the rainy season for the State. It begins whenever the "big rise" of the Missouri and the Platte occur. This rainy season lasts from four to eight weeks. In seventeen years I have not known it to fail. During its continuance it does not, indeed, rain every day, except occasionally for a short period. Generally, during this period, it rains from two to three times a week. It is more apt to rain every night than every day. In fact, during the whole of this season, three-fourths of the rain falls at night. It is not an unusual occurrence for rain to fall every night for weeks, followed by cloudless days. This rainy season of June occurs at a period when crops most need rain, and, owing to the regularity of its occurrence, droughts sufficiently severe to destroy the crops in eastern Nebraska, where there is a proper cultivation, have not yet been known. After the wet season of June, which sometimes extends into July, is over, there are rains and showers at longer intervals until and during autumn. During winter it rarely rains. Snow falls in winter, but seldom to a great depth. The snows generally range in depth from one to ten inches, and in a few extreme cases to fifteen inches. During the majority of winters, no snows fall over eight inches in depth.
     The average rainfall for ten years, taken at Kearney, was thirty inches; at North Platte, twenty inches; at Plattsmouth, forty inches; thus the moisture decreases as we ascend from the river to the mountains.

     COMPARATIVE ESTIMATES WITH OTHER REGIONS--Europe.--While many will admit that there is an abundance of rainfall east of the 100th meridian, they still claim that west of that line it is too dry for the successful production of anything but. stock. They point to the less amount of rainfall west of that line, and ask how a region that receives so little can be utilized for agricultural purposes.
      The fallacy of this conclusion can be seen at once if we compare the rainfall of Western Nebraska with that which obtains in some of the most favored spots of the Old World. The following table I have taken from Guyot:

TABLE OF RAINFALL.--IN INCHES

     Paris itself, according to the researches of Arago, has only an average annual rainfall of twenty inches. (Cosmos, Vol. 1, p. 381.)
     Now, it is true that there are many rainy days in Western France (152) and Central and North Germany (150); yet, if we count in the nights when it rains, and the days and nights when it snows, there is not so much difference as at first imagined between the wet days of Nebraska and middle and western Europe. Regions in Europe with even less rainfall than western Nebraska are made successful in agriculture. Less toil than is expended to make the dry portions of Europe a garden would make western Nebraska agriculturally rich.
     Even, therefore, judged by European standards, western Nebraska is already sufficiently watered for the needs of certain kinds of agriculture.

     INCREASING RAINFALL AND ITS SOURCES.--The appearance of new springs, where they have never been noticed before s a common phenomenon in Nebraska. This has particularly been observed along the Missouri River Bluffs and along the bluffs that border the flood plains of most of the rivers of Nebraska. My own partial record of new springs now numbers over 200, that have appeared within twelve years. Connected with this same line of facts is the phenomenon of the appearance of water in old creek beds where it apparently had not been flowing for ages. Many of the tributaries of the Elkhorn and Niobrara. the Logan, the Bows and Loups, with beautiful bottoms, and old stream beds in the middle or on one side of them, and which were perfectly dry when I first visited them in 1865 and 1866, are again living streams. Many of them that had grass grown over them, which were even difficult to find, so nearly obliterated were they, are again permanently supplied with water.
     The increasing size and depth of the streams in the State, which old settlers observe, points to the same direction.
     The changing vegetation of the State proves the same fact. Until quite recently, the buffalo grass was the most conspicuous vegetable form west of the Missouri. When Lewis and Clark passed up the Missouri in 1804, it was almost the only grass that they found growing along that portion of their route; Fremont observed the same thing as late as 1842. The first settlers in this territory found it abounding along all the river counties. The early freighters across the plains depended most on it for pasturage for their cattle. Now, how changed! It has almost entirely disappeared for 200 miles west of the Missouri. There is comparatively little of it now on the third hundred. Every year it is retreating farther westward. Its place is supplied with grasses indigenous to moister climates. Where formerly the ground was covered with grasses from two to four inches high, there is now a carpet of green from six inches to four feet high. Many of the blue joints and sorghum grasses exceed even this height. Still other forms beside the grasses, characteristic of moist regions, are occupying the spaces left by the retreating buffalo grass. There is also an increase in the spontaneous growth of timber. Wherever there are abandoned cultivated fields, and the prairie fires are kept away, and the tract is left unmolested from other hindering causes, thick growths of cottonwood and sometimes box elder frequently soon monopolize the ground. This is especially true of lands in close proximity to existing timber belts. There is an increasing disposition to do this all over Eastern Nebraska. Where formerly there was not sufficient moisture to start the seeds into life on the high lands,

