Between these more or less parallel valleys are ranges of hills 

 of nearly pure sand, rising from one hundred to five or six hun- 

 dred feet above the center of the valley. In some cases the val- 

 leys are bounded on north and south by high, steep hills; oftener 

 the sides rise gradually through a succession of hills of increas- 

 ing size. The hills bear all manner of fantastic shapes, showing 

 their formation to be due to winds rather than to water. The 

 upper slopes are abrupt and the ridge is narrow, and a character- 

 istic mark is the great pits or craters bloion out of their sides or 

 tops. These " blow-outs '' are usually on the southwest face of a 

 hill, though there are many exceptions. 



We came upon two streams. The North Loup rises in a marshy 

 region in west-central Cherry county around Brush Lake. Where 

 we first saw it, it was very cold and swift and about as deep as it 

 was wide (2 to 3 ft.) It flows, constantly and rapidly increasing 

 in size, through a valley bounded by high, steep sand hills. 

 Sometimes the valley is broad and level, but as a rule it is narrow, 

 and often a perfect gorge. The stream has a limestone bottom, 

 and not far from its source has innumerable falls — some of them 

 quite large. The Gordon is a clear stream, more sluggish than 

 the other, but swift compared with streams in the eastern part of 

 the state. It was quite wide and deep where we came upon it, 

 and flowed through a wide, swaihpy valley, bounded by high 

 sand hills. 



In eastern Cherry county there is a region of permanent lakes, 

 of which the largest. Dad's Lake, seemed to be about 5 to 6 miles 

 long and 1 to 1|^ miles wide. Beyond this fine body of water 

 there is a network of lakes, of which Pelican Lake is the largest. 

 From a hill above this lake twenty-four are visible. 



In Sheridan county and western Cherry county the valleys 

 were, roughly speaking, of two kinds — wet valleys and dry val- 

 leys. In some seasons valleys are dry that are wet at other times, 

 but some valleys appear to be permanently dry. They are usu- 

 ally quite long and the sides are provokingly steep and high. 

 The wet valleys vary in length from 2 or 3 to 15 miles and are 



