Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/223

 is richer it is true, at the same time the nature of the country, and the proximity of the forests render it much damper. This was also my father's opinion; he thought that [of] the different parts of North America that he had travelled through, during a sojourn of twelve years, the States of Kentucky and Tennessea, and particularly the Barrens, were the parts in which the vine might {150} be cultivated with the greatest success. His opinion was founded in a great measure upon the certainty that the vegetable stratum in the above states lies upon a chalky mass.

The Barrens are circumscribed by a wood about three miles broad, which in some parts joins to surrounding forests. The trees are in general very straggling, and at a greater distance from each other as they approach the meadows. On the side of Tennessea this border is exclusively composed of post oaks, or quercus oblusiloba, the wood of which being very hard, and not liable to rot, is, in preference to any other, used for fences. This serviceable tree would be easy to naturalize in France, as it grows among the pines in the worst of soil. We observed again, here and there, in the meadow, several black oaks, or quercus nigra; and nut trees, or juglans hickery, which rise about twelve or fifteen feet. Sometimes they formed small arbours, but always far enough apart from each other so as not to intercept the surrounding view. With the exception of small willows, about two feet high, selix longirostris, and a few shumacs, there is not the least appearance of a shrub. The surface of these meadows is generally very even; towards Dripping Spring I observed {151} a lofty eminence, slightly adorned with trees, and bestrewed with enormous rocks, which hang jutting over the main road.