183S] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



7r9 



have fallen under my notice, are composed chiefly 

 of a hliip (ienise sandstone, or grai/irarke, with lii- 

 tie or no ralcaremis (!ppo.«it, or impress of or<jriUiic 

 remains. The aUtivioii of prairies rests upon a 

 hliip carbonncpoiis rlav, aboundinn; in roots and 

 trunks of trees, wiih other vetretnhle remnins, 

 scattered Irom ten tn one hundred feet heneiUJi the ! 

 purliice. Salt water has been obtained, in the vi- 

 cinity of these prairies, at the depth of six or 

 seven hundred lect; b\it I have never been advised 

 •of the strata throoirh which the au<jer pnsscd. 

 The water was procured about three hundred it''et 

 below the level of Lake Erie, and the siime dis- 

 tnnce henea'h the bed of the Ohio, at the mouth 

 of tiie iMuskinjruni. 



So nuich liir a doscriplion of wet prairies: let us 

 now turn our attention to thi-ir orinin. 



Without stopping to exiimine the various hy- 

 potheses whirh liave been suiXirested from time to 

 iin)e, to es[;Iain the orifjin of wet prairies, the 

 facts already mentioned would seem to indicnle, 

 that they were either the bnsins of lakes, or exca- 

 vaiioup in the beds of ancient rivers, filled by nat- 

 ural causes. The water-worn pebbles and fr;icT- 

 menw of shells, the ttnimal and veijetahle remains, 

 and the small hikes already metitioned, are suffi- 

 cient ftviiience that laro-e i^uantiti's of wafer must, 

 at some period or other, have existed between the 

 elevations now enclosins the prairies. It is also 

 worthy of remark, tiial bowlders and other fi-arr- 

 menls of primitive rock, are scattered over the 

 nei^fhborins hills, nrifl alonir the martrins of these 

 prairies, while they have never been found iinon 

 their sirrftce. It is said they are scattered over 

 the wet prairies of Champniim county, Ohio, hut 

 if so, these are entirely difrerent in character from 

 the prairies I have attempted to describe. The}' 

 must have been formed vpnn tlie bed of some an- 

 cient lake, afier its waters had escaped, while 

 •these to which T have so often refiTred, were the 

 •ortsprin^ of a filling up of a former basin, bv the 

 >dthrh of the adjacent elevations, nssisted hv the 

 peat moss of their wnters, and the timber ant! re- 

 ninius of animnls brought into them hv the 

 •streams. It is in this u.anner that the small lakes 

 in the interior of wet prairies are now crmdually 

 disappearing. At first, the water leaves a kind n{ 

 •shakin<r bos', similar to those alreadv mentioned, 

 ■but this eventually loses its humid character, and 

 •presents a deep black inould, dif^ermfr in no res- 

 pect from that Jound elsewhere in the low lands. 

 T^he woody islands, or many of them, at least, 

 were once undoubtedly surrounded by water, 

 ■which must have beat a.'rainst their shores for a 

 lontj time; fir if this were not the case, tlip quartsc 

 pebbles could never have either reached their pre- 

 sent locations, or been reduced to a rounded liirm. 

 It certainl}^ required miieh water, time and attri- 

 tion, to perform so imporiant a chanire. The peb- 

 bles could not have been driven over the prairie, 

 for none such are found upon its surfiice. Blocks, 

 or large bowlders of <rrnnile, have been detected, 

 when borino;, deep henea'h a wet prairie soil. 

 These must have been transported here at the 

 time the same species v:<?r?. lodced uron the sur- 

 face of the suroundino- country. The basin of 

 the prairie must also have been filled witfi water, 

 at that period, otherwise they could not have de- 

 scended as far beneath the surf'ice. 



But wet prairies do not remain surli eontinunlly. 

 Many of the causes which aided in their forma- 



tion, are now contribiitinjj much towarde their 

 destruction. The debris, consistin<; of sand, grav- 

 el, and clav, oftiie hiirlier Iniuls, is uradnrdly con- 

 vert ine^ their bnniers into a sandy soil, followed by 

 a firowth oftimber, and other veirctables, peculiar 

 to the upper lands. At first the ligneous [iroduc- 

 tions consist pnncipnlly of a variety of hazel and 

 oak. none of which atlnin a larire size. This 

 growth, however, soon gives place to another, 

 which continues to extend until a dark forest lias 

 taken the place of grass and flowers. 



Cultivation also contributes much to the des- 

 truction of prairies, by the introduction of grasses 

 and plants essentially difi'erent tiom the wild 

 ijrowih. The enclosures, likewise, arrest the 

 fires, alluded to in the begituiing of this paper, 

 and thus prevent the armual destruction ofshrubs, 

 and the small sprouts of arhorous plants. When 

 ihesp fires are prevented from sweeping over the 

 surface of wet prai'-ies, 'or several years, they are 

 soon covered by a dense growth of alder, which 

 eventually gives place to the vegetables named in 

 the firmer paragraph. This change, however, 

 does not take place, until the soil has changed its 

 character, by the introduction ol' sand and gravel 

 from the surrounding elevatiotis. This is effected 

 rapidly afrer the hills and table lands are cultiva- 

 ted; l(ir when the soil is broken, it is easily driven 

 do'vnwards by rains and ninninir streams. 



Thus the immense natural meadow; the resi- 

 dence of the beaver, the otter, and the water-rat; 

 the plaee of grass and Howers, is reduced, by nat- 

 ural car.ses, to a dense forest, llirnishing timber, 

 and other materials in agriculture, and the arts. 

 Thp basin of the lake, over which the Indian 

 paddled his bark canoe, is filled, and its place 

 known no more, except to the philosopher, who 

 can read in the rocks, the pebbles, the sand, and 

 the trees, the records of the past. The watery 

 sheet has given place to farms and villages, and 

 the sound of the hammer, the axe, and the bell, 

 is heard in the vallev udiich once echoed with the 

 shouts of the aboriginal, blended with the wild 

 notes of the water-iowl. 



The streams which pass through these prairies, 

 thousrh ofien laige, flow with but little current, in 

 a very serpentine direction, through a dark alluvial 

 soil whicli contains but few pebbles, and no large 

 bowlders. In many instances, a large vegetable 

 growth, similar to that found in the neighboring 

 ponds, arises from the bottom of the stream. 

 Their shores are more elevated than the surfaces 

 of the adjacent marshes, or prairies, and hence 

 they are thickly covered by trees of a superior 

 growth. The stalely wliite elms, so abundant 

 along their immediate l^orders. contribute mueh to 

 the (brmaiion of a beautiliil landscape. Their 

 trunks seem to be placed at regular distances Irom 

 °ac!i oilier, while their long branches meet and 

 coalesce so completely, that they form a most ex- 

 tensive natural arbor.. Early in the spring, multi- 

 tudes of squirrels resort to them, fi-om the neigh- 

 boring hills, in order to feast on the expanding 

 buds. ' Befijre the country was thickl}' settled, and 

 the lieauiies of nature defaced by the han(i of art, 

 herds of deer migh' often be seen leeditig on the 

 undergrowtli of these bottoms. At this period 

 hut i'pw logs were fi>uiid vipon tlie surf;ice. Occa- 

 sionally a large prostrate elm, or sycamore,_upon 

 which a pheasant sat and thumped away the 

 morning, jiointed out the ppot where the brawny 



