Word for 'prairie'?

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004, Alan Hartley wrote:
> And from my forthcoming Lewis & Clark lexicon:
>
> PRAIRIE  A treeless, grassy area, ranging in area from a few acres to
> many square miles, from a meadow to the Great Plains. Prairie was
> originally a French word for ?meadow?.
>
> a <Small Preree on the Larbd. Side> [12 Dec 03 WC 2.130]
>
> the first 5 miles of our rout laid through <a beautifull high level and
> fertile prarie which incircles the town of St. Louis> [20 May 04 ML
> 2.240]
>
> Camped in a <Prarie on the L. S.> composed of good land and plenty of water
> roleing & interspursed with points of timbered land, <Those Praries are
> not like those?E. of the Mississippi> Void of every thing except grass,
> they abound with Hasel Grapes & a wild plumb?I Saw great numbers of Deer
> in the Praries [10 Jun 04 WC 2.292]
>
> <on the South Side is a beuautiful <Bottom prarie>> which will contain about
> 2000 acres of Land covered with wild rye and wild potatoes. [10 Jul 04
> JO 9.023]
>
> crossed thro: the plains?with the view of finding Elk, we walked all day
> through those praries without Seeing any [20 Jul 04  WC  2.397]
> those Indians are now out in the praries?Hunting the buffalow [20 Jul 04
> WC 2.399]
>
> The <Prairie are not as one would suppose from the name, meadows or
> bottoms[,]> but a sort of high plain?without timber?This Prairie ground
> extends from the Wabash to the Mountains [Nicholas Biddle in Jackson
> Letters (ed. 2) 2.507]

There seems to be a certain assumption that a prairie ought to be along a
river, or, as it is often said, in a bottom.  See added <> above.  Of
course, except in the Biddle quotation, it could be argued that a voyage
along a stream imposes a chance collocation of prairie and streamside,
while the 20 Jul 04 quotation from LC seems not to involve a streamside.
Of course, the progression from streamside to grassland in general may
have begun in LC's usage or at least be attested there in early form.

On the other hand I notice that Biddle even seems to assume that the term
meadow implies streamside.  I think that the early Colonial period,
several centuries earlier than this, the 1600s say, coincided with the
development of something called a water meadow in England, which I
understand to be an irrigated area (along a stream) deliberately kept in
grass and used to raise fodder.

I may easily be wrong in the streamside reading of prairie, as my reading
in the matter is definitely not as extensive or attentive as yours, Alan,
and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this stated anywhere in so many words,
though, on the other hand, I think it must have been tolerably clear for
me to pick up on it!  I don't recall my original context, sadly.