great areas of upland--not
alone in the prairie country of northern Indiana and Illinois, but in
the hilly regions within a hundred miles of the Ohio--that were almost
treeless. On these unobstructed stretches grasses grew in profusion; and
here roamed great herds of herbivorous animal-kind--deer and elk,
and also buffalo, "filing in grave procession to drink at the rivers,
plunging and snorting among the rapids and quicksands, rolling their
huge bulk on the grass, rushing upon each other in hot encounter, like
champions under shield." Along the watercourses ducks, wild geese,
cranes, herons, and other fowl sounded their harsh cries; gray
squirrels, prairie chickens, and partridges the hunter found at every
turn.

Furthermore, the forests, as a rule, were not difficult to penetrate.
The trees stood thick, but deer paths, buffalo roads, and Indian trails
ramified in all directions, and sometimes were wide enough to allow two
or three wagons to advance abreast. Mighty poplars, beeches, sycamores,
and "sugars" pushed to great heights in quest of air and sunshine, and
often their intertwining branches were locked solidly together by a
heavy growth of grape or other vines, producing a canopy which during
the summer months permitted scarcely a ray of sunlight to reach the
ground. There was, therefore, a notable absence of undergrowth. When a
tree died and decayed, it fell apart piecemeal; it was with difficulty
that woodsmen could wrest a giant oak or poplar from its moorings and
bring it to the ground, even by severing the trunk completely at the
base. Here and there a clean swath was cut through a forest, for perhaps
dozens of miles, by a hurricane. This gave opportunity for the growth of
a thicket of bushes and small trees, and such spots were equally likely
to be the habitations of wild beasts and the hiding-places of warlike
bands of redskins.

There were always adventurous pioneers who scorned the settlements and
went off with their families to fix their abodes in isolated places.
But the average newcomer preferred to find a location in, or reasonably
near, a settlement. The choice of a site, whether by a company of
immigrants wishing to establish a settlement or by an individual
settler, was a matter of much importance. Some thought must be given to
facilities for fortification against hostile natives. There must be
an adequate supply of drinking-water; and the location of innumerable
pioneer dwellings was selected w