68 SPOKT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



the only green to be seen consisted of a few sugar- 

 canes, with faded reddish draperies of creepers 

 among them. The snow was falling when we set 

 out, and the cold was worthy of Siberia or Kam- 

 schatka. At daybreak, however, the weather cleared 

 up. We had then arrived at the mouth of the river 

 Wabash, near the little town of Henderson, and we 

 could perceive that, as far as we could see, the cold 

 had frozen up the lagoons and fish-ponds which 

 abound on these banks, for the air was filled with 

 thousands of water-birds, flying from one bank to 

 another, flapping about over the frozen waters. We 

 let our boat drift among the feathered hosts, and 

 after each broadside many were picked up and sus- 

 pended outside our cabin. 



This sport continued, and on the fourth day we 

 found ourselves within six miles of the confluence 

 of the Ohio and the Mississippi. The former 

 unites itself with the Father of Eivers a little below 

 Creek Eiver, whose banks were shaded by carob 

 trees, maples, and sugar-canes, interlaced with 

 creepers and nettles, looking like an impenetrable 

 wall. Here were large flocks of ducks, teal, coots, 

 grebes, and water-hens. The cold had 'driven these 

 tribes from the north, whence they had come in 

 search of a milder temperature. 



On a tongue of land which juts downwards from 

 the confluence of the Creek and the Ohio, and 

 sheltered by an enormous rock, whose base had 



