6 KANSAS AND THE COUNTRY BEYOND. look as if an ocean, heaving in grand long swells, had become suddenly indurated and clothed with luxuriant grass and flowers. Day after day a man may travel, and still one word will charac- terize all he sees— Beautiful! Yet there is no monotony, for every mile reveals beauties in new and peculiar forms. Such is all Kansas, and such is all the country south of Kansas, from the mountains to the flat grounds which skirt the Mississippi and the Gulf. To this general description, however, the greater part of the valley of the Platte is exceptional. Broad, flat, treeless and desolate, without lateral streams, and with scanty vegetation, it does not attract settlers. As the Union Pacific Railway, Kastern Division, is pushed forward, section after section, up the Kansas —now 250 miles beyond the Missouri— settlers in thousands follow it, and even precede it, so that already numerous towns have grown up where, two years ago, Indians and buffaloes were roaming, each surrounded with well-tilled and productive farms. The Union Pacific Railroad of the Platte, however, has only drawn settlements after it about a hundred miles west of the Missouri. Beyond that the country remains almost as desolate as ever. The centre of Kansas is very nearly the geographical centre of the United States. It may, therefore, with great propriety be called the Centrat Stats. This is well, for itis perhaps the most fertile, as it is unquestionably the most beautiful, of the great sister- hood; and through its gushing heart, as I believe, the great artery of the world’s commerce is destined to flow. There is hardly a sterile spot, as there is not a miasmatic swamp, nor a rugged mountain, within its broad domain. I had heard much of Kan- sas before I saw it, but the half had not been told. Last fall I was through it as far as Fort Riley and Junction City; and although it was in November, when everything was sere and dry, I was much impressed with its beauties and its almost boundless capa- bilities. This year, as one of the excursionists over the Union Pacific Railway, I again visited it in June, when Nature had arrayed herself in her most gorgeous attire. The effect upon my mind was still more impressive, and I resolved to take time to acquaint myself well with everything calculated to interest the minds of such as had thoughts of emigrating, and of all who take