148 Kansas Academy of Science. 



found in the lower country west of the mountains. They are named 

 as follows: Quillayute, Forks, Shuwah, Tyee, Beaver, and Oberg. 

 In area they aggregate about 4000 acres. They have a black loamy 

 Boil of vegetable mold, and are extremely fertile. They were the 

 first parts of the interior country settled, and are still the centers 

 of population in that section. The cause of these treeless areas 

 eorrounded by an ocean of giant timber is somewhat a puzzle. 

 They have rich black soil, which the rest of the region does not 

 have. At first sight it would seem that likely they had been 

 marshes, and had only recently been drained — so recently that the 

 forest had not yet claimed them. This seems to explain the origin 

 of Forks Prairie, at least in part, as there is evidence that it is the 

 abandoned channel of the Calawa river; but it does not seem to be 

 an explanation of the origin of the other prairies, as they are all 

 high land. Quillayute prairie is on a bench, and Beaver prairie is 

 on a semi-hillside, and there is no evidence of their having been 

 marsh or swamp, the loam being composed of decayed ferns and 

 fern roots. Another explanation suggests itself — that they were 

 ponded areas in glacial times or the out- wash areas at points where 

 glacial streams escaped from the ice-sheet; but the clayey com- 

 position of the subsoils would seem to show that none of these 

 causes could have been the origin. Still another theory is that 

 the black soil of the prairies is the deposits of sediments in lakes 

 or swamps superimposed on the ice-sheet, and that at the melting 

 of the ice at the close of the Glacial epoch, the sediment was 

 dropped in situ; and that, being such rich soil, the ferns took pos- 

 cession of such area and have always kept the timber out by their 

 rank growth. This would easily explain why the prairies are on 

 high ground for the most part; but that the rank growth of ferns 

 kept the forest from taking possession of the areas does not hold 

 good; for a piece of land of any of the prairies let grow up to 

 ferns will soon be taken possession of by young trees — in a few 

 years a young forest — as has been demonstrated time and again in 

 recent years. 



Another theory, and one which seems to be a satisfactory ex- 

 planation, is the following : It is noticeable that the prairies follow 

 fhe river and are about a day's journey from each other for a canoe 

 man. Also, the Indians fished and hunted throughout all this 

 region formerly and their only highway was the river. Is it not 

 possible that these prairies were the camping places of the aborigi- 

 riees. And again, to strengthen this theory, the Indians dug fern 

 roots from these prairie regions, dried them, and made them into a 



