ON THE CAUSE OF THE ABSENCE OF TREES. 697 



this time, however, he concluded that the object he had observed was a spurious 

 one, caused by a double reflection of the light from object-glass and eye-piece. 



With the great twenty-six-inch equatoreal at Washington, a systematic search 

 was commenced, in 1876, for companions of Procyon, a number of observers 

 taking part. Of these, the majority never saw any companion'; two or three 

 were uncertain, while two or three others saw from two to eight companions at 

 different times. 



METEOROLOGY. 



ON THE CAUSE OF THE ABSENCE OF TREES ON THE GREAT 



PLAINS. * 



BY LESTER F. WARD A. M. 



The many fine-spun and often puerile theories that have been advanced by 

 men of greater or less scientific reputation to account for the treeless condition 

 of a large part' of our country, are responsible for the continued prominence of 

 this old and familiaf question. The latest utterance on the subject comes from 

 Prof. Thomas Meehan in the form of a "Note on Treeless Prairies, "f in which, to 

 his credit be it said, he has undoubtedly given the proper solution to the problem, 

 so far as the proper " prairies " are concerned, namely, that they are due in the 

 main to the annual fires that have from time immemorial swept over these areas. 

 This conclusion, however, is far less fresh than the language in which it is announc- 

 ed would imply that he regarded it. Dr. C. A. White, then State Geologist of Iowa, 

 in his annual report for 1870, J expresses his view as follows : "It now remains 

 to say, without the least hesitation, that the real cause of the present existence of the 

 prairies in Iowa is the prevalence of the annual fires. If these had been prevented 

 fifty years ago, Iowa would now be a timbered instead of a prairie State;" and 

 Dr. Alexander W^inchell remarks§ that "The old and popular belief was that 

 which attributed their treelessness to the annual burning of the grass by the 

 Indians." 



Born and raised in the prairie region, I can fully confirm the testimony of 

 these two Western men, and add that this explanation was the only one that I 

 am aware of having ever received any serious attention from the class of practi- 

 cal people whom I was accustomed to hear speak on the subject; all others being 

 dismissed as the efforts of over-learned persons to give some other reason for 

 things than that dictated by plain common sense. The formal ratiocination by 



* Read before the Biological Society of Washington, December 9, 1881. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Feb., 1881. 



X Vol. I, p. 133. 



I Sketches o< Creation, 1874, p. 266. 



