100 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



single trees, that a century ago startled the silence now 

 so profound, and with their headlong crash sent through 

 the green arch above sounds that for a moment silenced 

 the echoing thunder that loaded the hurricane that i3ros 

 trated them. 



Here were to be seen the ruins of a new continent — 

 herftwere mouldering the antiquities of America — how un- 

 like those of the Old "World. Omnipotence, not man, had 

 created these wonderful monuments of greatness, with no 

 other tears than the silent rain, no other slavery than 

 the beautiful laws that govern nature in ordering the 

 seasons — and yet these monuments, created in inno- 

 cency, and at the expense of so much time, were wasting 

 into nothingness. God above in his power could erect 

 them. They were breathed upon in anger and turned to 

 dust. 



The vast extent of the Mississippi is almost beyond 

 belief. The stream which may bear you gently along in 

 midwinter, so far south that the sun is oppressive, finds 

 its beginnings in a country of eternal snows. Follow it 

 in your imagination thousands of miles, as you pass on 

 from its head waters to its mouth, and you find it flow- 

 ing through almost every climate under heaven : nay 

 more — the comparatively small stream on which you 

 look, receives within itself the waters of four rivers 

 alone ; Arkansas, Red, Ohio, and Missouri ; whose 

 united length, without including their tributaries, is 

 over eight thousand miles. Yet, tliis mighty flood is 



