GRIMSLEY. | Geography and Topography. By) 
present a rugged topography. The agents that did this work 
were the Big Blue river, which has its source in southern Ne- 
braska and flows nearly south through a valley of one-half to 
to one mile in breadth and 100 feet deep, and the Little Blue, 
which rises at the west, in Republic county, and flows through 
southern Nebraska and southeast through northern Kansas in 
a valley of varying breadth and about the same depth as that 
of the other river. Therivers unite near the town of Blue Rap- 
ids and furnish, at that place, the best water power in the state, 
estimated at 1500 horse-power at low water. The Big Blue 
then flows south thirty-five miles, emptying into the Kansas 
river near Manhattan. 
The valleys and hills of this northern area are covered with 
fertile lime soils, and they are dotted with prosperous farms. 
The small towns are located close together in the vailey of the 
Blue and are connected by the northern branch of the Union 
Pacific railroad. The plaster manufacture is the prominent in- 
dustry of Blue Rapids, a town of about 1200 inhabitants, where 
there are three gypsum mills and a fourth one in prospect. 
TOPOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL OR GYPSUM CITY AREA. 
The central area, as shown in Plate III, lies seventy miles 
southwest of Blue Rapids, and the area of important gypsum 
deposits les south of the Smoky Hill river, north of the Rock 
Island railway, and west of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
railway. The area is drained by the Smoky Hill river, which 
flows in a very winding channel north of east, uniting with the 
Republican river thirty miles away at Junction City to form 
the Kansas. It flows in the middle of a broad valley 1100 feet 
above sea level and a mile or more in width. Its tributaries in 
the gypsum area are three smail creeks, Gypsum, Holland, and 
Turkey, which flow almost directly north. 
The main water-shed or divide formed by the Dakota sand- 
stone lies twenty-two miles to the south of the river, and trends 
nearly east and west, with an elevation of about 1550 feet, 
through the northern part of Marion county. ‘This divide de- 
scends on the south side within eight miles to 1400 feet in the 
