On the Prairies and Barrens of the West. 33 
them to approach game without noise, and also to insure a 
good crop of grass for the next summer. 
‘Fires sometimes escape from the camps of travellers in 
the dry season, and burn until the r rain or some other cause 
puts them out. - 
When the white people settle on the barrens or near 
them, the Indians recede, fires are seldom seen, a young 
growth of trees, healthy and vigorous soon springs up, far 
superior to the stinted growth which the frequent fires have 
scorched, and the barren assumes the appearance of a tim- 
bered country.—That the barrens are frequently burned, 
and that when the burnings cease, a young, vigorous growth 
of trees soon springs up, are facts which can be attested by 
the most respectable people in this country. : 
‘Small prairies are sometimes found in the barrens, and 
the prairies near the heads of creeks are so blended with the 
barrens in many places, that it is difficult to determine where 
the one ends or the other begins. 
5. Whatever may be said by Mr. Atwater or Mr. Wells, 
to prove that prairies and barrens were formed by the same 
agent, I shall take the liberty of differing from them both ; 
for in my humble opinion, the difference in the situation, 
appearance, and structure of these natural meadows indi- 
cates in the strongest manner, that they were formed by dif- 
ferent agents. 
Mr. Wells says that, “‘where the grass has been prevented 
from burning by accidental causes, or the prairie has been 
depastured by large herds of domestic cattle, it will assume 
in a few years the appearance of a young forest.” 
If the low wet prairies are not burned, but pastured by 
cattle, will they become forests? If they are now too wet 
to produce trees, when were they dry enough to produce 
them? I say never; and that the same cause that made 
them prairies will keep them such: but if the water is effectu- 
ally drained from them, they may produce trees. 
Mr. Atwater’s views of the Geology of the Western coun- 
try, I think are hardly tenable ; for he says that the lakes 
Erie and Michigan once emptied themselves into the Ohio 
and Mississippi rivers through the Scioto, Miami and Illincis 
rivers ; that the barrens in Ohio are elevated from fifty to 
one hundred feet above the level of the Scioto river ; that 
the whole descent of the Scioto a) be one hundred feet ; 
Von. II.....No. 1. 5 
