located on the borders of streams which the fire cannot pass,
are only exposed to one-half the fires to which they would be exposed,
but for such protection. This tends to show, at least, that if but
one-half the fires that have occurred had been kindled, the arboraceous
growth could have withstood their destructive influences, and the whole
surface of what is now prairie would be forest. Another confirmatory
fact, patent to all observers, is, that the prevailing winds upon the
prairies, especially in the autumn, are from the west, and these give
direction to the fires. Consequently, the lands on the westerly sides of
the streams are the most exposed to the fires, and, as might be
expected, we find much the most timber on the easterly sides of the
streams."

[Illustration: A Section of the Grand Prairie in Benton County, Indiana,
which extends west to Peoria, Illinois.]

Local observation in Benton County, Indiana, which is purely prairie
throughout, would seem to confirm the judge's view. Parish grove, on the
old Chicago road, was filled with springs, and a rather large spring on
the west side of the grove, supplied water for the horses of the
emigrants and travelers who took this route to the northwest in the
early 40's. Besides this, the grove was situated on rather high uplands,
where the growth of grass would be much shorter than on the adjoining
plain. It is probable that this spring on the west side, and the springy
nature of the highlands back of it, kept the ground moist and the
vegetation green, and these facts, coupled with the fact that the grass
as it approached the uplands, would grow shorter, probably retarded and
checked the prairie fires from the southwest, and gave rise to the
wonderfully diversified and luxuriant growth of trees that was the
wonder of the early settler. Sugar grove, seven miles to the northwest
of Parish grove, and a stopping place on the old Chicago road, lay
mostly within the point or headland caused by the juncture of Sugar
Creek from the northeast, and Mud Creek from the southeast. Scarcely a
tree is on the southwestern bank of Mud creek, but where it widens on
the south side of the grove, it protected the growth of the forest on
the northern side. Turkey Foot grove, east and south of Earl Park,
formerly had a lake and depression both on the south and west sides of
it. Hickory Grove, just west of Fowler, in the early days, had a lake or
pond on the south and west. The timber that