AMERICAN EDITOR. 327 



NOTE II. 



FAIRY RINGS, page 25L 



There are two sorts of circular marks on the turf 

 bearing this name in England. " One kind about seven 

 yards in diameter, containing a round, bare path, a foot 

 broad, with green grass in the midst of it." " The other 

 varying in size, is marked by a circumference of grass, 

 greener and fresher than the rest." Some writers have 

 attributed these rings to the fertilizing effects of a partic- 

 ular mushroom growing in circles; while others hold 

 them to be produced by electricity. 



It is well known that on the American prairies, there are 

 broad rings, the origin of which has been disputed by dif- 

 ferent travelers, and to which the name of " fairy rings," 

 has also been given. One of the writers on that region, 

 has accounted for them very naturally, and if his report 

 be correct, we have not much ground for indulging in the 

 poetical fancy that they are the tracks of the fairies dan- 

 cing "their ringlets to the whistling wind." Mr. Catlia 

 believes them to he nothing more than the " wallows " of 

 the buffalo. 



" In the heat of summer these huge animals . . . often 

 graze on the low grounds of the prairies, where there is 

 a little stagnant water lying amongst the grass, and the 

 ground underneath, being saturated with it, is soft, into 

 which the enormous bull, lowered down upon one knee, 

 will plunge his horns and at last his head . . . soon making 

 an excavation in the ground, into which the water filters 

 from among the grass, forming for him in a few moments, 

 a cool and comfortable bath. . . . By. this operation, which 

 is done perhaps in the space of half an hour, a circular ex- 

 cavation of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, and two 

 feet in depth is completed, and left for the water to run 



