1898] BRIEFER ARTICLES 455 
is soon occupied by them. At least some of this is never given back 
to the dominion of the waters. 
With these facts in mind, let us look over the “prairie’’ region 
again, and consider its aspect. The whole section is, as nearly as pos- 
sible, perfectly flat, the slope to the bay being only four feet to the 
mile, and treeless, except for thin and straggling lines of trees which 
are to be seen here and there. ‘The bay is not visible, for there is a 
line of low tree-covered sand dunes which shuts it off from view, and 
which has an exaggerated importance seen across the flat expanse of 
the “prairie.” At times this line of dunes looks almost like a line of 
hills when seen from a distance, yet by actual measurement the highest 
parts are hardly ten feet above the water level. Besides the lines of 
trees mentioned there are visible small groves and scattered groups of 
trees and shrubs, the “islands” in the “ prairie.” In short, the whole 
character of the view suggests that about the southern end of Lake 
Michigan, only here all the surface features are on a much smaller 
scale. 
An inspection of the character of the soil s 
types distributed in the following manner: (1) sandy ridges, often 
continuous for considerable distances, varying from a few inches to 
three or four feet in height above the general level, and rarely more 
than a few rods in width; (2) broader, more or less extensive tracts of 
sandy loam; (3) black, vegetable mold which constitutes the greater 
pat of the prairie soil. 
The sandy strips are the tree-covered portions, the groves and 
islands, and, in the light of the history just discussed, they evidently 
represent dune and sand-spit lines of former days of bay occupation, 
when the sandy loam tracts were shallows and submerged bars; and 
the black mold represents the deeper places which have been filled in 
by the growth and decay of generations of plants under such con- 
ditions that their remains were preserved in part. The Horns of these 
three classes of soil are quite distinct and are all interesting, but that 
of the sandy loam is by far the most peculiar, an¢ is worthy more 
exhaustive study than the writer was able to give it. ine 
Before discussing it, however, I wish to call attention, brie : : 
the plants which characterize the other two classes of soil. The b ea 
Soil is so largely under cultivation that I was unable to ion 
of the higher portions, but in undrained and low places the Ae ets 
as would be expécted, was distinctly limnetic, sedges (especially 
hows three well-defined 
