Its C. Atwaier, Esq on (he 



on the north, to the Mexican Gulf on the south ; from the 

 western foot of the Allegany mountains, to the eastern one of 

 the R(icky mountains, up the Missouri, In summer, the grass 

 which spontaneously covers ihem, feeds immense herds of 

 cattle ; in winter, the hay that is cut on them, with a little 

 Indian corn or maize, feeds and fattens the same herds. Some 

 of these prairies extend as far as the eye can reach ; others 

 contain only a few perches of ground. 



Description of the Barrens. 



But besides these prairies, there are also extensive tracts of 

 counti'y in this part of the Union which deserve and shidl 

 receive our notice ; they are called " Barrens.'" From their 

 appellation, "barrens," the person unacquainted with them 

 is not to suppose them thus called from their sterility, because 

 most of them are quite the reverse. These barrens are found 

 in a level country, with here and there a gentle, rise, only a 

 few feet higher than the land around it. On these little rises, 

 for they are not hills, trees grow, and gr;iss also ; but grass 

 and weeds are the only occupants of the soil where there is 

 no rise of ground. The soil is alluvial to greater or less depth 

 in these barrens, though on some of the highest rises there is 

 little or none ; the lower the ground the deeper the alluvion, 

 On these gentle rises, where there is no alluvion, we find stiff, 

 blue clay, and no pebbles. Under the alluvial black soil, in 

 the lower groi^nds, we find pebbles similar to those in the 

 prairies, owing to similar causes. On the little ridges, wherer 

 ver the land is not too moist, the oak or the hickory has 

 taken possession, and there grows to a moderate height, in 

 clusters. It would seem, that whenever the land had become 

 sufiicieutly dry for an acorn or a hickory-nut to sprout, take 

 root, and grow, it did so ; and from one or more of these trees, 

 in time, others have grown around them in such clusters as we 

 now behold. Where the land is lower, the soil deeper, more 

 moist and more fertile, the grass was too thick, and the soil too 

 wet, for such kind of trees to grow in as were found in the 

 immediate -vicinity. Imagine, then, natural meadows, of 



