HAWORTH. | Physiography of Western Kansas. 30 
part of Lane county. Where the various tributaries of the Walnut 
have cut their channels in the Niobrara chalk the valleys are 
narrower and the bluff lines very abrupt, often almost precipitous, 
producing thereby a picturesqueness scarcely surpassed by any 
one of the streams in western Kansas. 
Smoky Hill River. 
The Smoky Hill river is one of the principal tributaries producing 
the Kansas river. By its junction with the Republican at Junction 
City the Kansas is formed. 
The Smoky Hill rises in Colorado only a short distance beyond 
the western Kansas line. From the west side of the state to as 
far east as Salina it has a great many lesser tributaries, none of 
which are of particular importance. At Salina the Saline river 
enters from the north, and at Solomon the Solomon river likewise 
enters from the north. Hach of these will be considered separately. 
Through the western part of the course of the Smoky Hill its lesser 
tributaries rise in the Tertiary formation. The larger ones, however, 
and the main channel itself, have cut through the Tertiary to the 
Cretaceous, so that the main part of the Smoky Hill flows on a 
cretaceous floor continuously from the western part of the state to 
Salina, from which place it rests on a Permian floor throughout the 
remainder of its course to Junction City. 
This series of geologic strata through which it has cut its channel 
gives a variety of conditions regarding the water content of the 
stream. Invariably where a stream rises in the Tertiary and has 
just cut its channel to the Cretaceous floor below, or almost to the 
Cretaceous floor, it is supplied with seeps and springs so that it 
carries never failing water. ‘The upper tributaries of the Smoky 
Hill therefore in most cases have water in them throughout the en- 
tire year. They are fed by seeps and sometimes by springs which 
never fail. Such geographic terms as Russell Springs and Sharon 
Springs imply the presence of springs of considerable importance. 
But farther east where the channel is worn a considerable distance 
into the Cretaceous, a formation which produces no water whatever 
of any consequence, the evaporative forces of the air and sun’s rays 
generally have evaporated all the water in such streams. We have 
