GEOLOGY. 2Q 



PRAIRIES IN OHIO. 



There are two species of natural meadow, which in popular 

 language, are called Prairies. The name is derived from the 

 early French travelers; who, in their own language, called them 

 Prairies, or meadows. They are clothed with tall grass and 

 flowering plants in the spring, summer and autumnal months, 

 and on the whole, produce an aspect, in those months, on a first 

 view, very agreeable. It must be confessed though, from their 

 uniformity and sameness, having few or no hills in them, that 

 their beauties soon become tiresome to the weary traveler, who 

 traverses these plains ; for such is their uniformity in appear- 

 ance, that after riding all day across them, on looking around 

 us at night, we fancy ourselves exactly where we started in the 

 morning. 



Wet Prairies, generally, have a rivulet winding its devious 

 way through them. Its waters are of a reddish hue, of a disa- 

 greeable flavor to the taste, and unfit for the use of man. 

 They are sometimes very wet and miry, and it is not uncom- 

 mon for many of them during the winter and spring, to be cov- 

 ered with water to a considerable depth. Lying, as they do, 

 either on almost a dead level, or surrounded by higher grounds, 

 the water which accumulates on their surface, runs off slowly, 

 while the main body of it is left, either to stagnate, or to evapo- 

 rate, under the influence of a summer's sun. 



On the north side of Circleville, commences a wet prairie, 

 extending northwardly, several miles. In width from east to 

 west, it averages from half a mile, to one mile. Its descent^ 

 towards the south, is about one foot in a mile, as ascertained by 

 a competent engineer, employed for that purpose, by our Canal 

 Commissioners. The Ohio and Lake Erie Grand Canal, passes 

 through it from north to south. A small rivulet winds its way, 

 from near its centre, towards its southwestern corner, where it 

 finds itself in the bottom lands near Hargus's creek; and a sim- 

 ilar rivulet discharges its turbid waters into the Scioto river, 

 near the north western corner of this natural meadow. Near 

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