The assessment for Dawes county for 1885 was made by Cheyenne county assessors and was as follows :

Horses 1,828; valued at $ 35,460

Cattle 25,575; " " 222,126

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Mules 153;

Sheep 640 ;

Hogs 2;

Carriages and

wagons 143 ;

Merchandise .... Land, 800 acres . .

4,590

5,114 8,500 1,600

Total value of all property $280,000

Which with a tax levy of nine mills on the dollar gave Dawes a revenue of $2,520.

I look back upon the summer of 1884 as one of the most pleasant I ever spent. We had only to throw our lines in the White river to have a catfish to eat. We found fortynine kinds of wild flowers, which kept us busy with our botany and dictionary. We went "a-beading," finding large supplies the Indians had lost, and the busy ants had gathered in their hills for us. Then, too, the whole country looked as beautiful as imagination could picture, filled with castles on the ground and in the air.

Capt. Jim Cook's Agate Springs Ranch

If one was to attempt to write a description of this portion of the country and would neglect to include the famous Agate Springs ranch, owned and conducted by Capt. "Jim" Cook, his efforts would be incomplete. It would take columns to give the reader even a vague idea of the beauty, richness and convenience of this lauded pearl of the Niobrara valley. Standing on an elevation of more than one hundred feet and casting the eye in either direction up and down this fertile plat, for a distance of ten miles sights beautiful and grand meet the vision. Dotted here and there with shady groves, the gentle breezes moving their leaf-burdened branches to and fro, and the thousands of tiny songsters which inhabit them, warbling their notes to nature ; the purling stream of the Niobrara, winding its way in a zigzag course through the entire valley; herds of cattle and horses moving about feeding on the nutritious grasses of the seeming boundless fields ; the barns standing like sentinels in an earthly paradise; the endless stock sheds and outhouses ; the magnificent house of Capt.