54 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



formed into woodland. It is difficult to now estimate what proportioji 

 of the orignal growth (considered as to area, little if any being now in 

 its primitive condition) is now standing, but it is stated by those most 

 competent to judge, that on account of this encroachment of the woods 

 upon the former prairies, there is now a greater extent of woodland in 

 Wabash and adjoining counties (in Illinois) then there was fifty years 

 ago. The growth of this new forest is so rapid that extensive woods 

 near Mount Carmel (consisting chiefly of Oaks and Hickories, averaging 

 more than 80 feet high, and 1 to nearly 2 feet in diameter), were open 

 prairie within the memory of some of the present owners of the land! 



The original growth of the richer bottom lauds and slopes of the bluffs 

 was probably equal in magnitude to that of any other hard-wood forest 

 in Eastern North America; at least the taller trees even now standing 

 considerably exceed in height the dimensions given in standard text- 

 books, and evidently based on the growth of other sections of the 

 country. That this discrepancy of size indicates actual superiority I 

 am, however, loth to believe, but am rather inclined to attribute it to a 

 paucity of measurements of trees in other sections, a view of the case 

 which is considerably strengthened by the fact that the diameter of the 

 larger trees does not greatly exceed that attained in the original forest 

 along the Atlantic seaboard, except, perhaps, in the case of particular 

 species. Certain it is, that the virgin forests of the western slope of 

 the Alleghanies, in West Virginia, and, possibly, that of some portions 

 of Southern Ohio, appear to compare very favorably with those of the 

 lower Wabash region ; at least that is the imi)ression which I have re- 

 ceived from jiassing through them repeatedly by rail; while I am con- 

 fident that in Jackson County, Indiana, near the line of the Ohio and 

 Mississippi Railroad even a larger growth exists at the present time than 

 in most parts of the Lower AVabash Valley, but I have no measurements 

 wherewith to substantiate this impression. 



The investigations upon which my knowledge of the timber of the 

 Lower Wabash region is based extend over many years, during which 

 time an opportunity for taking a desirable measurement was never 

 neglected. I have furthermore received nuich assistance from friends 

 and correspondents interested in the subject, among whom I may 

 especially mention Dr. J. Schneck, of Mount Carmel; his brother, 

 Charles Schneck, of Posey County, Indiana; and Mr. Thos. J. Johnston, 

 county surveyor of Posey County. Dr. Schneck has already published, 

 in Professor Cox's Geological Survey of Indiana (volume for 1875, pp. 

 501-579), a "Catalogue of the Flora of the Wabash Valley, below the 

 mouth of White Eiver," in which may be found most important infor- 

 mation respecting the subject in hand; and in reply to letters asking 

 for measurements of the timber of their localities, both of the other 

 gentlemen named above responded with the desired information. The 

 measurements taken by Messrs. Johnston and Schneck are herewith 

 given. 