.which are scattered each year by the winds, birds and rodents, there is now an abundance. In fact. it is questionable if prairie fires were entirely repressed, whether groves of timber would not now gradually creep all over the unoccupied lands of Nebraska. The proofs, therefore, that the rainfall of Nebraska is steadily increasing are manifold. If space permitted, many more could be given. It is therefore probable that the early explorers of this region were correct in ascribing it to a particularly desert character. And yet even then they could only have been partially correct. No desert can support countless thousands of buffalo, elk, deer and antelope, as the plains of Nebraska did when Lewis and Clark made their first voyages of discovery up the Missouri.

CAUSES THAT ARE PRODUCING THE INCREASED RAINFALL FOR THE STATE.

     Various causes have been assigned to account for the increased rainfall of the State. Some have maintained that the cause is secular that there are great periods when the moisture of a region increases for ages, independent of any human agency, and that when it has reached a maximum, it commences to decrease, which continues until it reaches a minimum. According to this theory, this region is now in such secular change of increasing moisture.
     Another plausible theory is that the planting of trees has been the cause of increasing rainfall. This, I admit, is a helping cause, but cannot be the main cause. Here there was an increase of rainfall, before the number of trees planted equalled (sic) the number destroyed. The statistics of forestry show in the east, in Europe and Asia, that forests modify temperature, the violence of winds, and equalize rainfall, but do not increase it. While, therefore. the growth of forests exercise the happiest influence on climate, it is evident that we must look elsewhere for the permanent cause of increasing rainfall. There is, however, another cause, not heretofore mentioned, most potently acting to produce all the changes in rainfall that the facts indicate have taken place. What then is that cause?
      It is the great increase in the absorptive power of the soil, wrought by cultivation, that has caused, and continues to cause, an increasing rainfall in the State.
     Any one who examines a piece of raw prairie closely, must observe how compact it is. Every one who opens up a new farm soon finds that it requires an extra force to break it. There is nothing extraordinary about this. For vast ages the prairies have been pelted by the elements and trodden by millions of buffalo and other wild animals, until the naturally rich soil became as compact as a floor. When rain falls on a primitive soil of this character, the greater part runs off into canons, creeks and rivers, and is soon through the Missouri on its way to the Gulf. Observe now the change which cultivation makes. After the soil is broken, the rain as it falls is absorbed by the soil like a huge sponge. The soil gives this absorbed moisture slowly back to the atmosphere by evaporation. Thus year by year, as cultivation of the soil is extended, more of the rain that falls is absorbed and retained to be given off by evaporation, or to produce springs. This, of course, must give increasing moisture and rainfall.

     ABSORPTIVE POWER OF NEBRASKA SOIL. --The soil of Nebraska has a maximum of absorptive power. The superficial deposits, largely made up of silicious and calcarious materials, is very thick. The thickness of the loess is itself from two to 200 feet. The average thickness cannot be less than 100 feet. This, then, is a huge natural sponge that absorbs excessive rainfall, and retains it to be gradually given back to the atmosphere.
     Cultivation, therefore, opens the door through which the rain that falls enters the deep reservoirs, and is stored there, from which stores the atmosphere is gradually supplied with needed moisture for additional rainfall.

     SOURCES OF THE RAINS OF NEBRASKA--These are twofold. One source is the moisture-ladened winds from the Gulf; the other is the enormous evaporation from those rivers of Nebraska that have their source in the Rocky Mountains.
     Rain is most apt to fall when there is a change in the direction of the winds, especially if the change is from the north or south. The south wind coming directly from the west end of the Gulf of Mexico, strikes Red Willow, Furnas, Dawson, Custer, Elkhorn and Knox Counties. Whenever, therefore, all Nebraska, including these and the counties east of them, are bathed by this moisture-bearing wind from the Gulf, either after a north wind or followed by one, there is a precipitation of moisture into cloud, and generally rainfall. When the wind is slightly from the southeast, extreme western Nebraska also shares in the rainfall; otherwise, it does so only to a very limited extent. This is one reason why there has been less rainfall in this section than in eastern Nebraska. It is probable, however, that with the increased cultivation and increased average rainfall that comes with it, in eastern Nebraska, western Nebraska will gradually approximate to an increased rainfall sufficient to produce successfully the cereal grains, grasses and Indian corn.
      The second source of rainfall for Nebraska is the moisture from the rivers that flow from the mountains. These rivers are the Platte, the Niobrara to a small extent, and the Missouri and its tributaries. The flood time of these rivers is always a rainy season for Nebraska. This rainy season comes earlier or later as the "big rise" is earlier or later. Then the moisture that is wafted here by the winds from the Gulf is re-enforced by the moisture that is evaporated from these rivers; and the consequent precipitation into cloud and rainfall, constitutes the rainy season for Nebraska. A map of Nebraska shows how two of these rivers run the whole length of the State, and that the mighty Missouri is east and north of it. The Missouri, too, it should be remembered, has a course of 400 miles along Eastern Nebraska, for though

