438 AUDUBON 



happens that the winter is hurried off by a sudden in- 

 crease of temperature, when the accumulated snows melt 

 away simultaneously over the whole country, and the 

 southeasterly wind, which then usually blows, brings 

 along with it a continued fall of heavy rain, which, min- 

 gling with the dissolving snow, deluges the alluvial por- 

 tions of the western country, filling up the rivulets, 

 ravines, creeks, and small rivers. These delivering their 

 waters to the great streams, cause the latter not merely 

 to rise to a surprising height, but to overflow their banks, 

 wherever the land is low. On such occasions the Ohio 

 itself presents a splendid, and at the same time, an ap- 

 palling spectacle; but when its waters mingle with those 

 of the Mississippi, then, kind reader, is the time to view 

 an American flood in all its astonishing magnificence. 



At the foot of the Falls of the Ohio, the water has 

 been known to rise upwards of sixty feet above its lowest 

 level. The river, at this point, has already run a course 

 of nearly seven hundred miles from its origin at Pittsburgh 

 in Pennsylvania, during which it has received the waters 

 of its numberless tributaries, and overflowing all the bot- 

 tom lands or valleys, has swept along the fences and 

 dwellings which have been unable to resist its violence. 

 I could relate hundreds of incidents which might prove 

 to you the dreadful effects of such an inundation, and 

 which have been witnessed by thousands besides myself. 

 I have known, for example, of a cow swimming through a 

 window, elevated at least seven feet from the ground, and 

 sixty-two feet above low-water mark. The house was 

 then surrounded by water from the Ohio, which runs in 

 front of it, while the neighboring country was overflowed ; 

 yet, the family did not remove from it, but remained in 

 its upper portion, having previously taken off the sashes 

 of the lower windows, and opened the doors. But let us 

 return to the Mississippi. 



There the overflow is astonishing, for no sooner has the 



