144 BEAVERS. 



husks, that shield it from the heavy rain hy night, 

 and the dew by day, and defend it from the depre- 

 dation of such hirds as live on grain. We may 

 pause for a few moments, to notice the peculiarities 

 of this important vegetable, which growing fre- 

 quently on windy hills, and exposed to the extreme 

 of cold and heat, requires a singular organization. 

 We would ask of those who believe only what they 

 can understand, why it is that a plant thus circum- 

 stanced, is so constructed, while the splendid yellow 

 calyx of the Cactus grandiflora holds forth an open 

 goblet to catch the dew of heaven; or even why it is 

 that plants of the same species springing from the 

 same soil, cherished by the same dew, warmed by 

 the same sun, and passed over by the same breeze, 

 should present such a variety of colours; that in 

 one plant the tints are blue, in another red, in 

 a third, crimson, in a fourth, variegated? Here is 

 a phenomenon for the naturalist to solve, for every 

 plant is nourished by its sap, and the sap is a 

 colourless fluid, drawn up from the moisture of the 

 earth. 



Beavers still abound on either side of the yellow 

 and turbid Mississippi, at that point especially where 

 the quiet waters of the Ohio seem to be swallowed 

 up and lost in its rapid and turbulent current. The 

 forests that shadow it are deep and gloomy, swarm- 

 ing with innumerable mosquitoes, and the banks are 

 overgrown by enormous nettles. The traveller who 

 stands within view of the junction of those magnifi- 

 cent rivers, impressed as they are with the peculiar 

 character of the regions from which they descend, 

 would suppose that he might embrace at one glance 



