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and of the ratio they bear to the entire population; according to which Compendium there died of the population

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Thus, of the above enumerated 12 States, in which many of those Eastern States are included that are habitually considered far more healthy than the West, as for instance, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, Illinois at once assumes the first rank in point of salubrity; for wherever fewest people die in proportion to the entire population, there human life must undoubtedly be considered safest from the insidious assaults of disease.

We cannot conclude this chapter without once more directing the attention of the settler to the fact, that pure wholesome water is a most important item in the bill of health. He who is no friend of disease, should particularly avoid drinking stagnant water. This can be easily done, for everywhere throughout the State, at a depth of from twelve to twenty-four feet, a large supply of excellent water can be had, and, moreover, the digging of a well is neither a very difficult nor expensive affair. Proper care should be taken to make the well deep enough, walling up its inner side with bricks, or blue clay, to the depth of several feet below the surface, lest the water on the surface of the ground might trickle down in the well, thus wholly frustrating your endeavor to obtain a supply of pure fresh water. Cisterns, if possible, should also be sunk to save all of the rain water from the roofs of the buildings; this, if properly filtered, is not noxious, and is readily drunk

by those accustomed to it. The water of springs, which in many parts of the State are very numerous, is of course to be preferred to all others, provided, however, the springs, from which a supply of water is to be obtained, do not proceed from sloughs, since the water of such springs or rivulets is exceedingly unwholesome.

THE PRAIRIES.

THE most remarkable and striking feature, distinguishing the State of Illinois from the other States of the Union, consists in her extensive prairies, which, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, and forming excellent natural meadows, by reason of which circumstance they received their present name from the earlier French settlers, commence on a comparatively small scale, near Lake Erie, and occupy the chief part of the land about Lake Michigan, the upper Wabash, and the Illinois, predominating in the vicinity of the Mississippi; so that this entire region is, properly speaking, nothing but a vast prairie, intersected by strips of woods, chiefly confined to the banks and the valleys of the rivers. The prairies are characterized by the absence of timber; they present, in other respects, the same varieties of soil and surface that are found elsewhere; some extend in immense level plains, others are rolling, others again broken by hills, while nearly all of them possess an inexhaustible fertility, and but few are sterile.

The prairies of Illinois may be divided into three classes: the alluvial, or wet, the dry, or undulating, and the bushy.

Those denominated alluvial, or wet prairies, are generally on the banks of the rivers, though sometimes at a distance from them; their soil, consisting of a deep stratum of alluvial land upon clayish ground, is black, friable, and of unsurpassed fertility, admirably adapted to the culture of Indian corn and wheat, and even of grapes, as may be judged from the specimens of wild grapes, which in these prairies exhibit a very luxuriant growth, and from the results hitherto known attending the attempts at vine culture, made in several parts of the State.

The dry or undulating prairies have but few springs. In general, the undulations are so slight, that if it were not for the ravines made by freshets, one might suppose that there was no inclination at all. Their fertility varies greatly, the prairie being in general considered the more productive, the more undulating its surface.

The bushy prairies have an abundant supply of wholesome water, and are covered with hazel and furze bushes, together with small sassafras shrubs, interspersed with grape-vines. Many species of gardensage, mug-wort, dogwood, and an exhaustless variety and exuberance of gay, herbaceous plants, also grow on these prairies. Early in March the forests begin to blossom-the Loncera Flava, L., or yellowflowered honeysuckle, and the Jasminum fructicans, or yellow jasmine, diffuse their delicious fragrance through the air, while the red-tufts of the Judas-tree (Cercis Canadensis), unfold their brilliant charms to the eye of the admiring lover of nature.

Of the prairies, the following lines by Captain Basil Hall, an intelligent English traveller, are highly descriptive:

"The charm of a prairie consists in its extension-its green, flowery carpet, its undulating surface, and the skirt of forest whereby it is surrounded; the latter feature being of all others the most significant and expressive, since it characterizes the landscape, and defines the form and boundary of the plain. If the prairie is little, its greatest beauty consists in the vicinity of the encompassing edge of forests, which may be compared to the shores of a lake, being intersected with many deep, inward bends, as so many inlets, and at intervals projecting very far, not unlike a promontory, or protruding arm of land. These projections sometimes so closely approach each other, that the traveller passing through between them, may be said to walk in the midst of an alley overshadowed by the forest, before he enters again upon another broad prairie. Where the plain is extensive, the delineations of the forest in the far background appear as would a misty coast at some distance upon the ocean. The eye sometimes surveys the green prairie without discovering on the illimitable plain a tree or bush, or any other object, save the wilderness of flowers and grass, while on other occasions the view is enlivened by the groves dispersed like islands over the plain, or by a solitary tree rising above the wilderness. The resemblance to the sea which some of these prairies exhibited, was really most striking. I had heard of this before, but always supposed the account exaggerated. There is one spot in particular, near the middle of the Grand Prairie, if I recollect rightly, where the ground happened to be of the rolling character above alluded to, and where, excepting in the article of color, and that was not widely

different from the tinge of some seas, the similarity was so striking, that I almost forgot where I was. This deception was heightened by a circumstance which I had often heard mentioned, but the force of which perhaps none but a seaman could fully estimate; I mean the appearance of the distant insulated trees as they gradually rose above the horizon, or receded from our view. They were so exactly like strange sails bearing in sight, that I am sure, if two or three sailors had been present, they would almost have agreed as to what canvass those magical vessels were carrying. Of one they would all have said, "Oh! she is going nearly before the wind, with top-gallant studdingsails set." Of another, "she has got her canvass hauled up, and is going by the wind." And of a third they might say, "she is certainly standing toward us, but what sail she has set is not quite clear."

In spring, when the young grass has just clothed the soil with a soddy carpet of the most delicate green, but especially when the sun, rising behind a distant elevation of the ground, its rays are reflected by myriads of dew drops, a more pleasing and more eye-benefitting view cannot be imagined. You see the fallow deer quietly feeding on the herbage; the bee flies humming through the air; the wolf, with lowered tail, sneaks away to its distant lair, with the timorous pace of a creature only too well conscious of having disturbed the peace of nature; prairie-fowls, either in entire tribes, like our own domestic fowls, or in couples, cover the surface; the males rambling, and, like turkeys or peacocks, inflating their plumage, make the air resound with a drawled, loud, and melancholy cry, resembling the cooing of a woodpigeon, or still more, the sound produced by rapidly rubbing a tambourine with the finger. The multitude of these birds is so surprisingly great, as to have occasioned the proverbial phrase, "that if a settler on the prairie expresses a desire for a dish of omelets, his wife will walk out at night and place her bonnet on the open ground, to find it full of eggs on her return next morning." The plain is literally covered with them in every direction, and if a heavy fall of snow had driven them from the ground, I could see myriads of them clus tered around the tops of the trees skirting the prairie. They do not migrate, even after the prairie is already settled, but remain in the high grass, near the newly-established farms; and I often saw them at no great distance from human habitations, familiarly mingle with the

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