OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 



209 



prairie area extended southward to tlic fringe of forest bordering the Ohio River, 

 eastward to the central part of Indiana, and then stretching northwestward, along 

 the forest which skirted Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and Lake Whaiipeg, it 

 crossed Peace River near the west end of Athapasca Lake. From the plateau of 

 Peace River southward to New Mexico for a distance of more than fifteen hundred 

 miles and from the Rocky Mountain chain to the great forests, east of the Missis- 

 sippi, a distance of more than a thousand miles in their greatest width, these 

 prairies lie unrolled as a carpet of verdure. They furnish the most extraordinary 

 natural spectacle upon which the eye of man ever rested on the earth's surface. No 

 description can realize to the mind their vastness or their magnificence. Between 

 the western borders of Lake Superior and the Ohio the rivers and streams were 

 bordered with forest. There were, also, patches of forest scattered here and there 

 in the midst of the prairies, in which respect the regions east of the Mississippi 

 differ from those west of and upon the Missouri. Throughout all the region first 

 named there was a mixture of forest and prairie, the latter largely predominating. 

 Within this area the Mississippi nations were found. Their habitations were 

 along the rivers and streams, which were well supplied with fish, and also among 

 the woodlands which afforded a shelter for game. The open prairies east of the 

 Mississippi, as well as west of it, were destitute of inhabitants. 



At the period of colonization there were eleven nations between Lake Superior 

 and the Ohio, excluding the Winnebagoes and Potawattamies, and including the 



27 March, 1870. 



