Re: Meaning of "les Illinois" (WAS Kalm fruittrees planted in lines)

From: Todd A. Farmerie (farmerie_at_interfold.com)
Date: 02/04/05 

Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 01:12:59 -0700

Daryl Krupa wrote:
> Kalm later on Audgust 7 recounts the description of
> "Mr. de Verandrier (or de Verendrye)" of some odd
> stones that they had found standing up or piled
> on one another in the prairie grass (west of
> the Mississippi, I suppose),

IIRC, what is now western Illinois was mostly prairie when first
surveyed for sale in the early 1800s. (For each square plot, the
survey indicated the distance and direction to the nearest tree
in each of the four quadrants, when viewed from the center. Most
of these nearest trees match with the nearest watercourse, where
the moisture and erosional depression would have provided a
degree of protection from the prairie fires, started from
lightening strikes or intentionally set by the natives.)

taf