SOMETHiNG TO LAUGH AT. 61 



withhold* them ? Other aectiona of country, under less favorable circum- 

 itances, are not wanting in this respect. 



Why is it ? Timber of every kind adapted to the zone and climate will 

 grow as thriftily when planted here, as elsewhere. The frontier forests of 

 our Western States have been observed for years past to make slow but 

 constant encroachment upon contiguous prairies, from ail sides, where, ai 

 yet, they have a foothold ; — and wliy ? Partly, because their enlargement 

 is not circumvented by those annual burnings that formerly devoured every 

 tender shoot daring to raise its head above ground ; and, partly, through 

 the operation of other causes, sure and gradual in their effect, which have 

 planted the groves of other lands and taught their branches to wave in the 

 Dreeze. Doubtless the same causes would produce the same results, all 

 over these vast regions, as elsewhere. 



But, why have they not ? — why are tlie prairies timberless ? Simply, 

 because a sufSciency of time has not yet elapsed for the operation of these 

 causes, — timber has hitherto had no possible chance for generation. The 

 phenomenon, if rightly viewed, will thus explain itself. Geology points to 

 the time when these vast solitudes were the bed of old Ocean and the liome 

 of waves, — but, gradually emerging or suddenly elevated from the watery 

 al")yss, they now present some of the more recent formations of dry land. 



Herbage and grass, being more easily propagated than trees, — sown as 

 are their seeds by the birds and scattered by the winds of heaven, — in a 

 brief interval, beswathed the new-born earth with smiling green. Thn.-? 

 clothed with verdancy, they soon became the favorite pastures of tlie 

 countless herds that thronged them. With game, appeared the red m.n 

 to hunt it, and with him the yearly conflagrations that now repel the in- 

 truding woodlands and confirm the unbroken sway of solitude amid her 

 far extending domains. 



Here, then, we have spread before us the prairies as we find them,— tlie 

 problem of their existence needs no further solution. 



Oct. 12th. Still continuing up the Platte by its south bank, wo made 

 camp at night near the head of Grand Island. During our progress we 

 saw large quantities of \vild geese and cranes in the river bottoms, that 

 presented tempting marks for our voyageurs. One of the latter, — a tall, 

 raw-boned, half-crazed, and self-confident Missouri " Ned," — good naturt^d 

 and inane, — sporting the familiar soubriquet of " Big Jim," — wishing lo 

 prove the truth of the Dogberry axiom, that " some things may be done as 

 well others," started to approach a large flock of sand-hill cranes, parading 

 ' half obscured in a plat of grass near the road side. 



The wary birds, however, caught glimpse of the approaching Nimrod 

 and flew. Still our hero advanced, crawling upon all-fours, to witliin sixt^ 

 or seventy yards of their recent position, when, raising up, he espyed an 

 object which his excited imagination portrayed a crane, and promptly yielded 

 to it the contents of his rifle. 



Of course the obstinate creature remained in statu quo. 



Re-loadmg with all possible speed, he again fired ! But the second shflC 

 proved futile as the first. 



Detennined the next should count whether or no, he advanced still 

 nearer, and had raised for his third discharj , before the naked truth ban* 

 6 '. 



