OCR Text |
Show 1836- 1837I F/ agg's Far West 233 stillness around, methought there were there notes of sweetness not before observed. The whole scene lay calm and quiet, as if Nature, if not man, recognised the Divine injunction to rest; and the idea suggested itself, that a solitary Sabbath on the wild prairie, in silent converse with die Almighty, might not be all unprofitable. [ 215] " Sweet day, so cool, so calm, ao bright, The bridal of the earth and sky, Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to- night, For thou must die." 1M From the centre of the prairie the landscape rolled gracefully away towards the eastern timber, studded along its edge with farms. The retrospect from beneath the tall oaks of the prairie over which I had passed was exceedingly fine; the idea strikes the spectator at once, and with much force, that the whole plain was once a sheet of water. Indeed, were we to form our opinion from the appearance of many of the prairies of Illinois, the idea would be irresistible, that this peculiar species of surface originated in a submersion of the whole state. There are many circumstances which lead us to the conclusion that these vast meadows once formed the bed of a body of water similar to the Northern lakes; and when the lowest point at the Grand Tower on the Mississippi was torn away by some convulsion of nature, a uniform surface of fine rich mud was left. The ravines were ploughed in the soft soil by subsequent floods, and hence, while the elevated lands are fertile, those more depressed are far less so. The soil of the prairies is of a character decidedly alluvial, being composed of compact strata of loam piled upon each other, like that at the bottom of bodies of water long stagnant The first stratum is a black, pliable mould, from two feet to five in depth; the second a red clay, amalgamated with m George Herbert- FLAOG. |