the State is little mote than 200 miles from north to south, the serpentine windings of the river give it at least double that length. We have, therefore, a length of 400 miles of the Missouri and for the same reason as applied to the Missouri at least 600 miles of the Platte, or 1,000 miles of river, averaging one mile broad, or 1,000 square miles of rapidly moving river surface, exposed to a warm atmosphere, from which the evaporation is simply enormous. The Niobrara, counting its windings, adds 500 more miles of evaporating surface. Unlike the floods of eastern rivers, these "big rises" last for a considerable length of time, often indeed from its beginning to its close, over two months. What adds greatly to the rapidity of the evaporations is the difference of temperature between the waters of these rivers and the atmosphere. Lewis and Clark, during their famous expedition up the Missouri, in 1804, spoke of the sameness of the temperature of the water of the Missouri and its tributaries with that of the atmosphere. If no difference existed then, it does now. For example, the signal service at Omaha, for June, 1878, report a mean temperature of 68° 4'. This shows that the temperature of the water for this month is considerably lower than that of the atmosphere. The Missouri River temperature is also 2 1/2° lower than that of the atmosphere in July. At North Platte there is still greater difference between the temperature of the river and that of the atmosphere. The temperature of water is always much more uniform than that of the atmosphere. From all these causes the amount of evaporation is very great and the winds carry the moisture in various directions, until finally it is again deposited as rain.

      NEBRASKA AFFECTED BY THE AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION ON THE MOUNTAINS.--As the magnitude of the rainfall is dependent on the length and magnitude of the river floods, and these latter are dependent on the snows of the mountains, it becomes an important question whether the present amount of precipitation there is stationary, increasing or decreasing. In extended travels and explorations in the mountains, I have seen no evidence tending to show increasing aridity. Some have claimed that where forests are removed, nature no longer restores them. On the contrary, I have seen very many places where the mountains were stripped of timber covered by a dense growth of young trees. In my observations, this was invariably the case where nature was given a chance by the repression of fires and the withholding of cattle, that so frequently destroy growing sprouts. I am satisfied, therefore, that as yet there is no evidence indicating that the mountnins (sic) are receiving less rainfall, but rather, if any change is taking place, that precipitation of moisture is there on the increase.

WATERS OF NEBRASKA.

     In striking contrast to past geological times, there are now no large lakes in Nebraska. There are, however, a large number of small lakes. Those along the Missouri have been produced in recent times, and some within a few years by "cut-offs" of the river. One northwest of Dakota City, which is a type of many others, is about five miles long.
     An extensive region of small lakes is found at and beyond the head of the Elkhorn River. Of these lakelets, over thirty in number, many are of great beauty with sandy or pebbly bottoms. A still more extensive like region exists at the head-waters of the North Loup, and between that and the Niobrara River. Most of these are of fresh water, but a few are saline or alkaline. Perhaps the most extensive groups of saline lakes are those at the head of Pine Creek, also one of the tributaries of the Niobrara.
      The alkaline lakes can always be detected on sight. No grass or other vegetable forms grow near the water, while at fresh water lakes luxuriant growths of vegetation extends to the very water's edge. With the increase of rainfall going on over the State, the level of these lakes will naturally rise, and many of them that are now isolated will become connected and cover much more extended areas than at present. A prominent characteristic of most of these lakes and lakelets is the wonderful clearness of the water. A silver three or five cent piece thrown into them can be distinctly seen at the bottom with the naked eye, even when they are from fifteen to twenty feet deep. This I ascertained in most instances by actual measurement. Most of the deeper lakes, especially of the northern and western portions of the State, have gravelly coarse, sandy and pebbly bottoms. Here formerly, much more than at present, was a paradise for water-fowl.

