PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF 



NEBRASKA. 



Position — Surface— Bottom Lands — Tables of Elevation — Average Ele- 

 vation and Grade— How to gain a Conception of its Topography — Num- 

 ber of Valleys — Exceptional Features of the Niobrara River Region — Sand 

 Hills — Bad Lands. 



NEBRASKA occupies a position near the centre of the Republic. 

 The parallel of 40 is its southern boundary, and the Missouri 

 River, the Niobrara and the Key a Paha rivers form the Northern 

 boundary as far west as range twenty west of the sixth principal 

 meridian. West of this point the parallel of 43 forms its northern 

 boundary. Its eastern boundary is the Missouri, whose direction 

 here is a little east of south. This brings the southeast corner of 

 the State to the 95 25' meridian. The 104 meridian west of Green- 

 wich marks its western boundary down to latitude 41 °. Below 

 this point a line a few miles w r est of the 102 meridian constitutes 

 the western boundary of the State. This notch takes out of the 

 southwest corner of the State, 7,300 square miles. Were it not 

 for this offset the State in shape would approximate to a parallelo- 

 gram. The extreme width of the State from north to south is 20S.5 

 miles, and its length from east to west is within a fraction of 413 

 miles. In area the State approximates closely to 75,995 square 

 miles, or nearly 48,636,800 acres. Taking Ohio, which has an area 

 of 39,964 square miles, as the type of a model sized state, it is seen 

 that Nebraska contains almost twice as much territory. The area of 

 Nebraska is 12,359 sc i uar e miles larger than all the New England 

 states combined. It contains 20,000 more square miles of territory 

 than Iowa. England and Wales combined have less area by 

 17,000 square miles than Nebraska. In extent of territory it is an 



