334 i2. W, Wells on Prairies. 



Alleghany county.*) Many of those prairies are ten or 

 twelve miles in length, and three or four in width. Will it 

 be pretended that the sides of those mountains were also 

 lakes ? Farther — the most extensive prairies known, are the 

 very high plains immediately west of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and east of the mountains near the sources of the Arkansaw 

 and Missouri rivers, extending even on the spurs of those 

 mountains ; a country the highest perhaps in North America, 

 with a great and continued descent to the Pacific on the one 

 side, and to the Gulf of Mexico on the other. 



The barrens, also, found in Kentucky, are another evidence 

 that water had no agency in their formation — they are situate, 

 it is believed, in the elevated parts of the country exclusively. 



The writer of this, deeming it unnecessary to say more, or 

 to produce more facts, (although much more may be said, and 

 many more facts produced) to prove that prairies were not 

 lakes, will now endeavour to prove that they were occasioned 

 by the combustion of vegetables. 



Prairies are found in those countries only that are congenial 

 to the growth of grass, and only where the soil is sufficiently 

 rich to produce it luxuriantly — they are found commonly on 

 high plains, sufficiently drained to prevent water from re- 

 maining on them the whole year ; for it is by no means 

 necessary that they should be always dry ; on the contrary, 

 if they are sufficiently level to prevent the rains from running 

 off immediately, the grass will grow thicker and higher — but 

 they must be sufficiently dry to burn, at least once in two or 

 three years, during the long, dry season, called Indian sum- 

 mer. It has been universally remarked, that these seasons 

 are much longer as we proceed westerly — commencing usually 

 in October, and continuing a month and a half or two months, 

 during which the vegetation is killed by the frosts, and dried 

 by the sun ; the wet prairies are also dried, and before the 

 season has expired, the grass is perfectly combustible. 



* The proper name of these prairies, and of one of the places where they are 

 found, being illegible in the MS. we were obliged to omit those names ; we be> 

 lieve however that the sense is not injured. — Editor. 



