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On the Prairies and Barrens of the West. 33 
them to approach game without int and also to insure a 
good crop of grass for the next summe 
Fires sometimes eseape from the pala of travellers in 
the dry season, and burn until the rain or some other cause 
puts them out. 
When the white aicomtp settle on the barrens or near 
them, the Indians recede, fires are seldom stabinls a young 
wth of trees, he and vigorous soon springs up, far 
superior to the stinted growth which the frequent ioe have 
scorched, and the barren assumes the appearance of a tim- 
bered country.—That the barrens are frequently burned, 
and that when the burnings cease, a young, vigorous erowth 
of trees soon springs up, are facts which can be attested by 
the most pte cate eB in this country. . 
Small prairie are sometimes found in the tacts and 
- the heads o ‘creeks are so ble nded with the 
laces, that it is difficult to determine where 
ihe one fads or the other begins. 
5. Whatever may be said by Mr. Atwater or Mr. Wells, 
to prove that prairies and barrens were formed by the same 
agent, I shall take the liberty of differing from them both ; 
orin my humble opinion, the difference in the situation, 
appearance, and structure of these natural meadows indi- 
cates in the nies a manner, that they were formed by dif- 
ferent agen 
Mr. Wells says that, “where the grass has Sad prevented 
from burning by accidental causes, or the prairie has been 
depastured by large herds of domestic ates it will assume 
in a few years the appearance of a young forest.” 
If the low wet prairies are not burned, ei pastured by 
cae will they become. forests? If they are now too wet 
to produce trees, when were they dry enough to produce 
ay B say never; and that the same cause. that made 
them prairies will keep them such : but if the water is effectu- 
ally drained from them, they may produce trees. 
y Mr. Atwater’s views of the Geology of the Western coun- 
try, [ think are hardly tenable ; for he says that the lakes 
Erie and Michigan once emptied themselves into the Ohie 
and Mississippi rivers through the Scioto, Miami and Illinois 
rivers 5 3 that the barrens in Ohio are elevated from fifty to 
one hundred feet above the level of the Scioto river; that 
e whole descent of the Scioto wey be one hundred Se: 
¥ Ot AT.....Nocd 
