214 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



region is only partly occupied by farms. The trees are not usually 

 large enough or thick enough to form dense forests. In many places 

 small oaks predominate ; these are rather thinly scattered, or clustered 

 in groups of various sizes, forming "oak openings." Besides oaks 

 there are groves of poplars, elms, and many other species of hard-wood 

 and soft-wood trees, besides various kinds of shrubs which form 

 thickets and underbrush. 



A more detailed description of the country from Detroit along the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad to Fargo, and then of the lake region along 

 the Great Northern Railroad, will give a fair idea of the aspect of the 

 country and show how it differs in topography, in its flora, and in its 

 geological conditions, from the different regions to the westward. 



The Country along the Northern Pacific Railroad. 



In the region of Detroit the country is what would be called, if 

 stripped of its trees, a slightly undulating prairie. A large portion of 

 the land is uncultivated. After leaving Detroit we pass through a flat 

 country, a great portion of which was quite thickly wooded, but now 

 has only small trees. Evidently much of the timber has been cut for 

 fuel, for as we pass along we note near the railroad stations many piles 

 of cord-wood. There are some low, gravelly hills, and interspersed 

 with the wooded tracts are streams winding through marshy meadows, 

 and a small, clear, placid river with low wooded or brushy banks. 

 Among the trees seen are ashes, oaks, birches, poplars, willows, and 

 pines. Sometimes there is not a house in sight, but, as we go west- 

 ward, an occasional farm appears. The plowed land shows a mixture 

 of black muck and whitish clay or marl. The passing stranger won- 

 ders that there are so few horses and cattle, when the country seems so 

 favorable for stock-raising, on account of the abundance of grass and 

 water. In places the train passes shallow cuts excavated through 

 almost pure sand. After passing through Lake Park, which appears 

 to be a prosperous little town, the land becomes a little more rolling 

 with marshy tracts in the depressions. Though much of the land has 

 a ragged appearance, the distant view of its wooded ridges and rounded 

 hills had a very pleasing aspect as we passed through it in the early 

 morning. Soon the proportion of cultivated land became larger, 

 until we cam.e to where the greater portion of the surface has been 

 cleared of timber, leaving large groves here and there. At last we 

 are out on a great level tract of country where the lighter green of 



