Hawortu. | Physiography of Western Kansas. 29 
the sands. Such an accumulation of sand is in no way due to the 
presence of the bridge, as the sand level under the bridge is the 
Same as that both above and below. 
Throughout the greater part of its course in western Kansas it 
seems that the recent filling in process has been principally on the 
south side. <A typical illustration may be taken from the river at 
Ingalis. The bridge there was built in 1886, twelve hundred feet 
long. At that time the main current of the stream was just to 
the south of the present (1856) south end of the bridge. Southernly 
winds and the river currents during times of overflow have filled 
in the bottom to the south of the bridge so that the bottom land has 
been carried far to the north. Several hundred feet of the south 
end of the bridge have been taken up, and the area occupied by the 
main river channel in 1886 is now a cultivated field. 
The river valley throughout its entire course has marks of many 
old channels in it similar to the conditions so frequently noticeable 
elsewhere after a river has reached its base level. The stream has 
shifted from bluff to bluff along its channel many times, during 
which time it has been gradually building its flood plain higher. 
Throughout a portion of its course the Arkansas river seems to 
flow on the summit of aridge. The general elevation of the country 
at Coolidge is perhaps a little lower than the surface either north 
or south. In) the absence of topographic surveys, however, one is 
liable to err in his estimates. The elevation of no point south of 
Coolidge has yet been determined, while to the north we must go to 
the Missouri Pacific railway in Greeley county twenty five miles 
away. The elevation of Horace, a point fifteen miles farther east 
than Coolidge, is 3648 feet, while that of Coolidge is only 3341 feet, 
making Coolidge, or the Arkansas river valley, about 300 feet be- 
low these uplands. The blufis at Coolidge are no more than 100 feet 
high, and probably less, making the general elevation of the uplands 
at Horace nearly 200 feet above those just north of the river. At 
Garden City the elevation in the river valley is 2827 feet, while thirty 
five miles to the north Scott City is 2771 feet above sea level, show- 
ing the decline of the surface eastward along the Missouri Pacific 
railway is more rapid than that along the Arkansas. The old river 
valley at Garden City is therefore higher than the main uplands 
