L. E. HICKS — AN OLD LAKE BOTTOM. 



27 



All of the elements of composition are curves. The horizontal planes and sharp 

 angles of water-sculpture are conspicuously absent. The hills are low domes, the 

 basins have the same form inverted. There may, indeed, be a level space at the bot- 

 tom, but that is a secondary modification. The sloping sides of the lagoons are grass- 

 covered and wash but little, yet enough is carried down to make notable accumu- 

 lations when reinforced by the remains of a luxuriant vegetation induced by the rich 

 soil and abundant moisture. As much as twenty feet of soil has been observed in 

 some of these lagoons. 



Here we see the natural reservoirs for the storm waters of the plains. In some of 

 them water remains throughout the year ; in almost all it is easily reached by digging 



Figure 2.— Stereogram of a portion of the surface of Caster county, Nebraska. 

 Scale, horizontal 8 inches = 1 mile, vertical 1 inch = 600 feet. 



A cistern is often dug in the bottom of a lagoon, and, being covered to prevent evap- 

 oration, it preserves the collected storm waters for household use. Still more fre- 

 quently a supply for animals is obtained by simply deepening the basin with plow 

 and scraper. The economic value of these natural storage basins has brought them 

 into general notice, and accounts for the fact that they have a popular name. This 

 name, "lagoon," is closely restricted to the depressions on the rolling surface of th • 

 high, grass-covered table-lands. I have never heard it applied to the numerous 

 closed basins among the sand hills or the " kettle holes " of the drift. 



Lagoons occur over a wide region east of the Kocky Mountains, where the rivers 

 have not invaded and modified the old lake bottom. They are more numerous in 



