9. The mountain-system of the Coast Range.

10. The narrow Pacific slope.

By attending to these distinctions with map in hand we shall gain some
adequate idea of the surface of our continent. The first and second of
the regions we have left behind us, and at Leavenworth are well out upon
the third. It would not be just to call it prairie,--and it is equally
distinct from the true Plains. As a grain and grass land, Illinois
nowhere rivals it; but its surface is remarkably different from that of
the prairies east of the Mississippi. It may be described as an
alternation of lofty bluffs and sinuous ravines,--the former known as
"divides," the latter as "draws." The top of these divides preserves one
general level,--leading naturally to the hypothesis that all the draws
are valleys of erosion in a tract of alluvial deposit originally uniform
with the plateaus of the divides. Some of the larger draws still serve
as the channels of unfailing streams; most of them carry more or less
water during the rainy season; few of them are dry all the year round.
The river-bottoms which traverse this region are thickly fringed with
cotton-wood and elm timber; but it is a rare thing to encounter trees on
the top of a divide. The fertility of the soil is boundless. Every
species of grass flourishes or may flourish here, with a luxuriance
unrivalled on the continent. Of the tract embraced between the Little
Blue and the Republican Fork of the Kaw this is especially true. The
climate is so mild and uniform that cattle may be kept at pasture the
whole year round. Haymaking and the building of barns are works of
supererogation. The wild grass cures spontaneously on the ground. To
provide shelter against exceptional cases of climatic rigor,--an unusual
"cold snap," or a fall of snow which lies more than a day or two,--the
_ranchero_ constructs for his cattle a simple corral, or, at most, a
rude shed. The utmost complication which can occur in his business is a
stampede; and few of our Eastern farmers' boys would hesitate to
exchange their scythes, hay-cutters, corn-shellers, and mash-tubs for
the saddle of his spirited Indian pony and his three days' hunt after
estrays. Over this entire region the cereals thrive splendidly. The wild
plum is so abundant and delicious as to suggest the most favorable
adaptation to the other stone-fruits. Every vegetable that has been
tried in the loam of the river-bottoms succeeds perfectly. There is just
reas