OF NEW ENGLAND. 383 



"A few observations on the mode of flight of these birds 

 must not be omitted. The appearance of large detached bodies 

 of them in the air, and the various evolutions they display, are 

 strikingly picturesque and interesting. In descending the Ohio 

 by myself in the month of February, I often rested on my oars 

 to contemplate their aerial manoeuvres. A column, eight or 

 ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky, high in air, 

 steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this great body 

 would sometimes gradually vary their course, until it formed a 

 large bend of more than a mile in diameter, those behind trac- 

 ing the exact route of their predecessors. This would continue 

 sometimes long after both extremities were beyond the reach 

 of sight, so that the whole with its glittery undulations, marked 

 a space on the face of the heavens resembling the windings of 

 a vast and majestic river. "When this bend became very great, 

 the birds, as if sensible of the unnecessary circuitous course 

 they were taking, suddenly changed their direction, so that 

 what was before in column became an immense front, straight- 

 ening all its indentures, until it swept the heavens in one vast 

 and infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also united 

 with each other, as they happened to approach, with such ease 

 and elegance of evolution, forming new figures, and varying 

 these as they united or separated that I was never tired of con- 

 templating them. Sometimes a Hawk would make a sweep on 

 a particular part of the column, from a great height, w'hen, 

 almost as quick as lightning, that part shot downwards out of 

 the common track ; but soon rising again, continued advancing 

 at the same height as before ; this inflection was continued by 

 those behind, who on arriving at this point dived down, almost 

 perpendicularly, to a great depth, and rising followed the exact 

 path of those that went before. * * *." 



'' Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to pur- 

 chase some milk at a house that stood near the river, and while 

 talking with the people within doors, I was suddenly struck 

 with astonishment at a loud rushing roar, succeeded b}' instant 

 darkness, which, on the first moment, I took for a tornado 

 about to overwhelm the house and every thing around in de- 



