A TASTE OF KENTUCKY BLUE-GRASS 233 



their gaunt skeletons "blistering in the sun or 

 blackening in the rain. Through southern In- 

 diana and Illinois I noticed this same lazy, 

 ugly custom of getting rid of the trees. 



The most noticeable want of the blue-grass 

 region is water. The streams bore under- 

 ground through the limestone rock so readily 

 that they rarely come to the surface. With 

 plenty of sparkling streams and rivers like New 

 England, it would indeed be a land of infinite 

 attractions. The most unsightly feature the 

 country afforded was the numerous shallow 

 basins, scooped out of the soil and filled with 

 stagnant water, where the flocks and herds 

 drank. These, with the girdled trees, were 

 about the only things the landscape presented 

 to which the eye did not turn with plea- 

 sure. Yet when one does chance upon a spring, 

 it is apt to be a strikingly beautiful one. 

 The limestone rock, draped with dark, dripping 

 moss, opens a cavernous mouth from which in 

 most instances a considerable stream flows. I 

 saw three or four such springs, about which one 

 wanted to linger long. The largest was at 

 Georgetown, where a stream ten or twelve feet 

 broad and three or four feet deep came gliding 

 from a cavernous cliff without a ripple. It is 

 situated in the very edge of the town, and could 

 easily be made a feature singidarly attractive. 

 As we approached its head, a little colored girl 

 rose up from its brink with a pail of water. I 

 asked her name. "Venus, sir; Venus." It 

 was the nearest I had ever come to seeing 

 Venus rising from the foam. 



