Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-12-05

teristics of the water courses, and OF the
country they traverse, renders question:
bic the correctness of this assumption.
Turning to the streams of the southern
system q have not yet extended the investi-
cation minutely to the northern system
the Arkansas river may be taken as some
what typical. It is broad river, whose
banks are from three to eight feet high, and
whose waters run rapidly over and
through bed of coarse sand and gravel,
the particles OF which mix and roll with
the muddy water. Where it leaves the
Rocky Mountains, the Arkansas is a
rushing torrent, which at all seasons dis
charges considerable volume of water.
Its fall in Kansas is from SIX to eight
feet to the mile. It's course is nearly east
until near the middle of the state, and
then it is southeast. The depth OF this
gravelly bed is not known. Borings have
been made at Sterling to depth of about
fifty feet, and it was found that the gravel
became coarser as the boring proceeded;
and at about fifty feet below the river
bed the sand-pump failed to work, being
unable to receive and hold the coarse
sand.
Throughout the Arkansas river valley,
wells sunk to the level of the river bed
reach the same character of gravel and
an inexhaustible supply OF water. When
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail-
road track was laid along the upper Ar
kansas valley, the working force consisted
of about three hundred men and two
hundred and fifty horses. Camp was
made at noon and at night. The supply
of water for these men and horses was OBJ
tanned by driving down at the successive
camping places small gas pipe with
perforated point, and attaching pump
to the top. The depth from the road-bed
to the water was. in most places, about
six feet. The abundance of this water
supply is further Illustrated by the pumps
of the sugar works at Sterling and Hutch
inson. The amount of water required
for condensing the vapor from the vacuum
pans is immense, and is supplied by pow
erful steam-pumps, working continuously
day and night. The water raised by one
such pump is about what would flow
through a four-inch circular orifce under
a head of one foot. To obtain this sup
ply, a few perforated points are driven
into the water and gravel beneath the
soil, and connected with the suction-pipe
of the pump; and they never fail to fur
nish an abundant supply of water.
In the southwestern counties, the coun-
try rises into an elevated table-land at
varying distances from the Arkansas
river. Wells are made in these high
plains, by boring, as it is believed, to a
level with the bed of the river, where
gravel or sand and water are encountered
very much as at less depth in the valley.
These borings reach the water in the
country southwest of Dodge at depth
of about one hundred and ten feet. Ex-
ceptional places are found in which wa
ter has not been reached at depth of
even two hundred and fifty feet. In these
places, dry clay, impervious to water, is
encountered. Some wells have been
bored through this clay, in which cases
the water has risen to within one hundred
or one hundred and fifty feet of the sur
face. The question now arises, Does the
Arkansas flow under the entire south
western quarter of Kansas?
Now turn to the Cimarron river, two
branches of which enter the state near
the southwestern corner, and unite
short distance west OF the one hundred
and first meridian.@ After uniting they
disappear beneath the surface, and are
seen no more for fifteen or twenty miles,
and then reappear larger stream than
when they sunk away. In times of freshet
the Overground stream is continuous over
all parts of it's course.
Another stream, called by the old
plainsmen White-woman creek, enters
the state in Greeley county, crosses Gree
ley and Wichita, and disappears about
the middle of Scott county. It is stated
that this stream flows over the surface
during only portion of the year. At no
time, however, has it any visible outlet;
unless, indeed, it may be considered the
headwater OF Walnut creek, which rises,
an unfailing stream, in Lane, the county
next east of that in which the White-wO-
man disappears.
Other less conspicuous examples OF
Indeed, the Arkansas itself has, in the
central part of the state, several times,
within the observation of the writer, be-
come, to all appearance, bed of dry and
drifting sand But an abundance of wa
ter was always found at short distance
below the surface.
It is stated that from the time Texas
cattle were first driven over the trail to
Dodge City, the cowboys experienced diff
ficulty in preventing stampedes at point
in the southern part of Ford county.
Rumbling noises even are reported to
have startled the bold cowboys them
selves. Subsequently, it is stated that
circular portion of earth, variously esti-
mated at one hundred and fifty to three
hundred feet in diameter, sunk, leaving
a great hole down to the waters level,
about one hundred feet below the sur
face. The water is intensely salty; and
an enterprising settler has erected a
windmill, and is pumping the salt water
into troughs, from which the sun and
wind carry away the water, allowing the
salt to crystalline. Further east salt
springs and salt streams become numer-
ous; and in the Indian Territory, not far
south of the Kansas line, are The great
salt plains of the Cimarron river. No
direct investigation has yet been made to
determine the existence of current of
water under this vast country. But every
inquiry lends confirmation to the belief |
that large portion Of the moisture pre-
,ipitated upon the eastern slope Of the
Rocky Mountains, together with that Of
the plains themselves, finds its way quick
" through the porous soil to this permea-
BILE gravel, and through this proceeds |
slowly in broad, deep stream under the !
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