The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-23 00:00:00

COUN'TRY ARGUND OMAIIA—CONTINUED.
(From the Anglo• American Times)
Omaha City stands on the right bank of the Mis-
souri opposite an lowa town called Council Bluffs.
Thus the State capital is centrally situated and on
undulating ground, fifty feet above the river, with
low ridges behind. The town has grown with great
rapidity, as the terminus of the Union Pacific Rail-
road,and its wide (paper) streets and avenues cross-
ing at right angles, squares and parks, have be:•n fill-
ing up with more than usual celerity even in the West.
Limestone quarries for building are in the neighbour-
hood, and its stone and brick houses are occupied by
little short of 20,000 people. Up to Cott ne:l Bluffs
comes the regular network of American railroads, hut
beyond goes one solitary line from Omaha up the
valley of the Platte, away across the Rocky Moun.
tains, passing by the Mormon settlement, through
the Great Basin over the Sierra Nevada and down
its sunny slopes into California, and that is the main
reason of Omaha's prosperity. Nebraska, the State
of which it is the capital, is the youngest in the
American Union, having been admitted, March 1,
1867. It was part of French Louisiana, and was
erectel into a Territory on the 30th May, 1851. Of
its area remaining unsold on the 30th June, 1867,
there were 42,523,637 acres, but the lands have
been rapidly taken up since then, more especially
towards the South, between the Platte and the Re-
publican, along the Valley of the Big Blue River,
and between that and the Missouri,where the coun-
try is very fine. Nebraska dips more decidedly
than lowa from the foot of the mountains to-
wa'ds the Mississippi, the larger portion being
elevated and undulating prairie, without mountains
or high hills, but with elevations which rise from the
bottom lands of the river valleys, with other steppes
rising from 40 to 100 feet, and so ascending as the
plateaux slope backwards. Cutting through them are
gorges which break up the country, though it ge-
nerallypresents a smooth, wavy appearance as would
the long swell of an ocean suddenly petrified. Be-
fore the formation of the Union Pacific some valu-
able trees lined the Platte up the valley of which,
that is through the middle of the State, the railway
takes its course ; but these were mercilessly cut
down for sleepers and firewood, all the beautiful
black walnuts being thus sacrificed. There are,
however, some groves of oak, hickory, and willow,
with dense forests of cotton wood along the Mis-
souri, above the mouth of the Platte. Neverthe-
less the country is singularly bare, and presents an
arid and barren appearance from the cars of the
Pacific Railway as the traveller speeds along on a
hot summer's day. As far as he can see the inter-
minable prairie stretches with its sage grass, and
here and there a streak of the blue waters of the
Platte. Instead of improving as the Rocky Moun-
tains are neared the country deteriorates till a region
is passed to the west of the State and north of the
North Fork of the Platte, called the Mauvais Terres,
ninety miles long and thirty wide, which, viewed
from a distance, takes the desolate form of a
deserted abode of civilization. By some power-
ful agencies the lani has been cut down, leav-
ing parts standing which assume in their colum-
nar masses the appearance of towers, columns,
and walls ; but are found to be pieces of soil
and rock left erect, through which run laby-
rinthine defiles. Though the State to the west
is dry and arid, and to the north there are great
sandbills, yet the eastern portion is of so fertile a
character that the population of 28,841, in 1860,
increased so rapidly that in 1866 it was estimated
at 50,000, and the next year it became eligible for
admission into the Union as a State. The eastern
Prairies are covered with a heavy sod, the matted
growth of awes of vegetation, difficult to break up,
6.6 c-nity worked when nett biuken. All, the-
State is dry, but to the west it is the dryness of a
desert ; yet even this has its advantage, for there is
no other State so well fitted for depasturing sheep.
Its grass s are of a very nutritious character, and
as the soil as well as climate is dry stock thrives,
and constitutes i❑ a large measure the wealth of
Nebraska. A belt of country underlaid by sand-
stone, runs north-east and south-west, 40 to 50 miles
wide, extending through Kansas and Nebraska into
lowa and Minnesota, and the bottom lands of all
the streams in this region arc said to have a soil from
5 to 50 feet in depth, and to be of the greatest
fertility. Limestone frequently appears forming
in places valuable quarrin of cream - coloured
soft stone, but tenacious, and in some counties
scarcely a farm is without a quarry. It is believed
that the limestone of the upper clal measures pass
from sight beneath the water level of the Missouri
river, and are then succeeded by sandstone of the
cretaceous age. The limestone, however, is found
on both sides of the Platte, up to the Elk Horn
River, having the peculiarity of being planed so
smoothly by glacial action that without further
working, on the superincumbent drift being re-
moved, it makes excellent facings for caps and sills.
Throughout the State the beds of rock are nearly
horizontal, having a slight inclination to the west
or north-west. A superficial deposit of yellow
marl occupies much of the country, and makes the
picturesque bluff formations, especially along the
Missouri, on the lowa side, between Council Bluffs
and Sioux City, and to this deposit is attributed the
great fertility of the river counties of Nebraska.
The steepness of the banks generally pre-vents vege-
tation, but it sprouts where the earth has an incli-
nation of 50 degrees. On the upland the soil is
only a foot or so deep, but along the bottoms of
streams 14 to 20 feet. This marl shows its recent
deposit by numerous shells identical with late
species, and there are bones of extinct animals,
such as the mastadon and of a beaver of huge
dimensions mingled with those of living species.
The uplands are chemically similar to the loess of
the Rhine, and though not suited for cereals, it is
thought that these marl hills may yet become fine
vineyards. In the valleys the crops average 30 to
35 bushels of wheat per acre, from 40 to 50 of oats,
from 60 to 75 of Indian corn. The high prairies
yield from one to two tons of hay per acre, and the
valleys from two to three tons. There are abundant
materials for brick-making, therefore, with the
sandstone, the limestone, and the brick there is no
lack of building materials, though the country is
almost bare of timber. The name of the State is
derived from the river, generally known as the
Platte, but called by the Indians Are, water, and
braska, wide or shallow, which conveys an idea to
the emigrant's mind of the character of its valley.
It spreads over the country in its course, forming
low sandy islands, and without any attractive fea-
tures, although the soil for some distance from its
mouth is so rich.- Omaha, the capital, is the name
of an Indian tribe, and was, in 1853, a mere Indian
village; now it occupies the central position between
New York and San Francisco, near the 41st
degree of north latitude, and about 492 miles from
Chicago, It is therefore rapidly becoming a hand-
some city ; the streets and avenues are wide, and the
houses, warehouses, and shops of imposing size and
generally constructed of brick. Before the comple-
tion of the railway it was computed to contain a
population of 10,000, which has since greatly in-
creased. When Omaha was celebrating its con-
junction with San Francisco by the Union Pacific
Railroad a banner was raised with the strange
device, " W hat God has joined let J) man put
asunder," although the circumstances justified a
writer in stating it should have been, " What man
has joined let not God put asunder." Omaha is a
city of great expectations. It proposes to build, in
1870, a $150,000 hotel, a $120,000 Masonic
temple, a $50,000 opera house, a $lOO,OOO
high school building, a $60,000 grammar school-
house, 1,000 private residences, and two railroads.
The United States will also begin a 250,000
dollars stone court-house and post-office building.
The valley of the Platte, and the position of Omaha
near the kinetic% 91 that river with the kfigiottri,