oria, a city of traffic, so
dubbed for reason of thinking it a famous trade center in the earlier
days; Barclay, named for the famous Quaker apologist, because this
village is a Quaker colony; Nickerson, for one of the original
promoters of this railroad; Great Bend, referring to a great bend the
Arkansas River makes at this place; Pawnee Rock, from a local
rallying-point of the Pawnees when this was an Indian hunting-ground;
Garden City, so named because, by irrigation, this locality was
redeemed from comparative barrenness; Granada, and Las Animas, and La
Junta, reminiscent words from the Spanish march into Kansas; Puebla,
clearly designating that strange people whose cliff dwellings are at
this hour one of the rarest studies in American archaeology. On
another branch of this same road: Olathe, an Indian name; Ottawa;
Algonquin, for "trader," Chanute, from an Indian chief, who was a local
celebrity; Elk Falls, referring to those days when this river (the Elk)
was famous for that species of graceful motion called the elk; farther
are Indian Chief and White Deer, names of evident paternity. I have
taken this time to run along this railroad line so as to show the
possibilities in this direction anywhere. To learn to read history
from the stations as we pass is surely an art worth learning. In
passing across the continent I have found it as if a guide had prepared
that way before us. The natural history of a region may thus be read
without resorting to a book. Count the fauna: Eagle River, Bald Eagle,
Buffalo Lake, Great Bear Lake, Salmon Falls, Snake River, Wolf Creek,
White Fish River, Leech Lake, Beaver Bay, Carp River, Pigeon Falls,
Elkhorn, Wolverine, Crane Hill, Rabbit Butte, Owl, Rattlesnake, Curlew,
Little Crow, Mullet Lake, Clam Lake, Turtle Creek, Deerfield, Porcupine
Tail, Pelican Lake, Kingfisher, Ravens' Spring, Deer Ears, Bee Hill,
Fox Creek, White Rabbit--can any one mistake the animals haunting these
places in earlier days? Trapper's Grove tells a story we feel, but
need not rehearse. So, descriptive words in vegetation, or person, or
characteristic, what volumes are contained in them! Crystal River,
Little Muddy, Elm Creek, Mission Creek (a stream on which was an Indian
mission), Calumet, Table Rock, Crab Orchard, Elm Creek, Lost River (the
river lost in the sand), Soldier Creek, Battle Creek, Corn Creek,
Spring Lake, Hackberry, Cottonwood Falls, Sand Hills, Poplar Hill, Cold
Springs, Oak Hill, Ca