306 Notice of the Peninsula of Michigen. 
rigines to facilitate the pursuit of game, and promoie ibe 
wth of grass—where burnings have been prohibited by 
seve forests containing a diversity of trees are rising. 
Yellow and bur oak, as it is called, and hickory are less af- 
fected by fires than most timber trees. 
- Risden, a very intelligent and respectable surveyor in 
the service of government, to whom I am indebted for many 
facts relative to the interior, in surveying a road from Detroit 
to Chicago, near the head of lake Michigan, passed oyer thir- 
ty miles of heavily timbered land, fifty of light oak openings, 
105 of hickory and bur oak openings, of very good soil, and 
30 of prairie. Except in the eastern section, wet timbered 
nd sw land rarely occurred, not exceeding five miles 
in the whole distance. 
The face of the country in the western part of Ohio and 
northern part of Indiana, much resembles the south of Michi- 
gan in presenting good openings on rolling ground and prai- 
ries interspersed with swamps and thickets. The plains, prai- 
ries, and swamps, are however more extensive in Indiana ; 
they are jpiprepersed with ponds. Between Chicago and 
the head f the Illinois, is a low brat, grassy plain, 
out timber, except on the banks of rivers. 
_ The Chicago, - str th 
ee In this a. the oak openings terminate fifty 
miles from Detroit—thence for fifty miles the country 
ly well timbered, and rich plainsare interspersed with broken 
ground, White ‘oak, hickory, black walnut, butternut, bass, 
and wile ine, occur in the forest. Dark . coloured sand is 
e d in the soil of this region, with a rich vegetable 
ttlements caer in the directionof this road be- 
ke at in re} ir in the gravelly openin 
. ae of Mi chigan a ies a country has been ex. 
plored, i is generally a sandy and gravelly loam, In the oak 
opens it x often compact, Retard to to’break with a plough 
strata rest usually on ase PaD, or. clay: bie % 
exhibited i in sinkin wells, and in the many na rth 
cial excavations i examined, and eee ‘by ‘the “ob- 
aE 
es and fifty miles. Good ponds are easily made, ang 
A a a Pa ial ati ss 
