The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986 Page: 425
610 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Settlement and Environmental Change in Texas
range grass species dominated the vegetation. Large woody plants oc-
curred as mottes or lined the upper floodplains of rivers and creeks,
with canebrakes extending along their lower reaches. This zone ex-
celled in "peach and cane" soil suited for cotton and sugarcane. Game
animals, such as prairie chickens and white-tailed deer, were common,
and during the winter months the region's bays and marshlands became
a veritable nation of geese as wintering waterfowl funneled in from
northern breeding areas. Hunters favored this habitat throughout
the 18oos.
The rolling or undulating prairie zone, a western extension of the
Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain, lay behind the coastal lowland and be-
came more clearly discernible as one traveled westward from the Trin-
ity River. Commentators remarked how abundant game was, and how
the overstory of the southern pine and hardwood belt marking East
Texas was bisected by clearings and then by larger and larger prairies
as the traveler forded the north-south running rivers and came within
sight of a higher line of hills demarcating the Balcones Escarpment.
They named oaks, hickories, cypresses, and walnuts as excellent tim-
ber, and drew attention to fructiferous plants, including native vines,
which provided edible grapes, berries, and nuts. Small birds, squirrels,
even butterflies and flowers drew attention in this vast region of East
and East Central Texas.
West of the Colorado River lay the "mountain" region of Texas. Rela-
tively little was known about this elevated plateau-an extension of
three physiographic provinces: the interior lowlands of the Mississippi
Valley, the Great Plains, and Basin and Range country that extended
into the Trans-Pecos. To early visitors, mountain Texas was home for
enormous populations of bison, pronghorn antelope, and mule deer,
and for the equally fleet wild Indians. Some praised the clear, tumbling
waters of rivers that had incised courses through this open and rugged
zone. Others described grasslands-mesquite grasses for fodder-or
spoke glowingly of minerals locked up in remote hills and mountains.
Much less information about this third zone appeared in print in the
183os and i84os, partly because few people lived there, and those who
traveled through were looking ahead to destinations in California, in
2 David J. Schmidly, Texas Mammals East of the Balcones Fault Zone (College Station, Tex., 1983),
12-14; and Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission, Principal Game Birds and Mammals of
Texas: Their Distribution and Management (Austin, 1945), 3-4; [Lawrence], Texas in I84o, 24-25;
Holley, Texas, 51 (quotation), ioo.
'Schmidly, Texas Mammals, 4-12; Doughty, Wildlife and Man, 9-16.425
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 89, July 1985 - April, 1986, periodical, 1985/1986; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117151/m1/495/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.