ge
occupants, and the earliest written accounts we possess of these vast
regions, are from the pens of their missionaries. Many French words
have, consequently, become of local use in this quarter of America, and
not a few names given in that language have been perpetuated. When the
adventurers, who first penetrated these wilds, met, in the centre of the
forests, immense plains, covered with rich verdure or rank grasses, they
naturally gave them the appellation of meadows. As the English succeeded
the French, and found a peculiarity of nature, differing from all they
had yet seen on the continent, already distinguished by a word that did
not express any thing in their own language, they left these natural
meadows in possession of their title of convention. In this manner has
the word "Prairie" been adopted into the English tongue.

The American prairies are of two kinds. Those which lie east of the
Mississippi are comparatively small, are exceedingly fertile, and are
always surrounded by forests. They are susceptible of high cultivation,
and are fast becoming settled. They abound in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois,
and Indiana. They labour under the disadvantages of a scarcity of wood
and water,--evils of a serious character, until art has had time to
supply the deficiencies of nature. As coal is said to abound in all
that region, and wells are generally successful, the enterprise of the
emigrants is gradually prevailing against these difficulties.

The second description of these natural meadows lies west of the
Mississippi, at a distance of a few hundred miles from that river, and
is called the Great Prairies. They resemble the steppes of Tartary more
than any other known portion of Christendom; being, in fact, a vast
country, incapable of sustaining a dense population, in the absence of
the two great necessaries already named. Rivers abound, it is true; but
this region is nearly destitute of brooks and the smaller water courses,
which tend so much to comfort and fertility.

The origin and date of the Great American Prairies form one of natures
most majestic mysteries. The general character of the United States, of
the Canadas, and of Mexico, is that of luxuriant fertility. It would
be difficult to find another portion of the world, of the same extent,
which has so little useless land as the inhabited parts of the American
Union. Most of the mountains are arable, and even the prairies, in this
section of the republic, are