560 TliANSACTIOXS OF THE AMERICAN LXSIITVTE. 



and people of means and leisure, as can l>e found in any other part 

 of tlie globe. The first peculiarity on going westward will be the 

 prairies and prairie grass. This grass resembles swamp or salt grass, 

 growing coarse and tall, and it extends westward to the center of 

 Kansas and Nebraska, and from British America into Texas. Hence, 

 it covers a country TOO miles wide and 1,200 miles long. 



As a specimen of the soil on which the grass grows, I present a 

 sample taken from the college farm of the Agricultural college of Kan- 

 sas, at Manhattan, 118 miles west of the Missouri river. I also present 

 a sample of gypsum from near Salina, 184 miles west of the Missouri, 

 where it is found so abundantly that thousands of wagon loads can 

 be obtained from the blufi's of the streams. The prairie grass in this 

 section is superior to that growing west — said to be equal to timothy, 

 and for the reason that there is less rain. Coal is found all through 

 this comitry, and as far west as Fort Ilarker, 218 miles, and I present 

 a specimen which is lignate; it contains neither sulphur nor offensive 

 gas, and it burns wholly to ashes. 



Two hundred miles west of the Missouri, and on the center line of 

 the State of Kansas, the prairie grass wholly disappears, and is suc- 

 ceeded by the buffalo grass, a specimen of which is here presented. 

 It grows from six to eight inches high, is short and densely tufted, 

 sending off stolons or runners, and it flowers in June. It extends 

 from Texas to British America, and to the State line of Kansas on 

 the west; hence it has an area of 1,200 miles from north to south, 

 and 200 miles from cast to west. It is stated that this grass grew 

 abundantly sixty-five mil«s to the eastward of the present limit ; that 

 as the buftalo disappear it disappears also, and that the prairie grass 

 takes its place when frequent rains appear. It would seem from this 

 that the prairie grass gathers moisture, as it well might, since it covers 

 the ground and forms a shade ; hence dews gather, and hence the 

 rain. If this theory is correct, it should follow that the prairies of 

 Illinois were once covered with buftalo grass; that then there were 

 no dews and few showers, and that the disappearance of the buftalo 

 has produced a change in the climate. Tliis buftalo grass, as I saw 

 it in October, had a light color, the same as this sample, was crisp 

 and dry, and gave the whole country, as far as the eye could reach> 

 the ap])earance of a meadow in July, just after the grass is mown. 



We had entered upon this grass about forty miles before any buffa- 

 loes were seen, and they were at quite a distance, in a small herd of 

 fifteen or twenty-five, as quietly feeding as cattle in a pasture. In an 



