440 AUDUBON 



trees gradually giving way, and falling into the stream. 

 Cattle, horses, Bears, and Deer are seen at times attempt- 

 ing to swim across the impetuous mass of foaming and 

 boiling water; whilst here and there a Vulture or an Eagle 

 is observed perched on a bloated carcass, tearing it up in 

 pieces, as regardless of the flood as on former occasions 

 it would have been of the numerous sawyers and planters 

 with which the surface of the river is covered when the 

 water is low. Even the steamer is frequently distressed. 

 The numberless trees and logs that float along break its 

 paddles, and retard its progress. Besides, it is on such 

 occasions difficult to procure fuel to maintain its fires; 

 and it is only at very distant intervals that a wood-yard 

 can be found which the water has not carried off. 



Following the river in your canoe, you reach those 

 parts of the shores that are protected against the overflow- 

 ings of the waters, and are called levees. There you find 

 the whole population of the district at work repairing and 

 augmenting those artificial barriers, which are several 

 feet above the level of the fields. Every person appears 

 to dread the opening of a crevasse, by which the waters 

 may rush into his fields. In spite of all exertions, how- 

 ever, the crevasse opens, the water bursts impetuously 

 over the plantations, and lays waste the crops which so 

 lately were blooming in all the luxuriance of spring. It 

 opens up a new channel, which, for aught I know to the 

 contrary, may carry its waters even to the Mexican Gulf. 



I have floated on the Mississippi and Ohio when thus 

 swollen, and have in different places visited the sub- 

 mersed lands of the interior, propelling a light canoe by 

 the aid of a paddle. In this manner I have traversed im- 

 mense portions of the country overflowed by the waters of 

 these rivers, and particularly when floating over the Mis- 

 sissippi bottom-lands I have been struck with awe at the 

 sight. Little or no current is met with, unless when the 

 canoe passes over the bed of a bayou. All is silent and 