     ARTESIAN WELLS.--These have been bored at a few places. The one in the public square in Lincoln is 1,050 feet deep At between 70 and 250 feet, strong brine was encountered, but it did not come to the surface. At 560 feet saline water came up in a powerful current. The weight of evidence seemed to show that at this level fresh water was encountered, but that it mingled with the salt water above, especially as the tubing employed was so defective that all the waters encountered were intermingled. Below this level still other currents of water were encountered. and the intermingling of all has produced a remarkable quantity of mineral water. Another artesian well was successfully bored to a depth of 750 feet at Omaha. The flow of the water is strong and the quality good. On the whole the geological structure and other conditions in Eastern and Central Nebraska. and in some portions of Western, are very favorable for the boring of artesian wells.

     SALINE SPRINGS.--At several localities, saline springs or bogs exist. One of the largest, covering approximately, 500 acres, exists a few miles west of Lincoln. Others of smaller area exist near by. Considerable salt has been at various times, manufactured at this place, and it would be possible to build up here, by legitimate development, a remunerative business. As already stated the artesian well in Lincoln, on the Government square, struck several bodies of salt water. East of Oak

Creek, an artesian well was also bored some years ago, from which flowed a strong stream of salt water. The source of this salt water is a porous stratum of the Dakota group sandstone. There are also saline springs and lakelets beyond the sources of the Elkhorn and Loup, but their probable value has not been ascertained.
     The rivers of Nebraska are distinguished for their breadth, number, and some of them for their rapidity and depth. The Missouri is chief, not only of Nebraska, but of all the rivers of the Republic, because it gives character to all the others that unite with it to the Gulf. Forming the eastern border of the State, and a small extent of its northern boundary, and being tortuous in its path, at least 500 miles of the river are on its eastern and northern side in Nebraska. It is deep and rapid. Its bed is moving sand, mud and alluvium. It nowhere in Nebraska has rock bottom. Before rock can be reached, a thickness of from forty to one hundred feet of sand and mud must be penetrated from low water-mark. Its immediate banks, sometimes on both, and almost always on one side, are steep, often, indeed, perpendicular or leaning over toward the water, it is generally retreating or advancing from or on to one or the other shore. It is the shore from which it is retreating that is sometimes gently sloping, while the one toward which it is advancing is steep. This steepness is produced by the undermining of the banks and the caving in that follows. Near the bottom there is a stratum of sand, which, being struck by the current, is washed out and the bank falls in. Many acres in some places have been carried away in a single season. The principal party of this "cutting" is done while the river is falling. When the river is low and winding through bottoms fringed with, in many places, dark groves of cottonwood and other timber, it is a sad, melancholy, weird stream. When it is "on a big rise," however, and presses forward with tremendous volume and force toward the Gulf, it becomes surpassingly grand and majestic. It is now full of eddies and whole trees that have been undermined and have fallen into the river are dragged forward at a fearful velocity. It is never fordable. Boats of various kinds were exclusively used for crossing the river until the advent of the railroad bridges at Omaha and Plattsmouth. The water is always muddy or full of finely comminuted sand, the current rapid and full of whirling eddies. It is a dangerous stream to trifle with. Often, indeed, during flood times does the boiling, seething mass of water look as if it had been stirred up at bottom with the sand by some mighty convulsive moment of the earth. Few that fall into it ever reach the shore alive without assistance. The clothes are soon saturated with the sediment of the river, which is always turbid or muddy, and sinks the victim to the bottom. So well understood, however, is this feature of the Missouri that no more persons are drowned in it than in other rivers of corresponding magnitude. The peculiar character of the Missouri gives uniqueness to the scenery along its shores. A position on some of the terraces or bluffs overlooking the river gives views of unsurpassed beauty. There is one such of remarkable grandeur above Ionia, in Dixon County, where the river touches the bluff, throwing its wide bottom into Dakota Territory. From this point, the river can be seen toward the east for fifteen miles. The dark cottonwood groves, the curves of the river, the Dakota plain on the northern side, studded with homesteads, constitute a picture that rivals in beauty the most famous scenes in the world. Another equally fine view of the river can be had from the top of the bluff on the road from Ponca to the Missouri bottom. With some obnoxious elements attached to its character, it is, as we have already seen, a storehouse of blessings to the sections through which it flows. Had it not been for the Missouri the settlement of this region would have been indefinitely delayed. It is a highway to the commerce and markets of the world; and on this highway the first emigrants reached Nebraska, and sent off their products to other regions. As the Missouri is navigable for 2,001 miles above Omaha it was a great highway for traffic with the mountain regions of Idaho, Dakota and Montana. Since the building of railroads, its business has fallen off. Vessels will run from Sioux City and Yankton to the Upper Missouri and the Yellowstone. Latterly, there are indications of a revival of business on the Lower Missouri.
     The Platte is the next river in importance to the Missouri. It is 1,200 miles long. At North Platte where it is joined by the South Fork, it has a greater volume than at its mouth notwithstanding that it receives a number of tributaries.
      This is caused by the drainage of its waters towards the south into the valley of the Republican.
     The Republican and Niobrara Rivers are the next in importance. The Elkhorn is noted for the clearness of its waters, which drain a number of lakes and its rocky bottom. The Logan is its principal tributary. The Bow River and its tributaries in the northeastern part of the State emptying into the Missouri are clear water streams fed by numerous springs and abounding in mountain trout. The Big and Little Nemaha's early became noted in Nebraska's history; they formed the arteries of the Indian hunting grounds and drain the most fertile valleys in the State. The Blue with its tributaries is the stream around which the State's manufacturing interests will cluster. They carry immense volumes of water and afford limitless power for factory purposes.

