286 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
watered, and displaying a luxuriant vegetation, similar in many of its aspects 
to what he has been accustomed to in cultivated eastern countries, he will hay 
which only needs to be made easily accessible from the populous districts of the 
Mississippi valley and the Western seaboard, to support and maintain a pros- 
ation. 
_ Commencing with Eastern Kansas, we note the rank vegetation pertaining to 
rich alluvial districts: the bottom-lands are occupied with seein wth of 
forest trees, including elm, black walnut, hackberry, ash, and cotton-wood ; 
the uplands support rank prairie grasses and a variety of plants, exhibiting a 
strange mingling of north-western, and more southern, forms, corresponding 
. ses, uring th 
1s represented only by the persistent cotton-wood, box-elder, and willow. 
“he uplands, buffalo grass and grama take the place of the rank prairie sod, and 
_— characterised by a short curly growth, and dense fibrous roots, often 
i im clumps, and penetrating deeply into the dry though still nutritious 
Still farther west we find the depressed basins and vall xhibiting a 
i i eys exhibiung 
white saline efflorescence, due to the intense evaporation, which in the dry 
Saline ingredients derived from the washed soil of the 
ted bottoms, overflowed in the season of rains. With 
ar grasse8, which in. the summer rainy season assume a d 
forgeries a dry season ‘e converted into a nutritious 
t 2 a 
wails * . ted in the dried 
Bpper alluvial benches of the principal valleys we encounter dense 
