182 
THE KAXSAS RIVER 
river, a distance of 485 miles, with an extreme width of nearly 
200 miles. The total area drained, as measured from the latest 
drainage maps of the General Land Office, is 61,440 square miles, 
of which 34,526 are in Kansas, 17,454 in Nebraska, and 9,459 in 
Colorado. 
The altitude of the basin varies from 750 feet at Kansas City 
to over 5,000 feet in Colorado, the average being about 2,500 feet. 
The area is distributed with reference to elevation as follows; 
Under 1,000 feet 1,250 square miles. 
Between 1,000 and 2,000 feet 20,200 “ “ 
“ 2,000 and 3,000 feet 11,300 “ 
“ .3,000 and 4,000 feet 12,560 “ 
“ 1,000 and 5,000 feet .5,020 “ 
Over 5,000 feet 1,510 “ 
Gauge readings have been carried on for several years at the 
mill dam at Lawrence by the mill owner. Sufficient measure- 
ments have not yet been made to establish a mean annual flow. 
Tlie minimum discharge is )>rohably a little over 500 second-feet. 
The mean annual rainfall of this basin varies with approximate 
regularity from almutten inches at its western extremity to nearly 
forty inches at the Missouri river, averaging perhaps twenty 
inches. It will be seen, therefore, that this basin reverses the 
conditions of the typical western stream wdiich rises in the moun- 
tains, where the precipitation is great, and carries its abundant 
waters into the arid plains, where the smaller tributaries can be 
used one l)y one, as the,y leave the mountains, to irrigate the plain. 
Rising as they do, in the most arid portion of the basin, and 
draining a sand}" country of gentle slope, the streams, except at 
the rainiest times, are almost insignificant in size until they 
reach the region where the precipitation is sufficient for the re- 
quirements of agriculture. They thus attain a considerable vol- 
ume only in the eastern part of the State, where irrigation is not 
imjierative, and where, moreover, nearly all the water is concen- 
trated in one stream so large and with so gentle a slope that its 
diversion for commercial purposes is impracticable. If tbe rain- 
tall conditions of the Kansas basin could be reversed, with a forty- 
iuch preci]ntation in eastern Colorado, decreasing to one of ten 
inches at the Missouri, its irrigation possibilities would be in- 
creased many fold. 
Three principal rivers flow directly into the Kansas ; the Blue, 
from the north ; the Republican, from the north\vest, and the 
Smoky Hill, from the west. The Blue has a drainage of 9,490 