CHARACTER OF THE WATER.

     Carbonate of lime is the commonest ingredient of the waters of springs and wells. Then follow, in minute and varying quantities, in different springs, corbonate (sic) of potash and soda, sulphate of potash, soda and lime, chlorides of sodium and potash and free carbonic acid, Many springs are free from the most of these salts. Carbonate of lime, the commonest impurity, is seldom present in injurious quan-

titles. Perhaps three-fourths of the springs of the State contain it, in amount, varying from a trace to distinctly hard water. There are many springs and wells whose waters are remarkably soft. Those of the Bow Rivers are mainly of this character. Generally, where springs emerge from the gravel beds and pebbles, or strata of sand in the drift, the waters are soft and otherwise remarkably pure. Wells sunk in these deposits are of the same character. On the other hand, water obtained from the loess, whether by springs or wells, has a perceptible quantity of carbonate of lime, and a small quantity of lime in solution. There are also strata in the drift containing a large amount of lime, and this is often the source of the hardness of the water that proceeds from these deposits.
      The character of the river and creek waters of the State is peculiar from the large quantity of sediment which it contains. The Missouri leads in this respect. At high water, it contains 403.7 grains per gallon; at low water, 51.9 grains per gallon. Carbonate of lime is present in considerable quantity; also small quantities of carbonate of soda, iron in various forms and carbonic acid. Minute quantities of sulphuric acid, magnesia and organic matter were also present.
     Though the water of the Missouri is muddy, yet when it is allowed to settle and become clear, it is singularly sweet, and, in summer, when cooled with ice, it is even delicious. I have seen barrels filled with! Missouri water, in July and August, and, whether standing in the sun or shade, no infusoria or other minute animal forms could be detected with the microscope, even after a week's exposure.

GENERAL FLORA OF NEBRASKA.

     The casual observer passing over the State little suspects the wealth of vegetable forms that once covered and still, in some places, clothes the land. To understand its botany, two facts need to be borne in mind, namely, that Nebraska is the meeting-place of two somewhat diverse floras. Here the plants indigenous to dry regions, and those common to humid sections, come together. The slope of the land eastward is so gentle that Rocky Mountain forms come more than half way to meet distant relatives from the moisture regions of the Missouri and Mississippi. In fact, here Rocky Mountain plants, by slight and gradual change in environment, have adapted themselves to a climate very different from their native habitat. The same can be said of forms whose center of dispersion was the Mississippi basin. Hence it is that the best botanical flora of the schools--such as Gray's Manual and Wood's Class Book--do not describe near all our floral forms. Singularly enough, what they leave off can mostly be found in Porter's and Coulter's Colorado Flora. The former were only intended for the region east of the Mississippi, but this section, in addition to that, grows many of the plants of the Rocky Mountains. This is one reason why there is such a wealth of vegetable forms in the State. It has drawn for its supplies from two diverse regions, and, owing to the magnificence of its climate, and the richness and variety of its soils, it has successfully acclimated plants from high, dry and cold regions, and those from low, humid and hot sections. I have thus far collected over 2,300 species and varieties of plants from this State. Comparing this number with the lists from other States, it will be seen that our wealth of native varieties and species is exceptionally great. And yet the harvest to be gathered, especially among the lowly cryptogamic forms, is hardly touched.
     I have shown elsewhere that in times quite recent, geologically, Nebraska was heavily timbered with a varied forest vegetation. When the causes commenced to operate that finally reduced its area to present limits, some of the species retired gradually to such protected localities as favored their perpetuation. One of these causes was probably forest and prairie fires, inaugurated by primitive races, for the chase and for war. Some species are now confined to spots where fires cannot reach them. Another cause was probably the encroachment of the prairie on the timber area, caused by the ground being so compacted by the tread of countless numbers of buffaloes, that tramped out growing shoots, and unfitting the soil for the burial, germination and growth of seeds Since the buffalo has retired and prairie fires have been repressed and rainfall is increasing, the area of timber lands is spontaneously extending again in many directions.
     Thus far I have identified seventy-one species of trees growing wild in Nebraska! Among these are linwood, maples, locusts, wild cherry, ash of four species, four species of elms, walnuts, hickories, twelve species and varieties of oak, many species of willows, four species of cottonwood, pines and cedars.
     In addition to the above trees, ninety-one species of shrubs exist native to the State. So extensively has tree culture been gone into, Nebraska will, in the near future, be a timber producing State

