: x : a 
R. W. Wells on Prairies. _ $86 *- 
e ‘= 
The Indians, it is presumed, (and the wri r, from a resi 
dence in their country and with them, is well cquainted with 
their customs) burn the woods, not ordinarily for the purpose 
of taking or catching game, as suggested by Mr. A. but for 
many other advantages attending that practice. If the woods 
be not burned as usual, the hunter finds it impossible to kill 
the game, which, alarmed at the great noise made in walking 
through the dry grass and leaves, flee in all directions at his — 
approach. Also the Indians travel much during the winter, 
from one village to another, and to and from the various hunt- 
ing grounds, which becomes extremely painful and laborious, 
from the quantity of briers, vines, grass, &c. ‘To remedy 
these and many other inconveniences, even the woods were 
originally burned so as to cause prairies, and for the same 
and like reasons they continue to be burned towards the close 
of the Indian summer. 
Woodland is not commonly changed to prairie by one burn- 
ing, but by severa] successive conflagrations ; the first will kilk 
the undergrowth, which causing a greater opening, and ad- 
mitting the sun and air more freely, increases the quantity of 
grass the ensuing season: the conflagration consequently in- 
creases, and is now sufficiently powerful to destroy the smaller 
timber; and on the third year you behold an open prairie. gists 
Ordinarily, all the country, of a nature to become prairies is 
already im that sta yet the writer of this has seen, in the 
country between the Missouri and Mississippi, after unusually 
dry seasons, more than one hundred acres of woodland to- 
gether converted into prairie. And again, where the grass 
has been prevented from burning by accidental causes, or the 
prairie has been depastured by large herds of domestic cattle, 
it will assume, ina few years, the appearance of a young 
st. Numerous proofs of this fact can be adduced, but a 
few shall suffice. ‘The vicinity of St. Louis and St. Charles 
affords instances. Both these beautiful places are situated om 
what are termed first and second bottoms, oF flats—the former 
on the Mississippi, the latter on the Missouri; the second oF 
upper bottoms, in both, are high plains, that commence within 
a few hundred yards of the rivers, and extend back many 
