DISTRICT WEST OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER. 17 
ness of forests. These prairie lands were deprived of their 
primeval forests by a long continuance of the practice which 
the Indians pursued of burning off the woods yearly for the 
purpose of gathering nuts and hunting game. The calamity 
is irreparable, and Illinois, instead of boasting of the $300,- 
000,000 worth of timbers such as now form the glory of Ken- 
tucky, must go through the slow and expensive process of 
planting and culture to replace the forests which she has so 
lamentably lost. JI am inclined to think that the burning of 
the woods in the strip of country under discussion did not go 
so far as to exhaust the buried seeds and roots of the timbers; 
for, although the strip burnt over is comparatively so small, 
and so surrounded by heavy forests, that, had such been the 
‘case, seeds from these forests would quickly have spread over 
the burnt area, nevertheless it seems that, in that case, the 
young trees nearer the margin of the surrounding woodlands 
would be larger and older than those in the centre of the 
burnt district. To a certain extent, this is actually the case; 
but, from a close examination, I came to the conclusion that 
this appearance was due, not to the fact that the buried seeds 
-and roots over the whole area had been killed and new sup- 
plies been furnished from the surrounding forests, but to the 
fact that, as settlements pushed into these burnt areas, the 
limits burned over became more and more restricted every 
year until the burning ceased entirely. This process would 
give to the present young forest the appearance of being 
regular and heavy, and yet of gradating into somewhat older 
growth as one approaches the limits of the burnt district. 
Besides, inasmuch as the country here. slopes toward the 
north and all the streams flow in that direction, if the forest 
‘destruction had been complete and the seeds of the new for- 
est had been furnished from the surrounding old forest, the 
trees of the new forest would have grown gradually larger as 
one approached the southern limit of the burnt area. The 
exact opposite is the case, and the young forest trees grow 
Jarger as we approach the old forests on the zorth of the 
burnt district. This shows that the present irregularity of the 
153 
