Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/154

 *gable to a great distance. No doubt, in time, towns will be built at the confluence of those rivers, as is the case on the Ohio at this day. With Mr. Bradbury, I amused myself in making remarks upon the appearance of different spots, as we glided rapidly past them; seated on the stern of the boat from morning till night, we had no other mode of passing the time. At no great distance below White river, the Black bluffs begin—a barren and miserable country for nearly an hundred miles along the river: there are scarcely any bottoms, and the bluffs in most places without even a covering of [197] grass. What the country may be, at some distance from the river, I do not know; but certainly as it respects the margin of the stream, I see no likelihood of any settlements ever being formed along it; there must consequently be a hiatus between the settlements which may hereafter be made above, and those below. Yet we contemplated this part of the country with much pleasure, for its wild and romantic appearance. Descending in the middle of the river, we had a much better view than when we came up, being then compelled by the swiftness of the current to choose either one side or the other. In some places, the hills rose to the height of mountains; nothing was wanting but some old ruined castles, to complete the sombre, yet magnificent amphitheatric landscapes. It contributed much to our amusement, to observe the herds of buffaloe, ascending and descending by a winding path.

Towards evening the sky became dark and lowering, the hollow sounding wind, and the feeble distant flashes of lightning, with a frightful redness around the edges of the horizon, foretold an approaching storm. Our oarsmen [198] exerted themselves to their utmost, to reach some woody point, behind which we might seek a shelter. But in vain—the bleak and dreary bluffs continued on each side, and the lurid darkness of the coming storm was fast obscuring