GEOLOGY. 29 



reader. The works of man too, arc often found in such prai- 

 ries, at a great depth in the earth. Such natural meadows, 

 being for the most part, destitute of trees, have induced super- 

 ficial persons, (who never reflect, and who are too indolent to 

 examine into the real facts in the case,) to conclude, that fires 

 had been employed by the aboriginals to produce that effect! 

 The formation of these diluvian plains is entirely different 

 from that of the country around them; as much so beneath 

 the surface as above it. In tracts of country, denuded of 

 trees by fire, briars and bushes, forthwith, appear in their 

 stead. In fact, the growth of grass and flowering plants, 

 which cover these delightful plains, is abundantly able to pre- 

 vent the taking root, of almost any forest tree. The falling 

 of a walnut, an acorn, or the seed of any other tree, is hardly 

 sufiicient to disturb the possession of the present occupants of 

 these ancient domains. The plum sometimes gets a foot hold 

 in them: and the delicious sweet prairie grape is sure to take 

 advantage of the circumstance, and climb up to, and cover 

 the tops of the plum bushes with its vines, its leaves and its 

 clusters of purple fruit in due season. 



Besides, had fires destroyed the trees on Pickaway Plains, 

 charcoal would have been discovered there, which is not the 

 case, although the land, has been cultivated with the plow, 

 during from fifteen to twenty years past. 



Charcoal is as indistructible, almost, as the diamond itself, 

 where it is not exposed to the action of the atmosphere. On 

 a surface so large, as that occupied by the plains, it is hardly 

 possible, if they had been denuded of their woods by fire, that 

 no charcoal should have been found. With me, this argument 

 ' is entirely a conclusive one. 



The botany of these natural meadows is rich, and would 

 afford matter enough for a volume. A Torrey, a Nuttall, a 

 Mitchill, a Mulenburgh, a Barton, an Elliott, or evena Linnseus 

 might here usefully employ himself for years, without exhaust- 

 ing his subject, or gathering all the harvest which these vast 

 fields present. It appears to me, that our botanists have neg- 

 lected our prairies ; but let us hope, that the day is not far 



