84 BIG SPRING PRAIRIE. 
the first year. The herbs become more abundant the 
second year and tree seedlings also make their ap- 
pearance at this time. 
On Map I, between the Seneca-Wyandot County 
line and new road No. 2, there is indicated the location 
of one of the most extensive thickets or embryo forests 
on this prairie. Figure 19 gives a view of this thicket 
from the southwest. ‘The larger trees to the right are 
cottonwoods. In the Autumn of 1891 or 1892, a severe 
prairie fire originated from a spark from a Hocking Val- 
ey engine. As aresult the sod and soil were burned away 
toadepth of one to two feet. Theyearafter the fire, 
mosses and annual herbs appeared, succeeded the next 
year by seedling cottonwoods and willows. 
In 1899, the circumferences of three willows at 
one foot above the ground wereas follows: 11 in., 14 in. 
and 15 in.; of eight cottonwoods were 12 in., 13 in., 
id in., 16in., 16 in,, 17 in., 17-in: and 18 in: > Phoses or 
less dimentions were very numerous, thus showing that 
all the seedlings did not make their appearance the same 
year. In the latter part of the eighties, a prairie fire 
burned quite a depression near the railroad, just across 
from the wooded bay (W. B). The trees sprang up 
only around the margin. In 1899, the trees, chiefly 
cottonwoods and willows, were from 7 to 14 in. in di- 
ameter. 
A short distance northeast from the woods which 
presents such excellent examples of exposed roots 
from the settling of soil, as shown so strikingly in fig. 
2 and 3, there stood in 1899, a thicket of cotton- 
woods, trembling aspen, and willows. This area had 
been burned over some years before, and the largest 
trees were from 15 to 20 feet high, while there were 
all gradations down to dense patches of seedlings of 
the season of 1899. Inthe autumn of this year, the 
writer had the opportunity of noting the effect of prairie 
fire on young trees. A prairie fire burning only the 
