

 were it absolutely desirable for a trans-continental railroad to 

 avoid it altogether, and to pass all the way to the Eocky 

 Mountains through land capable of continuous cultivation, 

 either with or without irrigation, this might easily be accom- 



