The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-01-21
BRANDON, Thursday January 81, 164z

SeII upon prairie 10 Wnlcn urC mas DGCn APP
r piled, he Immediately kindles fire near him
$ and the wind bears the flame onward, burn
J. ing path before him, which he follows to a
s. place Of safety, and thus escapes horrid fate
that but for his sagacity would have been in
= eyltable. A prairie on fire can sometimes be
seen at a distance of fifty miles The fire
continues until the grass is all consumed, and
not unlrequently it is carried by the wind in
: to the adjacent forest, which it blasts and de-
va8tates, until checked by q water-course.-
Early in the spring, the praries renew their
verdant clothing and long before their next
autumnal burning, all vestiges of the pre-
ccdlng confiagrations are gone, unless per-
haps some worm-caten and sapless tree, in one
OF the isIand-like clusters, may show by its
biackened trunk and leailass branches that
the flames have been there.
In no possible condition can the prairies be
seen, without exciting feelings Of peculiar
and most lively interest. They are glorious
ly beautiful or awfully terrible, according to
the times and seasons in which they are be-
held. When viewed in the broad glare of
day. they seem like large lakes, gently undu-
latlng i'll the breeze, and their variegated
flowers fash in the sun like phosphorescent
sparllIes on the surface Of the water. Seen
| by moonlight they appear calm and placed
as the lagunes Of Venice, and the beholder al
most wonders why they do not reflect back
the starry glories Of the sky above them, In
storms, the clouds that hang over them seem
to " come more near the earth than is their
won't in other places, and the lightning
sweeps closely to their surface, as if to NOW
them with a fiery scythe while, as the blast
blows through them, the tall grass bends and
surgcs before it, and gives forth a shrill whis-
ting sound, as if every fibre were a harp
string Of 4Eolus. In the spring they put
forth their rich yerdure, embossed with the
early wildilowers Of many hues spreading
a gorgeous carpcting, which no Turkish fab
ric can equal. AT this season, in the early
dawn while the mists hang upon their bor-
ders curling in folds like curtains, through
which the morning sheds softcncd light,
half revealed half concealed" by the va
pory shadows that float ftfully over the scene
they appear now light, now shaded, and pre-
sent panorama ever varying, frightening
and darkening, until the mistS roll up, and
the uncurtained sun reveals himself in the
full brightness of his rising. In the summer,
the long grass stoops and swells with every
breath Of the breeze, like the waves Of the
heaying ocean, and the bright blossoms seem
| to dance and laugh in the sunshine, as they
toss their candy heads to the rusting music
Of the passing wind. The prairies are how
ever most beautiful when the first tints Of au-
tumn are upon them; when their lovely flow
ers, in ten thousand varieties, are decked in
their gorgeous foliage; when the gold and
purple blossoms are contTased with the en-
crald-green surface and silver Innings Of their
rich leaves, and all The hues of the iris in
every modification, show themselves on all
sides to dazzle, bewider and amaze. Bleak,
desolate and lonely as a Siberian waste, the
prairie exhibits itself in winter, painless and
traClsess one vast cXpanse ofsnoW, seeming
ly spread out to infnity, like the winding
sheet of world
The traveller to the Rocky Mountains may
rise with the early morning from the centre
OF one OF the great praircs, and pursue his
solitary journey until the setting Of the sun,
and yet not reach its confines, which recedG
into the dim, distant horizon, that seems its
only boundary. He will hear however, the
busy hum Of the bee, and mark the myriads
of parti-colored butterflies and other insects
that fit around him he will behold tens Of
thousands Of builaloes grazing in the distance
and the savage bat now peaceful Indian in
tent upon the hunt and he will see troops of
wild horses speeding over the plain, shaking
the earth with their unshod hools, tossing their
free names ike streamers in the wind, and
snorting fercely with distended nostrils; the
fleet deer will now and then dart by him the
wolf will rouse from his lair, and look asEancc
and growl at him and the little prairie dog
will run to the top Of its tiny mound and bark
at him before it retreats tQjts den within it,
No human being may be the companion ofthe
traveller in the immense solitude, vet he will
feel that he is not alone; the wide expanse is
| pOpulous with myriads Of creatures ; and, in
the emphatic language Of the red man, " The
GREAT SPIRIT is upon the Prairie !"
LoADsToNE ON LAKE SUPERIOR. The
editor Of the Detroit Advertiser has received
letter from j. Uoughton Jr. stating that
among the many discoveries which have been
made in the Mineral Regions Of Lake Su-
perior during the past season, there has been
one which is Of great interest to the man Of
science. 1t is the discovery Of native Load
stone, a variety Of the electromagnetic iron
ore. 1t was discovered by Bella Hubbard
Esq. who was carrying on geological in con-
necton with United States linear survey
and who has collected the only specimens ey-
err obtained in that region lie was led to the
discovery by noticing the great hucttatonsin
the bearing Of the magnetic needle. Its To-
cality is Middle Island, which is two miles
Northwesterly from Presque Isle. The Is
land is granite, trayersed by dykes of green
stone trap, in two Of which (haying course
nearly north and soutb,) the Loadstonc was
found 1t is crystalline or granular struc-
ture, and might by slight examination be talk
en- for variety of granite. 1t exhibits po-
larity, the opposite sides of the same specimen
attracting and rcpclling the north end Of the
needle, 1t also attracts iron filings. The
Loadstone of different portions Of these dykes
was observed to exhibit different powers of
magnetism.
THE LONELY TAPER. There has always
been to me something ineXpressibly touching
in the Sinulc taper BURNING throuoh the lone