578 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [October, — : 
area, dates back to the days of the very earliest explorers of the 
Mississippi Valley. Father Hennepin describes the prairies along 
the Illinois River exactly as any other observer would now 
do. He says, “ Elle [the river] est bordée de côteaux [bluffs] 
dont la pente est couverte de bois et de grands arbres. Quand 
on est sur ces côteaux, on découvre de belles préries a perte de 
vûë, garnies d’espace en espace de petits bois, qui semblent avoir 
été plantez exprés.” The distinction between prairie and plain 
is one which has come gradually into existence as the routes of 
the emigrant and the explorer have extended themselves farther 
and farther to the west. Every one knows that the “ Prairie 
States” are those lying contiguous to the Mississippi, on both 
sides, from Minnesota and Wisconsin down to Arkansas, and 
that Illinois and Iowa are typical prairie regions. All under- 
stand what the phrases ‘crossing the plains,” and “ out on the 
plains,” mean; and no Western man would confound the terms 
prairie and plain. When we reach the Rocky Mountains, and 
find grassy areas distributed among the ranges, we learn that 
they are there called ‘ parks ”» ond “holes.” This is true, at 
least, for the central portion of the country, in Colorado and 
Utah ; farther north, in Dakota and Montana, the term prairie 1s 
also in use. 
For our present purpose it is unnecessary to trace the gradual 
disappearance of the forests as we proceed west from the well- . 
wooded region of the Appalachian ranges and the Great Lakes. 
That the distribution of woodland within our territory is in gen- 
eral more influenced by the amount of moisture or the quantity 
of rain which falls than by any other cause is admitted as & fact 
beyond dispute. A comparison of the Smithsonian rain-charts 
with Professor Brewer’s map shows this at once. An interest- 
ing article might be written on the distribution of the forests 
over the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains, but with that 
we have not now to do. It is to the prairie region proper that 
we propose to devote the present article. 
The prairies lie between the forest-covered portion of the 
country and the plains; hence the idea which seems 5° 
fixed in the minds of many, that prairie and plain are the a 
thing ; or, rather, that one is simply passage into the other, ? 
prairie being, so to speak, the incipient plain. It will be ne? : 
sary, therefore, at first, to show that there is an essential ane 
ence between the two kinds of surface, and that their panes 2 
tion is quite accidental, or certainly depending On other ca" 
than those to which it is commonly attributed. 
