128 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



tre of a small garden-spot and iSeld, and had once been 

 the residence of a squatter — but now deserted for causes 

 unknown to us. The cabin Avas most pleasantly situated, 

 and commanded a fine view of the river both up and 

 down its channel. 



We reached this rude dwelling just as the sun was 

 setting, and his disappearance behind the lowlands of 

 the Mississippi, was indeed glorious. Refracted by the 

 humidity of the atmosphere into a vast globe of fire, it 

 seemed to be kindling up the Cypress trees that 'stretched 

 out before us, into a light blaze, while the gathering 

 clouds extended the conflagration far north and south, 

 and carried it upwards into the heavens. Indeed, so 

 glorious for a moment was the sight, that we almost 

 fancied that another Phagton was driving the chariot of 

 the Sun, and that in its ungoverned course, its wheels 

 were fired ; and the illusion was quite complete, when we 

 heard the distant thunder echoing from those brilliant 

 clouds, and saw the lightning, like silver arrows, flash 

 across the crimson heavens. 



A moment more, and the sun was extinguished in 

 the waters — all light disappeared, and the sudden dark- 

 ness that follows sunset as you approach the tropics, 

 was upon us. 



With the delightful consciousness of having already 

 escaped the storm, we gathered round a pleasant blaze 

 formed of dried twigs, kindled by flashing powder in the 

 pan of an old-fashioned gun. In the meantime, the 



