244 



POWELL PRAIWI. 



I.ibor party enlisted his energies and being DOnhmtod 

 by it for mayor of Seranton in 1>77 lie was elected by 

 531 majority. He was re-elected in Is7>. but declined 

 a thin! term in 1>7V when he was made I 



: Workman of the Knights of Labor at tlu-ir 

 Ciinvciiticin in Chicago. In IxM he urged up<m the 

 Knk'hts the abolition of tin- oaths anil tin- removal 

 of tin- obligation of sccrccv, whirl) was finally accom- 

 plished. In l xxl '' tin- Kiii.'lit.s h:ul li'id District Assem- 

 blies, 9000 districts. nn<l 7:i".("H> members ; butat the 

 tion at Indianapolis in NovcmU'r, 1SSS, their 

 total was admitted to Iv less than MHI.INK). The con- 

 stitution adopted in 1S7S has K-en revised at nearly 

 t-\ery annual meeting, but Mr. J'owderly has been 

 Meadily re eleeted. although his health has been im- 

 paired by devotion to his work. There has been con- 

 siderable opposition to his policy within the order ; the 

 disaffected elements have, however. licen steadily over- 

 ruled, and many have withdrawn on this account 



1*OWELL, DADKH (l7'.'i',-l>Mi|. an English natural 

 philosopher, was born at Stamford Hill, near London, 

 Aug. Zi, 1796. He graduated at Oriel College, Ox- 

 ford, in 1817, and became Savilian professor of geom- 

 etry at Oxford in 1 s i:7. For many years he was one 

 of a small band at Oxford who kept alive the study 

 of physical sciences when thy were regarded witn 

 little favor. In 1850, as a member of the Oxford 

 University Commission, he assisted in introducing 

 some iimditicat ions which gave those sciences a recog- 

 nized place in the system of study. He died at London, 

 June ll t 1860. Besides purely scientiflc treatises he 

 wrote chiefly on the connection between natural science 

 and theology. His principal works arc llixlnriciil Vine 

 of the I'/ii/fii-nl nnil Mtitliiintilicnl Scitiice* (1834); 

 UMMCtHM <>f .\titrnl and 1 Urine Truth (1838); 

 Chriftiaiiitii without Jmliixm (1857); The Order of 

 A'atitre considered in Reference to the Clnim.t of Rev- 

 elntim (1S59). To the E**<tyt and If--n,;i:i (18fiO) 

 he contributed an essay " On the Study of the Evi- 

 dences of Christianity.' 



POWELL, JOHN WESLEY, geologist and anthro- 

 pologist, was born at Mt. Morns, R Y., March 24, 

 1834. The son of a Methodist preacher, he was in 

 early life taken to Wisconsin and Illinois, where he 

 received a common school education and became a 

 teacher. Being also an ardent student of natural his- 

 tory, he gathered specimens for many institutions uf 

 learning. Meantime he pursued for two ycaii- a special 

 course at Oberlin College, ( >hio. _In_ his scientific ex- 

 cursions he descended the Mississippi River in a skiff, 

 and the Ohio in a rowboat. In 1861 he entered the 

 Union army as a private but soon rose to a captaincy. 

 At the battle of Shiloh he last his right arm, but on 

 his recovery went to the front and was engaged in the 

 Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns, becoming major of 

 artillery. In 1865 he was made professor of geology 

 in the Weslcyan University, Bloouiington, 111., but 

 this position was soon exchanged for a similar one in 

 the Illinois Normal University. In connection with 

 his college work he undertook in 1867 a scientific^ ex- 

 ploration of Colorado Territory. This work obtained 

 the attention of the national government, and in 1870 

 under the authority of Conirress hb was engaged to 

 explore the region of the Colorado River and its tribu- 

 taries. During these investigations he became inter- 

 ested in the ancient cities of the Moquis and entered 

 upon ethnological reserches, which have greatly affected 

 his subsequent career. la 1S7'. when the various gov- 

 ernment surveys of the Territories were consolidated, 

 as he had advised, Major Powell was made director 

 of the bureau of ethnology. In 1881 he became director 

 of the U. 8. Geological Survey. This work he has 

 greatly enlarged and thoroughly classified, originating 

 plans for its prosecution, tad employing experts where 

 their services were most valuable. Among his reports 

 are BeffantitH / tl<f ( W,v,/,, Hi,-, r ( I >7 ) ) ; tlfnlmjy 



of lit r Ciiitn Mmiiiliiin* d v 7i',); l.itmlx nf the Arid 

 Region <>J the United Stttte* (1^7'.<) ; M< thud of ,S'ur- 



the Fulilic Dumnin ; Orrjnniziitirm and Plan 

 the U.S. Gtoloffieal .S'i/rm/. The Rcportt of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology include Cmilrilmliimt In 

