: ; * 
Origin, Extension and Continuance of Prairies. 43 
the face of the earth, that an attempt at escape, “4 the swiftest ani- 
mal, would prove abortive. 
In these regions of natural beauty remote focus civilization, the 
exhausted spirits of the weary pedestrian are enlivened and fatigue 
is allayed, as he beholds the unrivalled charms of these vast prairies 
in their successive seasons of flowering. In May and June, they are 
robed in flowers of white and pale yellow; in July and August, .in 
those of sky blue and red; and in September and October, in others 
of deep blue and brown. Flora has here her paradise of innocence 
and beauty, and vegetable and animal life know nothing of the tyran- 
ny of man. He destroys vegetables and animals, to produce others 
in their stead, and thus maintains a constant warfare with animated 
nature. 
Domestic animals travel less than the beast of the Bis: and their 
journeys, when performed, are not so extensive ; hence they collect 
their food on a smaller and more contracted surface, by which means 
they break down and tread under foot so much of the grass within 
their usual bounds that the fire is either arrested on the borders of 
their range, or runs lightly over it without injury. to the shoots that 
may have come forward the preceding spring. Such circumstances 
favor the introduction of trees, which then immediately appear, and 
as they obtain sufficient size to shade the land, the grass itself is driv- 
en out; the cattle are thus driven toa greater distance from the plan- 
tations in some new direction, where they soon crop the grass, and 
place it beyond the reach of fire. As the cattle recede, they are 
followed by the forest; and so soon as a farm can be enclosed by the 
young trees, the farmer, for the convenience of his stock, moves nearer 
to the prairie ; otherwise, from the receding of the prairie, the cattle 
would seldom return to their home, and perhaps become wild by ab- 
sence. In this way, the prairies of Kentucky have disappeared; and 
those to the west of the Ohio and Mississippi, retreat as the settle- 
ments approach them. Itshould be remembered that some prairie 
are so very level, and retain water so long at the surface, that the 
seeds of trees will perish, and even the roots, if the seed had sprout- 
ed, and the shoots had been burnt, or left standing. 
Hence, you may observe such prairies to continue long after stock 
are turned upon them. So soon as the fires are restrained, trees 
come forth, upon all the prairies that are formed of rolling land, 
