ii6 Frederick Law Olmsted 



panse of polished steel, which at once shamed all my previ- 

 ous conceptions of the appearance of the greatest of rivers. 

 Coming closer to the edge and looking downward, you see 

 the lower town, its roofs with water flowing all around 

 them, and its pigmy people wading, and laboring to carry 

 upward their goods and furniture, in danger from a rising 

 movement of the great water. Poor people, emigrants 

 and niggers only. 



I lay down, and would have reposed my mind in the in- 

 finite vision westward, but was presently disturbed by a hog 

 which came grunting near me, rooting in the poor turf of 

 this wonderful garden. I rose and walked its length. Little 

 more has been done than to inclose a space along the edge, 

 which would have been dangerous to build upon, to cut out 

 some curving alleys now recaptured by the grass and weeds, 

 and to plant a few succulent trees. A road to the lower 

 town, cutting through it, is crossed by sHght wooden foot- 

 bridges, and there are some rough plank benches — adorned 

 with stenciled ' ' medical ' ' advertisements. Some shrubs are 

 planted on the crimibHng face of the cliff, so near the top 

 that the swine can obtain access to them. A man, bearded 

 and smoking, and a woman with him, sitting at the extreme 

 end, were the only visitors except myself and the swine. 



