Prairies and Barrens of the West. 1 21 



in order to take game. Erroneous ioforrnation first propagated 

 such an opinion, and blind credulity has extended it down to 

 us. Another opinion, equally groundless, prevails to a consi- 

 derable extent ; and that is, that these prairies have all been 

 heretofore cultivated by the aborigines, and that the grass hav- 

 ing overspread these plains, prevented the growth of trees oq 

 them. The Indians, it is to be presumed, never cultivated 

 any other grain than maize, or Indian corn, and yet we see- 

 few or no corn-hills in any part of this country. In the west- 

 ern part of New- York, before it was settled by its present, 

 inhabitants, thousands and thousands of acres were to be seen, 

 where the trees were as large as any in the forest, and yet the 

 rows of corn-hills were plainly discernible. I refer in a par- 

 ticular manner to what is now called Cayuga county. There 

 the growth of grass had not prevented the growth of trees, nor 

 did it here. We know that some of these prairies were culti- 

 vated by the Indians, but never to any very considerable 

 extent. This country never was thickly settled by Indians, 

 like the shores of the Atlantic and the banks of the rivers run- 

 ning into it. No, it was the ancestors of the Peruvians and 

 the Mexicans who lived here in great numbers, before they 

 migrated to South America. 



The question then recurs, by what powerful means were 

 these prairies and barrens formed ? 



That water was the principal agent, we infer from the factj 

 that the soil is always alluvial to greater or less depth ; the 

 former we call prairie, the latter barren. But how could the 

 country from the southern shore of Lake Erie to Chillicothe, 

 a distance of more than one hundred and fifty miles from north 

 to south, ever be covered with water long enough to form, 

 alluvial soil, in many places from four to six feet in depth ? 1 

 answer, that the Niagara river, the present outlet of Lake Erie, 

 has worn away several hundred feet, and in that way the lake. 

 is lowered in the same proportion. The high land, composed 

 entirely of sand, originally extending from the Ohio northerly 

 upwards of forty miles, to Chillicothe, has been worn through 

 by the Scioto river ; and the waters which once for ages- 

 covered the whole coiyitry north of the hills along the Ohio 

 Vot. I No. S. 1? 



