216 THE ROLLING PRAIRIES. 



rich undergrowth of azaleas, rhododendrons, and other beautiful shrubs, 

 bound together in chains of flowers by creeping plants. When 

 America was discovered, one mass of unbroken forest spread over the 

 mainland, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Canadian Lakes to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Ocean it crossed the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains, and spread in gloom and grandeur over the valley 

 of the Mississippi an ocean of vegetation swelling and sinking for 

 upwards of one million of square miles. 



" Then all the broad and boundless mainland lav, 



Cooled by the interminable wood, that frowned 



O'er mound and vale, where never summer ray 



Glanced, till the strong tornado broke his way 



Through the gray giants of the sylvan wild ; 



Yet many a sheltered glade, with blossoms gay, 



Beneath the showery sky and sunshine mild, 

 Within the shaggy arms of that dark forest smiled." * 



Prairies which, in their general aspect, resemble those of the 

 Missouri and the Mississippi, are found to the east and west of the 

 American Desert, in Arrisona, in Texas, in California, and various pro- 

 vinces of Mexico. Vegetation, however, nevertheless differs according 

 to the conditions of each region, and the alternatives of deluging rains 

 and extreme dryness become more and more conspicuous as we ap- 

 proach the Equator. Nevertheless and this, perhaps, is the feature 

 most distinctive of the Prairies, or Savannahs, from the Pampas and 

 Llanos the dryness is never sufficiently severe in the former to 

 destroy vegetation, as is the case in the latter. But the herbs and 

 grasses often grow so dry in summer that the most trivial accident 

 such as a lighted match flung carelessly away, or the ashes dropped 

 from a hunter's pipe will kindle the most awful conflagrations, and 

 the flames will spread devouringly over leagues of open ground, con- 

 suming trees and shrubs, and burning to death the cattle or wild 

 animals which haply fall within their range. With the crackling, 

 hissing, seething noises of the fire mingle the groans of the perishing 

 beasts, while huge clouds of smoke roll before the wind, like the 

 * W. C. Bryant, " Poetical Works." 



