A Book of the United States. Various
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the upland; sometimes, however, there is an interval of wet ground covered with bushes, or a swamp between them and the upland. They are wet, and usually too soft to bear a wagon. Similar meadows are sometimes found several miles from any salt meadows or salt water, and generally at the heads of rivers, where the face of the country is level. These meadows bear a general resemblance, all being covered with wild grass, varying in height from twelve to thirty-six inches, according to the quantity of water in the soil; the more water there is, the more rank becomes the growth of the grass, until flags and rushes take its place. The meadows are much lower than the upland, and were evidently formed by the agency of water, depositing an alluvion composed of the fine particles from the high grounds, and decayed vegetable matter. When drained by means of ditches, they become hard, will produce cultivated grass, and even trees, and will in a few years lose all their former features, except their low situation and level aspect.
The soil of this section is to a great extent sandy; very light therefore, and sometimes barren, more especially near the coast, where there are much marsh land, and extensive swamps. In many places these swamps are covered with an impenetrable growth of timber, especially of the cypress, and some species of the pine, which are favored by the deep clayed soil, with its rich annual deposit; Louisiana, towards the sea, exhibits a great breadth of this country through its whole extent. Along the rivers a rich clay is found in considerable quantities; many fertile spots are likewise interspersed among the sands, and the land generally improves as it approaches the mountains. The best soil is in the central portions of the slope. In the alluvial district of Louisiana the soil is, for the most part, deep and rich; it is also strong and vigorous on the Red river. Along the range of the Apalachian Mountains a thin and poor soil prevails, mingled, however, with many rich and productive valleys. In the northern portion of it is a considerable extent of hilly, flinty, and consequently barren land.
When we cross the mountains, and come to the slope descending to the Mississippi, we survey a large extent of country almost universally fertile, and divided, as we have before mentioned, into the thickly timbered, the barren, and the prairie country. In the first division every traveller remarks a grandeur in the form and size of the trees, a depth of verdure in the foliage, and a luxuriance of growth of every sort, that distinguish this country from other regions. The trees are large, tall, and rise aloft free from branches, like columns. In the richer lands they are generally wreathed with a drapery of ivy, bignonia, grape vines, or other creepers. Intermingled with the foliage of the trees are the broad leaves of the grape vines, with trunks occasionally as large as the human body. Sometimes the forests are entirely free from undergrowth; at others, the only shrub is the graceful and splendid papaw; but often, particularly in the richer alluvions of the south, beneath the trees, are impenetrable cane brakes, and a tangle of brambles, briars, vines, and every sort of weed.
The country denominated barrens has a very distinct and singular configuration. It has usually a surface gently undulating, in long and uniform ridges. The soil is generally of a clayey texture, of a reddish or grayish color, covered with tall, coarse grass. The trees are thinly scattered, seldom either large or dwarfish. They are chiefly oaks, and have an appearance peculiar to the region they inhabit. The general quality of the land seldom exceeds the third rate; but in the proper latitudes, it is favorable to the growth of wheat and fruit trees. On the little elevations of the barrens, trees and grass grow; but grass and weeds are the only occupants of the low grounds. The soil of the barrens is alluvial to a greater or less depth, though on some of the highest points there is very little; and the lower the ground the deeper the alluvion. On the elevations, when there is no alluvion, a stiff blue clay is found, without pebbles. On the little ridges, where the dampness is not too great, the oak or the hickory has taken possession, and there grows to a moderate height in clusters; on the low lands the soil is too wet and the grass too thick for such a growth.
The barrens then are natural meadows, covered with tall coarse grass, varying in extent and figure, with here and there a piece of elevated ground, decked with a cluster of trees; add to this, a reddish stream running through ground but little lower than the surrounding plain, and you have the picture complete. There are large districts of this description in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama; they are common in Illinois and Missouri, and are found more or less over the whole valley of the Mississippi. This region and the bushy prairies, abound in those singular cavities called sink-holes, which are generally in the shape of inverted cones, from ten to seventy feet in depth, and at the top from sixty to three hundred feet in circumference. Willows and other aquatic vegetables grow at the sides and bottom. There is little doubt that these cavities are caused by running waters, which find their way through the limestone cavities beneath the upper stratum of the soil.
The remaining surface is that of the prairies, and this is by far the most extensive. These may be classed under three general divisions, though they have great diversity of aspect; the heathy, or bushy; the alluvial, or wet; and the dry, or rolling prairies. The bushy prairies seem to be intermediate between the barrens and the alluvial prairies. They have springs, abound in bushes and shrubs, with grape vines, and in the summer with a great variety of flowers; the bushes are often overtopped with the common hop vine. Prairies of this description are very common in Illinois, Mississippi, and Indiana, and they occur among the other prairies to a considerable distance towards the Chippewayan Mountains. The dry prairies are for the most part without springs, and destitute of all vegetation except weeds, flowering plants, and grass. To the sight they are nearly level, but their inclination is proved by the quick motion of the water courses. This class of prairies is by far the most extensive. Here are the haunts of the buffaloes, and here the traveller may wander for days without wood or water, and the horizon on every side sinking to contact with the grass.
The alluvial or wet prairies form the last and smallest division. They occur generally on the margins of water courses, though they are sometimes found with all their distinctive peculiarities, far from the points where waters run at present. They are commonly basins, and their outline is strongly marked; their soil is black, deep, friable, and wonderfully rich. Native grasses spring on them in singular luxuriance, rising to a great height, but they are too loamy for the cultivated grasses. In proper latitudes they are excellent for wheat and maize. Still more than the rolling prairies, they appear to the eye a dead level, though they have slight inclinations and depressions; yet from the general equality, and immense amount of vegetation, small ponds and bayous are formed there, which fill from the rivers and rains, and are only exhausted during the intense heats of summer, by evaporation.
In the alluvial prairies that are connected with the rivers, these ponds are filled in the season of high waters with fish of various kinds; as the water becomes low, and their course connecting with the river become dry, the fish are taken by cartloads among the high grass, where the water is three or four feet deep. When the waters evaporate, the fish die, and thousands of buzzards are unable to prevent them from polluting the air. This decayed matter seriously affects the salubrity of the climate.
Along these rich plains, herds of deer are seen, flying with the rapidity of the wind, or feeding quietly with the domestic cattle. In the spring and autumn, water-fowl in innumerable flocks hover about the ponds and lakes of these prairies, to feast on the oily seeds of the plants and grasses. During the months of vegetation, the richer prairies are blooming with flowers, of whose variety, number, forms, hues, and odors, description can furnish no adequate idea. Most of the prairie plants have tall and arrowy stems, with spiked or tassellated heads, and the flowers have great size, gaudiness and splendor, without much delicacy or fragrance. In the spring their prevailing color is bluish purple; in mid-summer, red mingled with yellow; in autumn, the flowers are large, generally of the helianthus shape, and of a rich golden color.
The northern shores of Lake Ontario and Erie, the western shore of Lake Huron, and the general surface of the valleys of the Ohio, the Illinois, and the Mississippi, afford a highly productive soil. More to the southward, the extended valley of the Tennessee is one of the most fertile portions of the republic; and the same fertility extends itself beyond the Mississippi below the Missouri, until it is checked by the Ozark Mountains, whose productive portion is confined to the valleys. To the west of these mountains, and of the Missouri, the soil becomes less and less fertile, till we reach the Great American Desert, which has already been described. The eastern shores of Lake Michigan, and the southern coast of Lake Superior, are either sandy or rocky,