We have seen that there are "timber prairies" and "flower-prairies." The latter are usually denominated "weed prairies" by the rude hunters who roam over them.

The vast green meadows covered with "buffalo" grass, or "gramma," or "mezquite" grass, are termed "grass prairies." The tracts of salt efflorescence--often fifty miles long and nearly as wide--are called "salt prairies;" and a somewhat similar land, where soda covers the surface, are named "soda prairies." There are vast desert plains where no vegetation appears, save the wild sage-bushes (_artemisia_).

These are the "sage prairies," hundreds of miles of which exist in the central parts of the North American continent.

There are prairies of sand, and "rock prairies," where the "cut-rock" and pebble deposits cover the arid plains; and still another variety, called the "hog-wallow prairies," where the surface for miles exhibits a rough appearance, as if it had been at some remote period turned over or "rooted" by hogs.
Most of these names have been given by the trappers--the true pioneers of this wild region.

Who have an equal right to bestow them?
Scientific men may explore it--topographical officers may travel over it in safety with a troop at their heels--they may proclaim themselves the discoverers of the passes and the plains, the mountains and the rivers, the fauna and the flora--on their maps they may give them the names, first of themselves, then of their _patrons_, then of their friends, and, lastly, of their favourite dogs and horses.