WILD FRUITS.

     Wild fruits are a prominent feature of Nebraska. They luxuriate in its rich soil and almost semitropical summers.
     Among the wild fruits of this State, the plum family is a remarkable example of how nature herself sometimes ameliorates and improves her original productions. There are three type species of plums in the State, namely, Prunus Americana, P. chicasa and pumila. Of these there is almost an endless number of varieties. In a plum thicket in Dakota County, covering only a few acres, I counted, while in fruit, nineteen varieties of Prunus Americana and P. chicasa, varying in size from a fourth to an inch and a quarter in diameter, and in color from almost white and salmon, to many shades of yellow, tinged with green and red, and from a light, dark and scarlet red to purple, tinged with different shades of yellow. Such instances are frequent over most portions of the State. the plums being common in almost every county, especially along the

water-courses and bordering the belts of timber.
     Wild cherries abound in various parts of the State. Two species of strawberry of fine flavor are in places amazingly abundant. Raspberries. blackberries, hawthorns, June berries, wild currants, and especially the gooseberries, find here a most congenial home. Of the latter there are many varieties.
     Two species of grape and an endless number of varieties grow most luxuriantly within our borders. It is not an unusual experience to find timber almost impenetrable in places from the excessive growth of wild grape vines.

MAMMALS.

     Here was the empire of the buffalo (Bos Americanus). The early settlers and the old freighters across the plains tell wonderful stories of the immense herds of buffalo which they so often encountered. Had I not myself, years ago, found large herds in places where there are now flourishing villages, these stories would appear like exaggerations. It is to be feared that the days of the buffalo are numbered. What the Indian alone could not accomplish, has been done by the remorseless war made on the buffalo by the white man. Now he is rarely found within the State. If he is perpetuated it will be done by domesticating him.
     No animal deserves to be perpetuated more than the buffalo. Buffalo robes are among the most important of commercial articles. Who has not been made comfortable by one? The buffalo is as readily tamed as the ox, and can be reared with as little difficulty. He is exceedingly hardy. He might be profitably reared for the pecuniary value of his hide. His flesh, which is considered coarse, would no doubt be refined by civilized environment. Even the buffalo's milk is a fair substitute for that of the domestic cow.
     Next to the buffalo, the elk (Cervus Canadensis) was the largest and finest native animal. It was formerly exceedingly abundant, and is still often found in the northern and western portions of the State. Four species of deer were formerly found here, and two of them very abundantly. These were the common deer (Cervus Virgenianus), the white tailed deer, (C. leucrus), the mule deer (C. macrotis), and the black tailed deer (C. columbianus). The first and last of this list were the most abundant, at least those are the species that I have most frequently seen myself roaming the prairies, and whose skins most frequently found their way to the traders. The special habitat of the black tailed deer was north Nebraska, and especially the Niobrara region.
     Next to the buffalo in numbers comes the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra Americana). It was formerly common to meet these on the prairie in herds of from twenty to 500. Only a few years ago it was yet common to meet herds of hundreds of these beautiful and graceful animals in central and western Nebraska.
     Bears have probably always been rare in the State. I have met but one in all my explorations in the unsettled portions. That one was on the Niobrara, and a black one (Ursus Americanus). I have also been reliably informed by old settlers that one was killed in the early history of Otoe County, on the Missouri bottom. I have been told by Indians that the cinna mon (sic) bear was formerly occasionally found on the Niobrara, but I regard this as doubtful.
     Two species of raccoons are common to Nebraska. Panthers formerly were present in the State, and may be yet in its northwestern portions. The wildcat and lynx are still here. Several varieties of the timber wolf were once common. The prairie wolf, or coyote, is still here in considerable numbers. Foxes have disappeared more completely than wolves. The swift was once common, but is now rare. The gray fox was never abundant. A few sables existed in northwest Nebraska. Many weasels are still here, as also a few wolverines. The otter is more or less abundant. Two species of skunks are common.
      A vast number of rodents of many genera and species are still abundant.
     The insectivora are represented by a few shrews and moles. One species of opossum is stilt found in our woods. At least eighty-two species of mammals are native to Nebraska.

