30 On the Pratriey end Burrens of the West. 
Arr. ll. On the Prairies and Barrens of the West 3 by 
M Bourne. | 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c. 
Cuituicotur, (Ohio,) July 30, 1819. 
Sir, 
Havine seen in the second number of the American 
Journal of Science, an essay on the Prairies and Barrens of 
the West, by Caleb Atwater Esq. wherein he attempts to 
prove that the Prairies and Barrens were tes formed by 
the agency of water; and in the fourth number of the sam 
Journal some remarks on the origin of Prairies by Mr. R. 
A. Wells, by which he attempts to prove that the Prairies 
and Barrens were wholly formed by the agency of fire; I 
was induced with a view of conciliating these contrary opin- 
ions, to make a situation. Vari eties, 
and the probable | causes of the formation of natural mead- 
ows. 
1. The salt meadows or marshes, ‘which. skirt the ide 
waters of the Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the eastern part 
of Massachusetts, have evidently been formed by the agency 
of water.—Because they are all nearly level, sloping a very 
little towards the water, from which their suttanee have but 
little elevation, wherever they are foun 
hey are covered with a peculiar kind of grass, which is 
from six to twelve inches high, of a reddish colour and grows 
very thick; the roots of which, form a very compact turf 
or sward, and it requires a sharp instrument and considera- 
ble force to-cut it They are covered by the salt water a 
few inches deep several Gate in a year by the spring tides, 
and this appears to be necessary to their existence, or pe- 
culiar character: for if ae water is kept from them by 
dykes, the upland grasses take root, the turf moulders away, 
or loses its tenacity, and in a few years their appearance is 
completely changed. 
s the surface of these meadows lies a little above com- 
pe high-water mark, there is generally a slope of about — 
us 
six feet in two or three rods, to low-water mark; and 
