STEAMERS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. I I I 



The banks of the " dry outlet '' were very low and very 

 swampy, and were disfigured occasionally by wretched 

 cabins, in which lived human beings, who, the captain 

 of the " Emperor " informed us, lived, as far as he could 

 judge, by sitting upon the head of a barrel and looking 

 out on the landscape, and at his boat as it passed. From 

 the fact that they had no arable land, and looked like 

 creatures fed on unhealthy air, we presume that was 

 their only occupation. 



In time we arrived at the " small village," the des- 

 tination of the -'mail pouch;" ''the passengers" landed 

 and visited the town. It was one of the ruins of a 

 great city, dreamed of by land speculators in "glorious 

 times." Several splendidly-conceived mansions were 

 decaying about in the half-finished frames that were 

 strewn upon the ground. A barrel of whiskey was 

 rolled ashore, the mail delivered, the fat man got out, 

 and the steamer was again under way. 



The " dry outlet " immerged into a broad inland 

 lake, which itself, with a peculiarity of the tributaries 

 of the Mississippi, emptied into that river. Our little 

 boat plunged on, keeping up with untiring consistency 

 all its original pretensions and puflSng, and the same 

 clanking of tiny machinery, scaring the wild ducks and 

 geese, scattering the white cranes over our heads, and 

 making the cormorant screech with astonishment in 

 hoarser tones than the engine itself. 



Occasionally we would land at a " st^uatter's settle- 



