296 University of Kansas Geological Survey. 
150 feet in depth, but the water is always good and there is an 
“inexhaustible” supply of it. The wonderful amount of water 
contained in this lower gravel bed of small extent is remarkable. 
A. glance at section 4 will suggest that the supply may be traced, 
upon further investigation, to the Smoky Hill and Arkansas rivers. 
The streams have no native timber on them worthy of note, but 
on the uplands and valleys cottonwoods and other trees thrive 
wherever planted, their roots penetrating the clay to the sand for 
water. This is in marked contrast to the country just to the east, 
where the Permian shales are the surface rock. Here the cotton- 
wood trees grow to be fair sized trees and then die. 
The rainfall is sufficient on this area to produce a fair crop 
almost every year. The area covers over nine hundred square miles 
and may be said to be the richest farm land of any area of its size 
in Kansas, and its inhabitants the most thrifty. 
