Rocky Mountains, 335 



bluffs or banks, afford some diversity to its aspect; and the 

 bluffs in particular, of the principal streams, being cut by 

 numerous ravines, contribute in many places to give the sur- 

 face a hilly and broken appearance. Although no part of this 

 region can with propriety be denominated hilly, especially 

 when compared with the portions of country above consider- 

 ed, yet upon the Wisconsan, Fox, the head-waters of Rock 

 and Melwakee rivers, the country is considerably diversified 

 with hills, or rather swells and vallies. The only hills worthy 

 of particular notice, not only in this variety, but in the whole 

 section under consideration, are the Ocooch and Smoky 

 mountains, which are broad and elevated ridges, rather than 

 mountains. The former is situated about twelve miles north 

 of the Wisconsan, one hundred miles above its mouth, and 

 the latter about forty miles south of the portage between the 

 river just mentioned, and Fox river of Green Bay. The 

 rivers of most note within this region, are the Wabash above 

 the hilly country, before described, the Kaskaskias, Illinois, 

 Rock and Wisconsan, tributary to the Mississippi, the Fox 

 of Green Bay, the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, and the 

 Maumee and Sandusky tributary to Lake Erie. These rivers 

 are all navigable for boats of ten to fifteen tons burden, when 

 swollen by spring freshets, but during the greater part of the 

 summer and fall, they have not a sufficient depth of water to 

 be navigable for boats of burden, and in winter their naviga- 

 tion is entirely obstructed by ice. The spring freshets, con- 

 sequent to the melting of the snow and ice, usually take place 

 in the month of March, the southerly streams being open for 

 navigation much earlier than those in the north. 



The Prairies or Savannas east of the Mississippi, are 

 mostly situated in this particular region, occupying at least 

 three-fourths of it. These are waving or flat tracts of country 

 of greater or less extent, separated from each other by nar- 

 row skirts of woodland situated upon the margins of rivers 

 and creeks. They are generally possessed of a rich soil, 

 yielding a spontaneous growth of grass and other herbage of 

 a luxuriant appearance. They are well adapted to the culti- 

 vation of corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, &c., of which they 

 yield plentiful crops. 



The prevailing opinion, in regard to this portion of the 

 country, viz. that it is unhealthy, appears too well founded 

 to admit of refutation. The causes that contribute to render 

 it so, are very obvious. A large proportion of the prairies, 

 are so flat, that much of the water deposited upon them by 

 showers, remains stagnant upon the surface, till it is carried 



