The Indians, it is presumed, (and the writer, from a residence in their country and with them, is well acquainted with their customs) burn the woods, not _ordinarily_ for the purpose of taking or catching game, as suggested by Mr. A. but for many other advantages attending that practice. If the woods be not burned as usual, the hunter finds it impossible to kill the game, which, alarmed at the great noise made in walking through the dry grass and leaves, flee in all directions at his approach. Also the Indians travel much during the winter, from one village to another, and to and from the various hunting grounds, which becomes extremely painful and laborious, from the quantity of briers, vines, grass, &c. To remedy these and many other inconveniences, even the woods were originally burned so as to cause prairies, and for the same and like reasons they continue to be burned towards the close of the Indian summer. Woodland is not commonly changed to prairie by one burning, but by several successive conflagrations; the first will kill the undergrowth, which causing a greater opening, and admitting the sun and air more freely, increases the quantity of grass the ensuing season: the conflagration consequently increases, and is now sufficiently powerful to destroy the smaller timber; and on the third year you behold an open prairie. Ordinarily, all the country, of a nature to become prairie, is already in that state; yet the writer of this has seen, in the country between the Missouri and Mississippi, after unusual dry seasons, more than one hundred acres of woodland together converted into prairie. And again, where the grass has been prevented from burning by accidental causes, or the prairie has been depastured by large herds of domestic cattle, it will assume, in a few years, the appearance of a young forest. Numerous proofs of this fact can be adduced, but a few shall suffice. The vicinity of St. Louis and St. Charles affords instances. Both these beautiful places are situated on what are termed first and second bottoms, or flats--the former on the Missisippi, the latter on the Missouri; the second or upper bottoms, in both, are high plains, that commence within a few hundred yards of the rivers, and extend back many miles; all the old French inhabitants will tell you, that the prairies formerly came immediately up to those places. Now the surrounding country for several miles is covered with a growth of trees of four or five inches diameter, near the towns where the burning first ceased, and gradually diminishing in size as you recede, until you at length gain the open prairies. So the barrens in Kentucky; many of the first settlers of that state distinctly recollect when many of those barrens were clear prairies, now partially covered with small trees. It is deemed unnecessary to offer more proofs, or additional arguments, in support of the opinion that the prairies were occasioned by _fire_, and not by _water_. Indeed one glance at