BIRDS.

     The bird fauna of Nebraska is remarkably developed. It is particularly rich in genera, of which there are at least 156 in the State. The species amount to at least 249.

HEALTHFULNESS OF NEBRASKA.

     One of the most frequently asked questions of those contemplating removal to this State is, Is Nebraska a healthy State? Among the special questions asked are: Do fever, ague, dyspepsia, consumption, etc., exist here? No spot on the globe is absolutely free from disease, but this State is singularly exempt from its severe forms. Fever and ague are more rarely with here than in most States. Where they do occur, it is owing to limited local causes or extraordinary exposure. and they are generally successfully treated by the simplest remedies. The bad cases that been met were almost invariably contracted elsewhere, and came here in the hope of having the disease cured by our climate. They were never disappointed if nature had given to it a chance to exert its full health-making power on their bodies. The cause of this general exemption from this class of diseases is probably found in the peculiar climate and surface conditions of the State.
     The general drainage of the State is, as we have seen, the best possible. Its general slope is east and south. the southeastern corner being the lowest The rivers, with the smaller streams that flow into them, have high banks, on top of which the flood plains begin, and extend to a greater or less distance back to the bluffs. where there is another rise to the general plain above. The rivers themselves are generally comparatively rapid and their flood plains are rarely a dead level, but descend gradually in the direction of the main streams. Whatever water may accumulate next to the

bluffs is carried off by the lateral tributaries that join the main stream. As these smaller tributaries are met with every few miles, and often every mile, the drainage of even the great majority of even the bottom lands is complete. Hence no conditions adverse to health exist on our low lands.
     The drainage character of the soil is also of the very best. It is principally made up of loess and modified drift, the former containing over eighty per cent of the finest silica, and the latter, varying amounts of coarser sand. Beneath these, modified drift, composed of sand, pebbles and bowlders (sic), is encountered before the clay beds that exist in some localities are reached. The drainage, therefore, of the soil is of the best possible character. Even the black surface soil, so wonderful for its fertility, contains silicious materials in sufficient quantity for good drainage.
     The consequence of such inclination of the land and character of the soil and sub-soil is that over large areas in the State standing water is unknown. Indeed, many citizens of the State, who have not traveled much, fancy that there is no standing water within its boundaries. There are, however, a few limited localities where swamps and bogs exist, such as a portion of the Missouri bottom in Dixon and Burt Counties, and on small portions of the level prairies of Clay, Webster, Fillmore and Saline Counties. Even here, the general elevation of these counties and the constant movement of the winds seem to counteract the conditions of the surface that favor malarial diseases. Not only does the atmosphere seem to be constantly in motion, but it is also comparatively dry. In summer and autumn, the prevailing winds are south and southwest. In winter, the prevailing winds are from the north and northwest. In spring, the winds, as elsewhere, are exceeding variable, and seem to be nearly equally divided between north and northwest and south and southwest. Often in the spring, the prevailing winds are from the northeast. The air is always remarkably pure and generally clear. All these are conditions that are unfavorable to the production and propagation of miasmatic poisons.
     An additional reason for the healthfulness of Nebraska might be the presence of an unusual quantity of ozone in the atmosphere. I merely suggest this as a partial explanation of this fact, as no single cause, but many combined, produce the healthfulness of a region. As is well known, ozone is found in the East in perceptible quantities only after thunder storms, by which many suppose it to be produced. As here, during much of the time before as well as after thunder showers, there is a perceptible quantity of ozone in the atmosphere--sufficient at least to respond to the Shoenbein test papers--it must have some effect on health. That its effects are salutatory, especially in the destruction of malarial poisons, is the conviction of the best medical authorities. No cholera can become epidemic in this State owing to its altitude above the sea. Our climate precludes the possibility of consumption originating here. The reverse is the fact. People come here from the east with lung troubles and are cured. Such cases are numerous.
     During a residence of over seventeen years in the State, I have not personally known more than one case of consumption that was contracted here. That one case was, however, the result of dissipation. One additional case has been reported by Dr. Livingston, of Plattsmouth. Many, indeed, have died here of this disease, but, so far as I have learned the particulars of their cases, they all came into the State with the disease fastened on them, and here generally succumbed to it only because of a want of proper care and remedies. On the other land, hundreds come here in the incipient stages of the disease and are cured by the climate alone.
      I have also known great numbers of asthmatic subjects to come here, and soon all symptoms of the disease disappeared. It is also suggestive of the character of the climate that horses with the heaves lose all traces of this disease when brought to Nebraska. Bronchitis also here readily yields to the influence of the climate. Inflammation of the lungs, when contracted, readily yields to treatment. A volume could easily be filled with cures wrought by this climate on this class of patients. Of course the climate cannot perform miracles. No one should expect to be cured here who is in the third stage of pulmonary disease. Sick ones who come for health should be sure to go where they can get rest and be provided with home comforts. When scarlet fever and measles appear, they are generally in their mild forms. They rarely appear as epidemics. As to typhus and cerebro-spinal fevers, they are comparatively rare. Physicians of eminence assure me that the mortality from these diseases in other States is comparatively much greater than here.
     The chief complaint that I have heard from citizens of Nebraska concerning its healthfulness is that it tends to produce rheumatism and nervous disorders. On diligent inquiry, however. I have almost invariably found that the great body of those complaining in this direction are such as have been insufficiently clothed during the colds of winter, or have exposed themselves to an extent or indulged in practices that would have produced these diseases in any climate. The tendency always is, in a new State, among the first energetic settlers, to great exposure. Many start for the west with barely enough to reach their destination. Often little is produced the first year on the homestead, and the old clothes are made to do duty the second year. Until the new homestead is fairly under cultivation (which sometimes takes several years). the new emigrant is often put to great straits for groceries and clothing. Of course, when the emigrant brings along money or stock to carry him over the first year, it need not be so, but thus far the majority have not been of this class. The circumstances, too, of a new country stimulate to great risks and enterprises. Men will often start off on long journeys, through sparsely settled districts, ford streams,

