248 Ten Days in Ohio. 
‘to cultivation. The soil is generally argillaceous, with a thin growth 
of forest trees, chiefly pin oak, post oak, black jack and aspen; but 
on the western border, many trees of the Gymnoclydus canadensis, 
or Kentucky coffee tree, and Quercus macrocarpa are found in ad- 
dition to these—many wet swampy places are destitute of trees. 
From the direction of the water courses which head in this singular 
tract, and run along its sides, as is the case with Darley Creek along 
its eastern border, I am led to conclude that the “ Barrens” is a 
more elevated region than the adjacent country. The soil is admi- 
rably adapted to the growth of grass, rising to the height of four or 
six feet; the whole region may be denominated a natural meadow. 
Vast herds of cattle are pastured in the summer and fed through the 
winter on hay cut and put up in stacks; a few years ago regular 
herdsmen attended them through the season like the patriarchs of 
old ; but latterly vast fields of several thousand acres have been en- 
closed with fence and the cattle confined within them. 
The Barrens—Lime water. 
“The Barrens” also abound in wild flowering plants through the 
summer and autumn, resembling in beauty and variety an immense 
garden. The most common and abundant belong to the families of 
the Heleunis, Solidago, Rudbeckia, Aster, &c.. In penetrating the 
earth for wells, water is usually found at the depth of ten or twenty 
feet. It is highly impregnated with lime ; so much so as to coat over 
the outsides of the buckets, and the eile of the poles, for they © 
here use the primitive fashion of * pole and sweep,” with lime, which 
at first I mistook for a coat of white wash. To render it fit for the 
washerwoman’s use “it is broke,” as they call it, with a lixivium of 
wood ashes; thus neutralising the carbonic acid and rendering it 
soft.* Sometimes wells are sunk to the depth of thirty or thirty five 
feet before water is found; and in those spots two or more beds of 
gravel are passed, alternating with beds of clay of four or five feet 
in thickness. In wet. seasons the ‘water rises to near the surface of 
the wells. It is considerably cathartic to those unaccustomed to 
its use. 
#r 
i 8 we presume a precipitate of calcareous carbonate, we 
should like to Car wtcinee muriate of lime is not also, found in the water of Jime- 
stone countries.— Ed. 
