236 Prairies of Ohio. 
were found upon the surface. Occasionally a large prostrate elm, 
or sycamore, upon which a pheasant sat and thumped away the 
morning, pointed out the spot where the brawny squatter had 
feasted on wild honey, or labored to bring down a raccoon or a 
bear. 
Wild fruits, especially plumbs, grapes, black and red haws, and 
black-berries, are abundant along the edges of wet prairies. In 
many places, in the vicinity of elevated lands, the ground is cover- 
ed, for miles, with strawberries, but whether they are indigenous, or 
introduced by the very early settlers, I am unprepared to say. The 
blossoms of the crab, also, frequently fill the air, in the early spring 
months, with the most delicious odors. It is from these, together 
with the various other blossoms and flowers, that the wild bees 
chiefly obtain their honey. They usually store their sweets in the 
hollow limbs and trunks of the neighboring trees, where they some- 
times accumulate immense quantities. But the most delicious fruit 
which grows in wet prairies, is the cranberry. ‘The collection of this 
fruit furnishes occasion for pleasure parties of the young people, 
which are among the most agreeable of the rural diversions of the 
West.* | 
Many of the wet prairies are more elevated than those already 
mentioned. They are, however, small, containing but few acres, 
and distant from streams of water. Still their formation appears to 
be the same, with those already described. When ditched, the 
peat, which they contain, becomes very dry during summer seasons. 
A farmer once called my attention to a small boggy or shaking prai- 
rie, which had been ditched two or three years previously; but 
when the grass and small brush were set on fire, to prepare the 
ground for cultivation, the surface ignited, and continued to burn for 
the principal part of the summer. When the fire ceased, he 
he had a bed of earthy ashes, from three to eight feet in thickness, 
instead of the productive soil he anticipated. 
* We have condensed into a single sentence a page descriptive of these excut 
sions.—Ep, 