 American Kthnolagy, Outline* of the flUbnpAy nfthe 

 N. A. Jiuliant. Other contributions to anttiroi 

 are an address on Mjf&ologic PUknoflq (1876) and 

 Wi/iunlnltr (tnfi-riimriit, a study of tribal WKidy. 

 MaJ. Powell has In-en president of the Anthropo- 

 logical Society of Washington since its organization in 

 Is7'.<. and as such has delivered addresses on Oiitlinf* 

 nf S<H-iiil<>'i\l ( 1 SSJ) : I'/ii/'imijiliic Jiraringx nf I turn 111- 

 i>m(1883) ; Tiin-r M>tl,,l.< / Krnlnti',,i, ( I B84l ; Ilnmnn 



the degree of Ph.D. from Heidelberg University, (ier- 

 many. and of LL.D from Harvard University. In l v >7 

 he was chosen president of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. 



I'U.MRIE. This term in the French language sig- 

 nifies "a meadow," and takes its derivation from a 

 iiH'li.-pval Latin pmttiriu, a variant of the classical 

 Latin pratum, "a field." Its application as the name 

 of an extended plain dates from the planting of the 

 early French settlements in the Mississippi Valley, a 

 large part of whose floor is of a true prairie formation. 

 There is some looseness about the use of the name. 

 In general, a prairie is supposed to be treeless, at least 

 by nature ; but in some of the Southern States a flat 

 region of a forest-character is called a "timbered 

 prairie ;" while a treeless plain of the same district is 

 called a "bald prairie." So in the Gulf States there 

 are what are called prairie* trenMantex, or " quaking 

 prairies," the surface of which shakes beneath them ad 

 of a person crossing them. Here the tough sward may 

 support herds of cattle, and the unstable plain may 

 even Itc crossed by lines of railway ; yet it would .-< cm 

 that the strata beneath must be of a semi-liquid char- 

 acter. But the true and representative prairies arc the 

 great plains of the upper half of the Mississippi Valley, 

 with their extensions northward into Canadian territory, 

 and south-westward to the Gulf and the Rio Grande. 

 It is usual to discriminate between the prairies and the 

 upper plains which skirt the eastern flank of the Rocky 

 Mountains; yet the distinction is in the main arbitrary, 

 for no line of deinarkation can be drawn between the 

 prairies and the high sub-Alpine plain. It is certain 

 that very considerable areas of the great prairie-region 

 at one time (and that not very remote, from a g< 

 cal point of view) were lake-beds, or were the basins of 

 shallow seas. This is proved by abundant and highly 

 characteristic fossil remains. It is possible that, as 

 more than one geologist has asserted, the peculiar fine- 

 ness of the slowly <h -positid silt, which has now U come 

 a soil, is unfavorable to tree-growth. Another view, 

 and a very reasonable one, is, that the prevalence 

 of great annual prairie-fires, which, in the dense 

 foggajre which covers the natural prairie, burn with 

 great intensity, hits done much to repress forest growth. 

 Certain it is that almost the only native arboreal growth 

 (and that of few species) is to be found along the water- 

 courses. But at present the prairie tires are limited in 

 range and intensity; and almost everywhere belts of 

 young native or self planted forest are seen springing 

 up, especially in those regions where the rainfall is 

 considerable. Besides this, in no other part of the 

 United States has the planting of forest trees been 

 undertaken upon so large a scale as in the praiiie- 

 regions west of the Mississippi, arboriculture having, 

 be.-n stimulated by State and Federal legislation. But 

 the final success of much of this tree-] laming is still 

 I undecided. It is possible that some drought of excep- 

 tional length and severity may yet give a great check 

 to this matter of tree planting. The i/inmli- of thu 

 prairie-regions, especially towards the mountains on the 

 west, has its drawbacks, such as the tremendous vio- 

 lence of the winds, the scanty rainfall, and the occa- 

 sional intensity of the winter's cold. 



