Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/371

Rh some time, nothing remarkable. Presently, however, on the Missouri bank rose up, close to the river, perpendicular cliffs, the walls of which presented the most remarkable imagery in bas-relief, sometimes, also, in high relief, of altars, urns, columns and pyramids, porticoes and statues, which it is difficult to persuade one's self are chiselled by the hand of nature, and not of art. These remarkable rocky walls occur at various places, but detached, and only along the Missouri shore.

Thus, still proceeding southward down the Mississippi, we arrived at the embouchure of the Ohio. The scenery here is expansive and flat. The clear blue Ohio, “the beautiful river,” flows calmly and confidingly into the turbid Mississippi-Missouri, as the serene soul of one friend into the disquieted mind of another. The banks of both rivers are overgrown with brushwood. The whole region has a mild and cheerful appearance. A little deserted and desolate settlement lay, with its ruinous houses, upon the point between the two rivers. It was called Cairo. It was intended for a great trading town; but had been found so unhealthy that, after several unsuccessful attempts, it had been finally abandoned.

The Asia turned her course majestically eastward, from the Mississippi up the Ohio, between the two States of Ohio and Kentucky. The Ohio river is considerably smaller than the Mississippi, the shores are higher, and more wood-covered. The river is clear and beautiful. One sees first along the banks trees being felled, and log-huts; then come farms, and lastly, beautiful country-houses upon the hills, which increase in height and in degree of cultivation. The trees become tall and beautiful on each side the river, and in their leafy branches may be observed green knots and clusters which, in the distance, look not unlike birds' nests. These are mistletoe, which here grows luxuriantly. The views now expand, the trees become more scattered, the hills retire backwards,