crosses the path of the railroad, and we soon crossed the creek, a rocky turbulent stream, swollen and overflowing its bottom by a heavy rain in the morning, which fell from the cloud we saw as we left Lawrence. Deer Creek runs west and falls into the Neosho river, a short distance west. We were soon at Iola, the county seat of Allen county. "The road now heads down the valley of the Neosho, the meandering of which stream brings it sometimes in sight. "The prairie hence from Garnett was often yellow with the Coreopsis Drummondii, and occasionally a stray plant of the beautiful Coreopsis Tinctoria. A run of some ten miles further brought us to Humboldt, where an excellent dinner, especially prepared for us, was ready. It was soon despatched, and then came the inevitable postprandium speeches, which I escaped by taking to the prairies. I went to the southwest of the town, which stands upon a considerable swell. To the west, about a mile off, flowed the Neosho, having a general course nearly southeast. Its banks are heavily lined with timber, and its course can be traced by it for many miles from the northwest to the southeast. All the country east of it as far as could be seen, was a treeless expanse of prairie, but diversified by many newly opened farms, or by an immigrant's new cabin. The flora on the prairie I found the same as those already named, excepting a single plant of the Callirrho Verticellata, which we found abundant on the plains farther west the following day, expanding its purple-red blooms, often two inches in diameter. As the depot is east of the town, I made a detour around the latter to the south. The prairie was full of lupines, larkspurs, penstemous, Godetias and flowers already mentioned, but with the exception of the Collirrhæ I found nothing except a species of Sedum that was new to me. It was past blooming, and as I lost the specimen I put up for my herbarium, I have been unable to determine its species.

Returning to the depot I found quite a number of the company there already, waiting the arrival of those

detained by the orators. When they finally arrived, it was announced that the day was too far spent to go to Thayer, twenty-two miles farther south, the then terminus of the road. This I regretted, not that I probably lost, seeing any thing new, but I failed seeing a historical character, the veritable Eli Thayer, who, as a member of Congress from Massachusetts, in times anterior to the Rebellion, used to read with such gusto, the "Book of Martyrs, as he called the census of 1850, to the "fire-eaters. He also was the organizing spirit of the emigrant associations formed in the Northern States to settle Kansas in the

days of "Border Ruffianism." A retrospect of the country passed over during the day, has satisfied me that a sight of it is sufficient to convince any reasonable mind, that it is one of the most beautiful and the richest agricul tural disiricts in the world. The only drawback that I could discover, and which I have already mentioned, is the fact that the whole country is underlaid at no great depth with a bed of magnesian limestone, which often crops out on the banks of ravines, or the sides of gentle slopes. In case of droughts, which, however, have not occurred for several years, and it is contended that the climate has undergone an amelioration in this respect, land so situated cannot withstand them well. To this may be added the scarcity of fuel. For, although the bottoms along the streams are generally well timbered, yet there are long reaches of prairie, twenty and even thirty miles across, entirely destitute of trees. Dense settlement of the country cannot take place until a substitute for wood as fuel will be found; and this substitute must be found in an abundant and cheap supply of coal.

From indications it is fair to infer that it will not be long before an ample supply of excellent coal will be found throughout all this part of Kansas. At Carbondale, a mining town some 25 miles northwest of Ottowa, on the Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, there are immense fields of excellent coal. Again, at Osage City on the same railroad,"

