Prairies and Barrens of the West. i2i 
im order to take game. Erroneous information first propagated 
such an opinion, and blind credulity has extended it down to 
us. Another opinion, equally groundless, prevails to a consi- 
derable extent; and that is, that these prairies have all been 
heretofore cultivated by the aborigines, and that the grass hav- 
ing overspread these plains, prevented the growth of trees on 
them. The Indians, it is to be presumed, never cultivated 
any other grain than maize, or Indian corn, and yet we see 
few or no corn-hills in any part of this country. In the west- 
ern part of New-York, before it was settled by its present 
inhabitants, thousands and thousands of acres were to be seen, 
where the trees were as large as any in the forest, and yet the 
rows of corn-hills were plainly discernible. I refer im a par- 
ticular manner to what is now called Cayuga county. here 
the growth of grass had not prevented the growth of trees, nor 
did it here. We know that some of these prairies were culti- 
vated by the Indians, but never to any very considerable — 
extent, This country never was thickly settled by Indians, 
like the shores of the Atlantic and the banks of the rivers run- 
ning into it. No, it was the ancestors of the Peruvians and 
the Mexicans who lived here in great numbers, before they 
migrated to South America. 
The question then recurs, by what powerful means were 
these prairies and barrens formed? : Py 
fat water was the principal agent, we infer from the fact, 
that the soil is always alluvial to greater or less depth ; the 
former we call prairie, the latter barren. But how could the 
country from the southern shore of Lake Erie to Chillicothe, 
4 distance of more than one hundred and fifty miles from north 
to south, ever be covered with water long enough to form 
ial soil, in many places from four to six feetin depth? 1 
answer, that the Niagara river, the present outlet of Lake Erie, 
has Worn away several hundred feet, and in that way the lake 
's lowered in the same proportion. ‘The high land, composed 
ntirely of sand, originally extending from the Ohio northerly 
“pwards of forty miles, to Chillicothe, has been worn through 
by the Scioto river; and the waters which once for ages cov- 
*red the whole country north of the hills along the Ohio 
Vou. I....No, 2. 16 
