The Pacific tourist:

20
Omaha; elevation, 1,047 feet. Evidences of
thrift are everywhere visible as you cast your
eyes over the rolling prairies, and yet there is
ample room for all who desire to locate in this
vicinity. You have again crossed the boundary
line of Sarpy Counlty, which is a mnile or two
south-east of Millard, and are again in the
County of Douglas.
: lichorn.-28.9 miles from Omaha, elevation
1,150 feet. This is a growing town, and does a
large business in grain; it has an elevator, two
stores, a Catholic church, good school-house, and
a hotel. A new flouring-mill will be erected this
year (1876). It has a sprightly newspaper called
the Independent. You are now near the famous
Elk horn Valley and River. By a deep cut,
t he railroad makes it s way through the bluff or
stream, where they were previously unknown.
The elevation of Waterloo is laid down at 1,140
feet. The town has a fine water-power which
has been improved by the erection of a large
flouring-mill. It also has a steam-mill in process
of construction, and a new depot. At this point
you enter the Platte Valley, of which so much
has been written and which occupies such a
prominent place in the history of the country.
The Elkhorn and Platte Rivers form a junction a
few miles south of this point, and the banks of
these streams are more or less studded with timber, mostly cottonwood. In fact, the Elkhorn
has considerable timber along its banks.
Valley-is 35.2 miles from Omaha, and is
1,120 feet above the sea. It has a store and
hotel, and is the center of a rich farming dis
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EIGRT ScEXE. PRAIRIE OE FlEE.
-hill on the east side of this stream, about a mile
from the station, and then on a down grade you
gide into the valley. The rolling prairies are
nliow behind you and south, beyond the Platte
River, which for the first time comes into view.
Crossing the Elkhorn River you arrive at
Wcaterloo,-30.9 miles from Omaha, and
only two miles from the last station. A few
years since, a train was thrown from the bridge
spoken of, by reason of the high water of a
freshet. This train had one car of either young
fish or fish-eggs in transit; the contents of this
car were of course lost in the river, and since
that time the Elkhorn abounds in pike, pickerel,
bass, sunfish and perch. What the California
streams lost by this disaster, the Elkhorn gained,
as these fish have increased rapidly in this
trict. The land seems low, and one would eas ily
gain the impression that the soil here was very
wet, but after digging through the black surface
soil two or three feet you come to just such sand
as is found in the channel of the Platte. In
fact, the whole Platte Valley is underdrained by
this river, and this is one reason why surface
water from hard and extensive rains so quickly
disappear, and why the land is able to produce
such good crops in a dry season. Water is obtained anywhere in this valley by sinking what
are called drive-wells, from six to twenty feet.
Wind-mills are also extensively used by large
farmers, who have stock which they confine upon
their premises, and which otherwise they would
have to drive some distance for water. From
Valley, the elevations gradually increase as you
rmx; ~CPaCi TOURIST.