While  I  have  endeavored  in  the  preceding
pages  to  give  the  reader  some  general  idea  w
life  upon  the  Prairies,  I  feel  that  I  have  wholly
failed  thus  far  to  convey  any  adequate  notions
of  their  natural  history,  I  propose  in  the  fol-
lowing pages  to  repair  this  deficiency  as  far
as  I  am  able,  and  to  present  a  rapid  sketch  of
the  vastness  of  those  mighty  territories ;  of
their  physical  geography ;  and  of  the  life,  as
\^ell  vegetable  as  animal,  which  they  sustain.
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  ample  field  for
observation  should  have  received  so  httle  of
the  consideration  of  scientific  men ;  for  there


OBSAT  WBSTERN  PRAIRIBS.  179

is  scarcdy  a  province  in  the  whole  wide  range
c€  Natme's  unexplored  domains,  which  is  so
worthy  of  study,  and  yet  has  been  so  little
studied  by  the  natural  philosopher.
T£  we  look  at  the  Great  Western  Prairies,
independently  of  the  political  powers  to  which
portions  of  them  respectively  belong,  we  shall
find  them  occupying  the  whole  of  that  exten-
sive territory  lying  between  the  spurs  of  the
Rocky  Moimtains  on  the  north,  and  the  rivers
of  Texas  on  the  soutii — a  distance  of  some
seven  or  eight  hundred  miles  in  one  direction ;
and  from  &e  frontiers  of  Missouri  and  Arkan-
sas on  the  east  to  tlie  eastern  branches  of  the
southern  Rocky.  Mountains  on  the  west^ —
about  six  htmdred  miles  in  the  transverse  di-
rection: the  whole  comprising  an  area  of
about  4Q0,000  square  miles,  some  30,000  of
which  are  within  the  original  limits  of  Texas,
and  70,000  in  those  of  New  Mexico  (if  we
extend  them  east  to  the  United  States  bound-
ary), leaving  about  300,000  in  the  territory  of
the  United  States.