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about 30 miles due west from Ottowa, a bed of coal is b worked, which is said to equal in quality the two best in the Mississippi Valley. Coal of a good quality is also mined" AT at Ottowa and at Thayer, in Neosho county. At Tofa there is boring goin is boring going on with a view of striking the vein which is supposed to underlie the whole country. as piose In all its aspects the country passed over to-day indicates recent settlement. Neither farms, residences nor barns, have as yet assumed that solidity and permanence which mark those in the northern part of the State. There the in original cabin and cottage have given place to the neat substantial and commodious farmhouse. But here evidently time enough has not yet elapsed to effect such great and permanent changes. I called the attention of some. Lawrence friends accompanying us, to this difference, and Ince asked for an explanation, since there evidently was no difference in the productive capacity of the soil. I then learned that the whole country south of Ottowa had been an Indian Reservation, and that only some six years have “ clapsed since the extinguishment of the Indian title. T riv also learned there was no government land to be entered in southeastern Kansas, excepting in the extreme "south--> ern tier of counties on the Indian Territoryy Intovor This railroad however has fands located in Anderson, Allen, Neosho and Labette counties, which they are offer "are offerbot ing for sale at from four to ten dollars per acre on a crede enol ons it of seven years at 7 per cent cent interest. Lands contiguous to the road held by individuals, can be bought from eight to fifty dollars per acre, according to locality, or the amount and character of the improvements thereon. As in the and character of the northern part of the State so here the church and the schoolhouse are conspicuous objects in all the towns, villages and settlements, a sure index of the character of the people and of its dominant ideas. As already intimated min the surface of the country is less diversified by hill and dale than that in northern Kansas. The swells are so geni tle, and the elevation so moderate, that they

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pire to the dignity of being called hills; while in northernd Kansas the elevations are considerable, and the slopes gen erally abrupt. The conformation of the surface therefore gives wide alluvial bottoms to all the southern rivers which are admirably adapted for corn, while the uplands are particularly well adapted for small grain. The wheat-i fields passed on the route to-day, were not only riper önle the swells, but far less affected by rust on the blade than those on the bottoms grew tow Popelnumo tro puiturom I

The return trip was not marked by any incident of note, except that we encountered a small thunder-shower southM of Ottowa. On reaching Lawrence we found a large numill ber of carriages waiting to give us a drive through and around the city. I took a seat in that belonging to Mayor Thatcher, driven by his son, a lad of some sixteent summers. Passing around the southern suburbs and westia ward until we reached the hill designated as Mount Oread, to we were driven northward on the street that lines its sideq at some elevation above the plain below. This street is lined by tasty suburban residences, surrounded by shrub bery, lawns, winding ways, ornamented with the choiceste flowers. To the north Mount Oread terminates before lity" reaches the Kaw in a well and prettily rounded hill, withed a tolerable steep slope. We now drove westwardly until attaining the summit, and then southward till we reached t the front of the State University where we were addressed by Mayor Thatcher in a very neat and pertinent speech. From this point the view is very fine. To the north andeq northeast is the Kaw, a beautiful limpid river, whose in course the eye can follow for many miles down its valley. Between you and it lies the city of Lawrence, containing abo population of some 12000, with its twenty churches, magnificent public schoolhouses, hotels, banks and other public!and private buildings. There also is the bridge spanning the Kaw which connects the northern suburb where the l depots of the Kansas Pacific railroad is. A few points to south of east is Blue Mountain, a high knoll of but limited cu

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breadth, which deflects the Wakarusa to the north into the Kaw some six miles below the city. To the south and southeast is a campaign country, covered with fine farms and orchards, as far as the eye can reach. Through the centre of this campaign runs the Wakarusa. Westward is a succession of rolling hills, and northwest is the wide alluvial bottom of the Kaw through which its serpentine course can be traced for miles.

Remounting our carriages we were driven through some of the principal streets of the city, and finally through Massachusetts street, its Broadway, to the Eldridge House.

We have now been three days in Kansas, during which time we have traveled about five hundred miles, and seen the country from north to south, and from east to west; to be sure in the brightest season of the year, the flowery month of June; and we have met and become acquainted with its people and enjoyed their hospitalities. Retracing, mentally, the incidents and scenes of these three days, they appear more like a lovely dream than a reality. A richer and a more beautiful country the sun does not look down upon in its course around the globe; and in time it must become the seat of wealth and social and intellectual power and influence, that will make themselves felt even beyond the limits of our own nation. But a few years since and it was the pasture field of the buffalo, and the hunting ground of wild, roaming, hunting savage tribes of the plains. Then came the white man, and with him the fierce passions engendered in sectional strife, who made this their first battlefield. No crime that blackens the criminal code, but was enacted here, and that by people of the same lineage, speaking the same language, and hailing from the same nation. Fraud, violence, robbery, arson and murder were rife here, and roamed over and desolated the land unchecked by the civil authority, because of the imbecility, or rather servility of both territorial and national governments. But the men who came here to set