Extra Credit Questions

[RJNorton]

Please try without googling. Thanks.

In 1830 Thomas Lincoln moved his family from Indiana to Illinois. He planned to farm the Illinois prairie land.

Years later a well-known writer described Illinois' prairie land as follows:

"Looking towards the setting sun, there lay, stretched out before my view, a vast expanse of level ground; unbroken, save by one thin line of trees, which scarcely amounted to a scratch upon the great blank; until it met the glowing sky, wherein it seemed to dip: mingling with its rich colours, and mellowing in its distant blue. There it lay, a tranquil sea or lake without water, if such a simile be admissible, with the day going down upon it: a few birds wheeling here and there: and solitude and silence reigning paramount around... Great as the picture was, its very flatness and extent, which left nothing to the imagination, tamed it down and cramped its interest."

What was the name of the writer?