Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/306

 The earth here, in summer, is covered with a luxuriance of vegetation, which, together with the absence of varied scenery, sicken the eye, and heart of the traveller. In some places one can, after a shower, almost hear the earth teem. The very atmosphere seems fattening to the cattle; and garden weeds grow in great profusion upon the uncultivated grounds. The cane, which grows here, bears a wide leaf, like those of herds grass; and for cattle it is palateable, and nourishing. The stalk of the cane is used for angling poles, and for making chairs, looms, &c.

I now suppose myself on the banks of the Mississippi. The average width of this river is about a mile, and its length, from the mouth of the Ohio, is {194} about twelve hundred miles. It contains a great many islands, some of which are several miles in length, and its course is very serpentine. Owing to the soil in its vicinity being alluvian, it frequently changes its course. Sometimes its tributaries inundate the whole country on both sides of it. The banks of the river are generally a little higher than the adjacent country; the water, therefore, which rises over them never returns, but passes off into the swamps. These swamps are very extensive, and being incapable of cultivation, will ever render the climate of this part of the country insalubrious. During freshets the water of the Mississippi breaks through points of land of the width of many leagues. By these inundations vast trees are uprooted, carried into the main channel of the river, and there lodge. In consequence of these circumstances the navigation of the river is very dangerous. Hundreds of boats, laden with valuable cargoes, are annually wrecked, and destroyed here. Here too, sudden squalls, attended with severe thunder and lightning, are frequent. Even on the Ohio, there is, at times, such an undulation of the water, as to render being in a small boat very dangerous. Upon the