Miss 



96 Prairies of Alabama. 



projects more than in any other part of the prairies, and there are cliffs 



fifteen or twenty feet high. 



There are open prairies of every size from one hundred to one 

 thousand or twelve hundred acres, mixed and interspersed in every 

 form and mode with timbered land of all kinds ; some producing only 

 black-jack and post-oak, not exceeding fifteen or twenty feet in 

 height ; others again covered with the most majestic oak, poplar, elm, 

 hickory, walnut, pecaun, hackberry, grapevine and cane, equal in 

 size and beauty, I understand, to similar kinds in the 

 alluvions. 



The extent of this country may not be unimportant. I am inform- 

 ed that traces of prairie soil may be seen in Georgia, perhaps as far 

 east as Milledgeville. It is indeed said to exist in North Carolina ; 

 but of this I have not evidence such as to warrant the assertion. That 

 it stretches nearly five hundred miles eastward from the vicinity of 

 the Mississippi, on the west almost to Milledgeville, there is no doubt; 

 and if it extends, as is said, to be the fact, to North Carolina, it reaches 

 four hundred or five hundred miles farther ; being perhaps nine hun- 

 dred or one thousand miles long and from forty to sixty in breadth.* 



That the prairies were once the boundary of the Atlantic is evi- 

 dent 1. From the fact, that on both sides, they exhibit the indented 

 and irregular appearance of a coast, uniformly stretching up the 

 large water courses ; and in general, the sandy low country stretches 

 in a corresponding degree up the rivers into the praries ; but except 

 where it is more or less alluvial, it is unlike the prairies. 2. They 

 are nearly or quite parallel to the present shore. 3. The great 

 quantities of sea shells, found scattered on so large a tract of coun- 

 try, very little of which is within one hundred miles of the coast, sup- 

 port the opinion now advanced. The idea of their having been 

 carried thither by the action of winds or tides, is precluded by the 

 fact that in that case they must have been raised three or four hun- 

 dred feet and I presume in no place less than one hundred above the 

 level of the Gulf of Mexico. 



That the change was the effect of earthquakes, is evident from 

 the appearance of the Mississippi. The " father of rivers" bears 



* This kind of country contiues to the vicinity of New York. The author, has not 

 employed the usual terms of modern geological science, but there can be no doubt, 

 that the region which he describes, is upper secondary or tertiary, or both. The 

 bituminous coal, we presume, belongs to an older formation. Mr. McGuire, has 

 sent us large and distinct eqniseta with bituminous coal adhering. We presume, 

 therefore, that the proper coal measures are near at hand. — Ed. 



