CHAPTER II. 
THE OMAHA LINE (UNION PACIFIC AND CENTRAL PACIFIC 
CALIFORNIA). 
Tux Union Pacific Railroad runs through the Platte valley from : 
Omaha to Julesburg (377 miles), and that of Lodge Pole Creek 
(a tributary) to the foot of the Black Hills, about 160 miles | 
farther. Of these 537 miles, only the first 150 pass through 
land susceptible of cultivation. But one-fifth of Nebraska cal | 
be cultivated without irrigation, and the remainder cannot be 
irrigated because the scanty streams which traverse it are , 
useless for that purpose. Beyond the limits between long. | 
98° and 99°, where the rain-fall is insufficient to raise crops, 
good grazing lands extend for about 100 miles, when We 
gradually enter a region so parched and barren that it cat 
scarcely support a meagre covering of stunted grass. Three 7 
hundred miles of this arid region have to be crossed before ~ 
the traveller, having imperceptibly ascended the slope of the ) 
continent to an elevation of 6,500 feet to the foot of the | 
Black Hills, finds the pasturage improve, from its close , 
proximity to the mountains. But as the Black Hills are low, — 
they do not cause sufficient rain-fall to enable the farmer t 
settle on their eastern slopes. For 500 miles scarcely a tree — 
is to be seen. The River Platte presents to the eye, at most 
seasons of the year, a vast expanse of sandy bed, often on® 
mile wide, with a few trickling streams meandering like 
silver threads around innumerable sand-banks and islands, 
_ Some few of which are covered with cotton-wood trees. These 
