VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 135 



Beneath these sandstone cliffs, and through the 

 wide expanse of the vast prairies, flows that stupen- 

 dous river, which has heen already mentioned, and 

 which collects in its progress of more than 3000 

 miles the waters of a hundred rivers: 



To whose dread expanse, 



Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course, 

 Our floods are rills. With unabated force, 

 In silent dignity they sweep along, 

 And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds 

 And fruitful deserts, worlds of solitude, 

 Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, 

 Unseen and unenjoyM. Forsaking these 

 O'er peopled plains they fair diffusive flow 

 And many a nation feed, and circle safe 

 In their soft bosoms many a happy isle. THOMSON. 



The Mississippi is the one great river into which the 

 others pour their tributary waters, and so vast is its 

 extent that he who commences his voyage up the 

 river at New Orleans in the spring, will leave be- 

 hind him blossoming shrubs and flowers; and out- 

 travelling the progress of the season, he will find the 

 forest-trees that shadow the Ohio just beginning to 

 expand. In returning, too, at Autumn, a beauti- 

 fully graduated and inverted scale is equally ap- 

 parent. When the trees at Pittsburgh are bared by 

 the frost, those of Cincinnati will be in the yellow 

 leaf, while at Natchez the orchards appear in their 

 summer livery. The mighty valley through which 

 the Mississippi flows, and to which it lends a name, 

 is equally productive and extensive. The Creator 

 has not poured such a noble river through a barren 

 land. The soil is deep, and capable of the richest 

 culture, and here and there round and rough 



