GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES 449 



moderate depth, usually sunk without resort to blasting and unfailing 

 in their supplies. 



At Wilson Station, about 98° 30' west longitude, water immediately 

 at the railway track is abundant within 48 feet of the surface. South 

 of the Station three miles is the living current of the Smoky Hill River : 

 a few miles north is the Saline, and then the Solomon, all having tribu- 

 taries of greater or less volume and permanence. At Ellsworth the 

 railway makes its greatest southern bend opposite the northern bend of 

 the Arkansas, which is within 50 miles, and the streams flowing into 

 the Arkansas in that region are already flanked by the homes of pioneers 

 whose numbers are rapidly increasing. The magnificent pasturage of 

 that part of Kansas makes it the paradise of the stock-raiser. 



The numerous springs near Wilson, some of considerable volume, and 

 all yielding water of much excellence, would be worthy of note in any 

 part of the Union, but could not be more happily located for usefulness. 



West from Wilson the railway courses parallel with and not distant 

 from the Smoky until approaching Hays, when it bears up the valley of 

 Big Creek, an affluent of the Smoky. North Fork and Fossil Creeks 

 are crossed between Wilson and Hays and again at Ellis. On the 

 "divide" between the Smoky and Saline, followed by the railway from 

 Wilson to Rays, water is found at depths corresponding to the undula- 

 tions of the track and its elevation above the Smoky, and a short distance 

 either north or south of the railway is available in springs, streams, and 

 pools. Along the more elevated portions of the line, where deeper 

 wells are required, the dense clays of the cretaceous series are at hand 

 for cisterns and tanks to hold rain-water, and the thinner layers of the 

 fossiliferous limestones afford easily-wrought materials of construction. 



Thus we reach Ellis, 302 miles, and have been all along in a country 

 sufficiently if not abundantly watered, and presenting where they may 

 be required ainple resources for the establishment of ponds, cisterns, 

 and tanks, to retain the supplies which the clouds 'do not fail to yield. 

 We are about half way from State Line to Denver, and 2,019 feet above 

 the level of the sea, yet neither in the paucity of vegetation, nor in 

 privation of water, nor in sterility of soil, have we found one feature of 

 the traditional desert, with the single exception of the scarcity of trees, 

 which are only found along the water-courses or in nooks of the bluffs 

 where fires have not been able' to reach them. 



Ellis is a prominent station, with round-house, machine-shops, hotel, 

 and stores. Big Creek, crossed at Ellis, is a constant stream with its- 

 source westward in the Plains. The Smoky Hill River is about 25 miles 

 south, and the head streams of the Saline about the same distance 

 north. Farming operations on a large scale are projected in the vicinity 

 of Ellis, near the one hundredth meridian. 



FROM ELLIS "WESTWARD. 



The railway pursues its general course directly westward, (the Smoky 

 Hill River at an average distance of 30 miles south,) and rising ou the 

 divide between the drainage to the Smoky and that to the Saline and 

 Solomon. There is no constant stream till we reach Sheridan, 103 miles 

 from Ellis, where another "North Fork" is crossed; a stream of visible 

 water sufficient for large herds of cattle and available for irrigation. 

 There is evidence of considerable underground flow in the main as well 

 as lateral valleys of the North Fork. It rises far to the north, in the 

 higher lands in which the south brandies of the Republican have their 

 sources, and enters the Smoky about 15 miles south of Sheridan. 

 29 G 



