84 BIG SPRING PRAIRIE. 



the first year. The herbs become more abundaut the 

 second year and tree seedlings also make their ap- 

 pearance at this time. 



On Map I, between the Seneca Wyandot County 

 line and new road No. 2, there is indicated the location 

 of one of the most extensive thickets or embryo forests 

 on this prairie. Figure 19 gives a view of this thicket 

 from the southwest. The larger trees to the right are 

 cottonwoods. In the Autumn of 1891 or 1892, a severe 

 prairie fire originated from a spark from a Hocking Val- 

 ey engine. As a result the sod and soil were burned away 

 to a depth of one to two feet. The year after the fire, 

 mosses and annual herbs appeared, succeeded the next 

 year by seedling cottonwoods and willows. 



In 1899, the circumferences of three willows at 

 one foot above the ground were as follows: 11 in., 14 in. 

 and 15 in.; of eight cottonwoods were 12 in., 13 in., 

 14 in., 16 in., 16 in., 17 in., 17 in. and 18 in. Those of 

 less dimentions were very numerous, thus showing that 

 all the seedlings did not make their appearance the same 

 year. In the latter part of the eighties, a prairie fire 

 burned quite a depression near the railroad, just across 

 from the wooded bay (W. B). The trees sprang up 

 only around the margin. In 1899, the trees, chiefly 

 cottonwoods and willows, were from 7 to 14 in. in di- 

 ameter. 



A short distance northeast from the woods which 

 presents such excellent examples of exposed roots 

 from the settling of soil, as shown so strikingly in fig. 

 2 and 3, there stood in 1899, a thicket of cotton- 

 woods, trembling aspen, and willows. This area had 

 been burned over some years before, and the largest 

 trees were from 15 to 20 feet high, while there were 

 all gradations down to dense patches of seedlings of 

 the season of 1899. In the autumn of this year, the 

 writer had the opportunity of noting the effect of prairie 

 fire on young tree."^. A prairie fire burning only the 



