to one hundred feet above the level of the Scioto river, into which the streams that have their sources in this tract of country generally run. This land lies so level that the waters stand on it too long for grain to thrive equally with grass, unless, indeed, the farmer should dig a long drain, which is easily effected by the plough, with a little assistance from the hoe and the spade. But as nature seems to have intended this tract of country for the raising of cattle instead of grain, the husbandman has listened to the suggestion, and in this great barren are found some thousands of the finest cattle which the State affords. Here the horse, the ox, and the swine feed, thrive, and fatten with little expense to their owner; but sheep do not, and never will, thrive on prairie grass, or wet grounds. Fruit-trees, the peach, the apple, the plum, &c. do very well when planted on the gently rising grounds, where the hickory or the oak had once stood. Fruit-trees, such as have been named, thrive very well also on the dry prairies. On the eastern side of the Allegany mountains there neither is, nor was there ever, any thing like these prairies and barrens, if we except those found in the western part of New-York, in the Genesee country, and in the vicinity of the lakes in that quarter. These, the writer of this saw nearly thirty years since, and before that country was much settled. Those prairies were similar in appearance to ours in the west, and were, beyond doubt, formed by similar means. _Speculations on the Origin of the Prairies and Barrens._ What were the causes which contribute to form these natural meadows? That water was the principal agent in their formation, we very little doubt; but this is not the common opinion. According to that opinion, our prairies and barrens, and especially the latter, were occasioned entirely by the burning of the woods by the Indians, in order to take the wild game. Let us try this opinion by the indubitable appearances exhibited by these prairies and barrens.