NOTICES OF NATURE CHICAGO. 225 



Indians. This tract, extending to about 6,000,000 of acres, 

 was sold by the Pottowatamys to the United States Govern 

 ment a few days after I passed over it, and is now in the 

 market. 



The agriculture of the country from Niles to Chicago is 

 limited to a few prairies in the vicinity of La Porte, on which 

 wheat and Indian corn are cultivated in the most primitive 

 manner. Here, as in the western part of Canada, the farmers 

 seemed contented to live. There were no barns seen any 

 where ; and at Clavering the wheat was thrashed in the open 

 air, on the bare earth, and the fanners were standing covered 

 with a little straw. The Indian corn was still growing. In 

 one instance, I observed wheat newly sown, and a field of 

 this crop above ground. The crop of the year was in small, 

 ill-built, unthatched ricks, resembling in size and shape the 

 hay cokes of Scotland. At Clavering I examined the prairie 

 wheat crop, and found the ears small in size, the straw short 

 and slender ; the grain was particularly small, but of fine 

 colour and appearance. 



The wood is chiefly oak. The summits of sand hills on 

 Lake Michigan are crowned with a few stunted pines, a tree 

 which, I believe, is not to be found farther to the south of 

 this point, or west of the grand river in Upper Canada, 

 although abounding in some districts on the north-west shores 

 of Lake Michigan. Nearer the beach, and at a lower level 

 than the pines, dwarfish poplars grow, two species of bent 

 grass, and a thistle. A few vines were also on the sand hills, 

 and when not growing in very exposed situations, were lying 

 on the banks as if trained on a wall; but after a diligent search, 

 I could not discover fruit on them. The sand hills were thinly 

 clothed with vegetation, and every plant, with exception of 

 the grasses, seemed stunted like those exposed to the spray 

 and storms of a British ocean. In this part of the country, I 

 made a large addition to my collection of seeds, which were 

 wrapped in small folds of paper, dried in my pocket, and after 

 wards transferred to my knapsack. 



I observed no animals that appeared new to me. In some 

 parts squirrels were particularly numerous, and exclusively of 

 the black variety. 



