Note 41 — Chapter VII · Prairies in Minnesota and Iowa.—Boulders.—Glacial Drift.—Wild Rice.—Snow Storm.—Nebraska.—The Pawnees.—Human Sacrifices.—Note on Indian Customs in War and Cannibalism.—Prairie Fires.—Prairie-Dog Villages.—Rattlesnakes.—Variations in the succession of growths of Trees.—Causes of absence of Trees upon Prairies.—Shoshone Indians on the Western Deserts.—Note upon Ute Indians and Fuegians.

After my return to England I happened to discuss this subject with Colonel Yule, who had just then completed his work of editing the Travels of Marco Polo. He told me that when he was in Burmah, Lord Dalhousie, who was at that time Governor-General of India, sent him into the interior to visit the forests of Aracan.

He found within them several large clearings, and observed that the new growths were of a different character from the old trees and were invariably bamboos. He also saw amongst the mountains many deciduous trees which were quite bare of leaves whilst their branches were covered with brilliantly coloured flowers.

Upon another occasion Dr. Rae, who had passed much of his life in the Hudson Bay Territories and became known by his discovery of the relics of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, mentioned to me that he had frequently seen that when trees had been uprooted, raspberry bushes sprang up in their place thus showing that their seeds must have been in the ground. Dr. Joseph Norwood, Assistant Geologist, in his report of the survey of the region west of Lake Superior, undertaken in 1847, states that from facts which had come under his observation, he was led to believe that, “if after the clearing of the pine forests, the annual fires cease, a growth of oak springs up in some places and aspen in others.” (Owen’s Geological Survey, pp. 296). In British Columbia the ancient forest pines are often succeeded by cedars or alders.