Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, W.T. [i.e. Wis.]) 1843-1844, 1844-02-10
BURNING PRAIRIES.

BURNING PRAIRIES.
We copy the following thrilling &C.
count Of the praries on fire, from Mr..
Catlin's "Notes of North American In
dians;"-
The prairies burning form some Of
the most beautiful scenes that are TO be
witnessed in this country, and also
some Of the most sublime. Every
acre Of these vast prairies being COW
cred for hundreds and hundreds Of
miles, with crop Of grass, which dies
and dries in the falD burns over during
the fall, or early in the spring, leaving
the ground OF black and doleful col
or. There are many modes by which
the fire is communicated 10 them, both
by white men and by Indians--par
accident; and yet many more where it
is voluntarily done for the purpose Of
getting fresh supply of grass, for the
grazing of their horses, and also Cor the
easier travelling during the next sum
mer, when there will be no old grass
20 lie upon the prairics, cntangling the
feet of man and horse as they are pas
sing over them. Over the elevated
lands and prairie bluffs, where the grass
is thin and short, the fire creeps with a
feeble flame, which one can easily step
over; where the wild animals often rest
in their lairs, until the flames almost
burn their noses, when they will reluc-
family rise, and leap over it, and trot
off among the cinders, where the fire
has passed, and left the ground as black
as Jet. These scenes at night become
indescribably beautiful, when their
flames are seen at many miles distance,
creeping over the sides and the tops of
the bluffs, appearing 10 be sparkling
and brilliant chains Of liquid fire (the
hills being los, TO the view hanging
in graceful fcstoons from the skies.
But there is another character Of the
burning prairies that requires another
letter, and different pen 10 describe
the war, or hell of fires where the
grass is seven or eight feet high, as is
often the case for many miles together,
on the Missouri bottoms; and the
flames are driven forward by the hur-
ricaues, which often sweep over the
vast prairies of this denuded country.
There are many ofthese meadows on
the Missouri, the Platte, and the Ar
kansas, of many miles in breadth,
which are perfectly level, with wa
wing grass, so high, that we are obliged
10 stand erect IN our slirrups, in order
10 look over its waving tops as we are
riding through il. The fire in these,
before such wind, travels at an i'm
mense and frighilul rate; and often de-
strov, on thei ilceteSt horses, parties
of Indians, who are 50 unlucsy as 10
be overtaken by it, not that it travels
as fast as horse at full speed, but that
the high grass is filled with wild pea
vines and other impcdimentS, which
renders il necessary for the rider 10
guide his horse in the zg-zlg paths OF
the deer and buhllocS, rctardirg his
progress. until he is overiaken by the
dense column of smoke that is swept
before the iire-alarming the horse,
which stops, and stands terrified and
immoveable, till the burning grass
which is waited in the wind, falls A.
bout him, kindling up in a moment 4
thousand fires, which are instantly
wrapt in the swelling flood Of smoke
that is moving on like black thunder
cloud. rolling on the earth, with its
lghtniug's glare, and its thunder rum
bling rs II goes.
When Ba'uste, and Bogard, and /,
and Patrick Raymond, who, like Bog
ard. had been a free ,rapper in the
Rocky Mountains, and Pah me-o-ue-
qua The Red Thunder, our guide
from a neighsoring village, were jog