50 THE PRAIRIES. 



most parts arrest their progress. Here and there numbers 

 have sprung up. The true prairie region in the United States 

 extends over the eastern part of Ohio, Indiana, the southern 

 portion of Michigan, the southern part of Wisconsin, nearly the 

 whole of the states of Illinois and Iowa, and the northern 

 portion of Missouri, gradually passing — in the territories of 

 Kansas and Nebraska — into that arid and desert region known 

 as The Plains, which lie at the base of the Rocky Mountains. 



The Grand Coteau de Missouri forms a natural boundary to 

 these arid plains. This vast table-land rises to the height of 

 from 400 to 800 feet above the Missouri. Vegetation is very 

 scanty ; the Indian turnip, however, is common, as is also a 

 species of cactus. No tree or shrub is seen ; and only in the 

 bottoms or in marshes is a rank herbage found. Across these 

 desert regions the trails of the emigrant bands passing to the 

 Far West have often been marked : first, in the east, by fur- 

 niture and goods abandoned ; further west, by the waggons 

 and carts of the ill-starred travellers ; then by the bones oi 

 oxen and horses bleaching on the plain ; and, finally, by the 

 graves, and sometimes the unburied bodies, of the emigrants 

 themselves, the survivors having been compelled to push 

 onwards with the remnant of their cattle to a more fertile 

 region, where provender and water could be procured to restore 

 their well-nigh exhausted strength. Oftentimes they have 

 been attacked by bands of mounted Indians, whose war-whoop 

 has startled them from their slumbers at night; and they have 

 been compelled to fight their way onwards, day after day 

 assailed by their savage and persevering foes. 



Civilized man is, however, triumphant at last, and the 

 steam-engine, on its iron path, now traverses that wild region 

 from east to west at rapid speed ; and the red men, who 



