192 PRAIRIE PASTURE. 
These great steppes seem only fitted for the 
haunts of the mustang, the buffalo, the ante- - 
lope, and their migratory lord, the prairie In- 
dian. Unless with the progressive influence 
of time, some favorable mutation should be 
wrought in nature’s operations, to revive the 
plains and upland prairies, the occasional fer- 
tile valleys are too isolated and remote to be- 
come the abodes of civilized man. 
Like the table plains of Northern Mexico, 
these high prairies could at present only be 
made available for grazing purposes, and that 
in the vicinity of the water-conrses. The 
grass with which they are mostly clothed, is of 
a superior quality. The celebrated ‘buffalo 
grass’ is of two kinds, both of which are species 
of the grama of New Mexico, and equally nu- 
tritious at all seasons. It is the same, I be- 
lieve, that is called ‘mezquite grass’ in Texas, 
from the mezquite tree which grows there in 
the same dry regions with it. Of this unequal- 
led pasturage the great western prairies atford 
a sufficiency to graze cattle for the supply of 
all the United States. It is particularly adapt- 
ed to sheep-raising, as is shown by example 
of the same species in New Mexico. 
But from the general sterility and unhabita- 
bleness of the Prairies is excepted, as will be 
understood, that portion, already alluded to, 
which borders our western frontier. The up- 
lands from the Arkansas boundary to the 
Cross Timbers, are everywhere beautifully in- 
terspersed with isolated prairies and glades, 
many of which are fertile, though some are 
