SECTION FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO POUND GAP. Wi 
which chestnut should be found. A closer examination of 
the timbers surrounding the present barrens of the Purchase 
shows that there is very little white oak among them, except 
along streams and on low grounds. My present opinion is 
—subject, of course, to correction upon closer study—that the 
high grounds of almost the entire Purchase, from Tennessee 
river on the east to the Mississippi on the west, have been 
swept by fires and denuded of their timbers, and that the 
only difference between the other forests of this part of Ken- 
tucky and the present barrens is one of age. Both are sec- 
ond growths, and in both cases the primitive forests have 
been swept away by long-continued fires. In this report I 
give my reasons for believing that in former times the bar- 
rens have extended east beyond the Cumberland river, at 
least as far as Hopkinsville, if not, with local exceptions, to 
the waters of Big Barren river, leaving the narrow strip be- 
tween the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers alone unswept 
by fires. Big Barren river is Probably the eastern limit, in this 
locality, of the ancient barrens, part of which are still to be 
seen along it. The location of the northern limit of these 
ancient barrens is worthy of special investigation, if the view 
here advanced be correct, for they have certainly never ex- 
tended to the Ohio river. Further on in this report I have 
called attention to certain chestnuts, evidently dropped by 
passers-by, having sprung up in the Purchase, near Clark 
river, and died. In this connection, an interesting question 
presents itself, and that is, whether chestnut and white oak 
will grow again in a forest once ¢horoughly burnt out, even if 
planted. If not, it may be that the barrens were never burnt 
‘over so long as to kill the roots and seeds of existing timbers, 
but only long enough to destroy the chestnut, white oak, &c., 
which would not grow again on the burnt-over grounds. The 
whole subject is one of the deepest interest, and should be 
thoroughly investigated. 
REMARKS ON SPECIAL LOCALITIES. 
There are some peculiarities connected with timber growth 
‘in certain localities which are worthy of mention. For in- 
I8r 
