KANSAS. (Named after the Kansas Indians, called by themselves Bonze, a word said to refer to the wind; popularly known as the 'Sunflower State'). line of the North Central States of the States. It lies exactly in the centre of the country, between 94° 37' and 102' west longitude: its north and south boundaries are formed, respectively, by the 40th and the 37th parallels. The State is bounded on the north by Nebraska, on the cast by Missouri, on the south by Indian Territory and Oklahoma, and I n the west by Colorado. It has the form of a paral lelogram with straight sides, except at the north eastern corner, which is cut off by the :Missouri River. Its dimensions are 408 miles from east to west, and 208 miles from north to south; its area is 82.080 square miles, giving it the tenth rank in size among the States of the Union.
TurocaArutv. Kansas lies within the Great Plains, which stretch in a broad belt from the :Missouri River to the eastern slope of the Rocky :Mountains. Its surface rises gradually from an altitude of 750 feet in the extreme eastern part to about 4000 feet on the western boundary. The average altitude is about 2000 feet, the contour line for that height crossing the State a little to the west of the centre. The highest point is in the extreme west-4440 feet. There are no eminences rising more than 500 feet above the general level. However, the surface cannot be called flat; it is on the whole a gently rolling prairie, diversified in some places with low hills. Erosion has changed the contour considerably, many of the rivers flowing through wide valleys of their own making. The broad bottom-lands of the Missouri in the northeastern corner are lined with bluffs 200 feet high, and similar but smaller bluffs are found along many other streams, especially in the northern half of the State; in some places these bluffs form even cafion-like gorges. In the southwestern corner.
south of the Arkansas River, is a stretch of shifting sand-dunes about 100 miles long and several miles wide.
As is indicated by the general land slope. prac tically all the rivers of Kansas, except the small secondary tributaries, flow eastward; and, owing to the regular decline in elevation, the drainage is so perfect that there are no marshy tracts and no lakes of any size in the State. The two principal drainage systems are those of the Kansas River in the north and the Arkansas in the south, the former joining the Missouri on the northeastern boundary, the latter turning southeastward and leaving the State through the southern boundary. The principal tributary systems of the Kansas are those of its two head streams, the Republican River. which enters the State from Nebraska, and the Smoky Hill River, which, with its two ehicf affluents, the Solomon and the Saline, drains the whole northwestern quarter of the State. The tributaries of the Arkansas within the State are mostly small streams, hut the southeastern corner is drained by the large Neosho River and its main affluent, the Verdigris, which flow southward and enter the Arkansas in Indian Territory.
The forested area of Kansas, like that of the other States in the Great Plains, is inconsider able. The only wooded portions of any extent are in the extreme eastern part, although most of the river courses have narrow fringes of trees. The most common speeics of trees are oak, elm, cottonwood, hickory, honey-locust. wil low, white ash, sycamore, and box-elder. Prac tically the whole area of the State consisted originally of grassy prairies, which in the east are well adapted for agriculture, and in the west form good