WATERS OF NEBRASKA. 59 



and Wyoming, by the time it reaches Nebraska it is broad, shallow, 

 sandy, but still with a rapid current. It flows through the whole 

 length of the State from east to west, dividing the State, but 

 leaving the largest part on the north. In places at low water it can 

 be forded, though teams are sometimes in danger of sticking fast 

 in the quick sands. It is not navigable. It has been bridged at 

 Fremont, Schuvler, Grand Island, Kearney Junction, North Platte 

 and other points. An important point on the river is North Platte, 

 where it forks, one branch being known as the South Fork, enters 

 the State from Colorado near the angle of the southwest corner, or 

 near the parallel of 41 . The North Fork enters the State from 

 Wyoming near latitude 42. The average volume ofwater at North 

 Platte is greater than at its mouth, though it receives in the meantime 

 some large tributaries, the most important of which are the Elkhorn, 

 Papillion, Shell Creek, Loup and Wood River. A few held that 

 this was caused by evaporation. The tributaries, however, that 

 enter the Platte from the north more than supply the waste from 

 this cause. The explanation of this phenomenon is found in the 

 character of the bottom and its continuation with the Drift under- 

 lying the uplands south of the Platte. The bottom of the Platte is 

 txtremelv sandy, and is continuous with a sandy, gravelly and 

 pebbly deposit of the Drift under the Loess as far as to the Repub- 

 lican. It will also be seen in the lists of elevations that have been 

 given that the general level of the Republican is three hundred and 

 fifty-two feet below that of the Platte. There is therefore a descent 

 from the Platte to the Republican, and along such a formation that 

 there is easy drainage from the one into the other. That there is such 

 drainage on an extensive scale I have no doubt. Wading in the 

 Republican in August, as I have done for many miles at a time, I 

 noticed on the north side water ozing out of the drift continuously 

 every few feet in places, and rarely at greater intervals than every 

 few rod^. Nothing of the kind was noticed on its southern shore. 

 Where tributaries of the Republican from the northwest cut deep 

 enough to strike the drift they share in the reception of this water 

 from the Platte. Few, however, do this. 



Flood time for the Platte is generally about the same time as that 

 of the Missouri — sometimes a few days or weeks earlier, but the 

 continuance of both is so long that they meet, though they rarely 

 culminate together. 



