Origin, Extension and Continuance of Prairies. 43 



the face of the earth, that an attempt at escape, by the swiftest ani- 

 mah, would prove abortive. 



In these regions of natural beauty rennote from civilization, the 

 exhausted spirits of the weary pedestrian are enlivened and fatigue 

 is allayed, as he beholds the unrivalled charms of these vast prairies 

 in their successive seasons of flowering. In May and June, they are 

 robed in flowers of white and pale yellow ; in July and August, in 

 those of sky blue and red ; and in September and October, in others 

 of deep blue and brown. Flora has here her paradise of innocence 

 and beauty, and vegetable and animal life know nothing of the tyran- 

 ny of man. He destroys vegetables and animals, to piroduce others 

 in their stead, and thus maintains a constant warfare with animated 

 nature. 



Domestic animals travel less than the beast of the forest, and their 

 journeys, when performed, are not so extensive ; hence they collect 

 their food on a smaller and more contracted surface, by which means 

 they break down and tread under foot so much of the grass within 

 their usual bounds that the fire is either arrested on the borders of 

 their range, or runs lightly over it without injury to the shoots that 

 may have come forward the preceding spring. Such circumstances 

 favor the introduction of trees, which then immediately appear, and 

 as they obtain sufficient size to shade the land, the grass itself is driv- 

 en out J the cattle are thus driven to a greater distance from the plan- 

 tations in some new direction, where they soon crop the grass, and 

 place it beyond tfee reach of fire. As the cattle recede, they are 

 followed by the forest; and so soon as a farm can be enclosed by the 

 young trees, the farmer, for the convenience of his stock, moves nearer 

 to the prairie ; otherwise, from the receding of the prairie, the cattle 

 would seldom return to their home, and perhaps become wild by ab- 

 sence. In this way, the prairies of Kentucky have disappeared ; and 

 those to the west of the Ohio and Mississippi, retreat as the settle- 

 ments approach them. It should be remembered that some prairies 

 are so very level, and retain Vi^ater so long at the surface, that the 

 seeds of trees will perish, and even the roots, if the seed had sprout- 

 ed, and the shoots had been burnt, or left standing. 



Hence, you may observe such prairies to continue long after stock 

 are turned upon them. So soon as the fires are restrained, trees 

 come forth, upon all the prairies that are formed of rolling land. 