and in many other ways subject themselves unnecessarily to flood and storm. The consequence is that the principal diseases in some sections and seasons have been rheumatism and neuralgia. And yet, with all these circumstances favorable to contracting rheumatism, statistics show that most of the States have more deaths from this cause than Nebraska has sometimes been objected that the extremes of temperature and of other conditions in Nebraska must be unfavorable to health. There is, however, a great difference between an extreme and a destructive climate. That Nebraska has no destructive climate is at once apparent from the great variety of its vegetable forms and the exuberance of its natural animal life. Extremes of climate up to a certain point, while they may be injurious, and even destructive to the weak individuals of a species, rather benefit the normally healthy and strong. There is a greater variety of animal and vegetable life in the extreme climate of Nebraska than in the more moderate and equitable climate of England. It even favors those gradual changes of specific characters that advance the grade of animal and vegetable life. Compare, for example, the extremes of climate in Massachusetts and Nebraska. In the former, a warm mild day is frequently changed to a cold one by a moisture-laden wind suddenly blowing from the northeast. These winds, blowing there from the cold currants of the Atlantic, that come from the Labrador coast, chill the body to an extreme degree, and too often sow the seeds of consumption and other diseases, which are the bane of that region. The character, therefore, of the northeast winds renders the climate there a partially destructive one. The northeast wind, on the contrary, in Nebraska, is dry in autumn and winter, and even in spring and summer until the June rains come. Then they become laden with the moisture of the already warmed-up waters of the Missouri and Platte. Our generally moist winds come from the Mexican Gulf, and are south and southwest, rather than north, east and northeast, as in Massachusetts. Our climate is, therefore, extreme without being destructive. Its health conditions are the reverse of those in the Eastern States. Our extremes can be compared to the Turkish bath, which stimulates into activity the functions of the body.
     Nearly every one who comes into the State feels a general quickening and elasticity of spirits. The appetite and digestion improves wonderfully. Mind and body are lifted up All this occurs even with the execrably prepared food eaten in most of the rural districts; for in most of the rural districts, hot biscuit, green with soda, is still the form of bread usually eaten. Now, this improvement in physical and mental condition cannot arise simply from change of locality. It must originate from our peculiarities of climate. I have myself felt in this State, as I have never felt it elsewhere, especially when camping out, far away from settlements and alone with nature and God, how luxurious existence was, and how pleasant life was intended to be. One needs but to go through the fever and ague stricken districts of other States, and then pass through the rural districts of Nebraska. to notice the contrasts between the sallow complexions found in the former region, and the hue of health and glow of spirits found here.