ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA. 163 



and broad patches of brushwood, which appeared 

 mere dark specks on the immense extent of plain 

 that lay before us, covered with grass of the brightest 

 green, and so long as to reach up to our horses' 

 shoulders. To the right was a plantation of pal- 

 mettos, half a mile wide, and bounded by a sort of 

 creek or gully, the banks of which were covered with 

 gigantic cypress-trees. Beyond this, more prairie and 

 a wood of evergreen oak. To the east, an impene- 

 trable thicket of magnolias, papaws, oak and bean 

 trees ; to the north, the pine wood before mentioned. 

 Such was the rich landscape we had been sur- 

 rounded by a short hour before. But now, on 

 looking around, we found the scene changed ; and 

 our horizon become far more limited by rising clouds 

 of bluish grey vapour, which approached us rapidly 

 from the wind quarter. Each moment this fog ap- 

 peared to become thicker ; the sun no longer dazzled 

 our eyes when we gazed on it, but showed through 

 the mist like a pale red moon ; the outlines of the 

 forest disappeared, veiled from our sight by masses 

 of vapour ; and the air, which during the morning 

 had been light and elastic, although hot, became 

 each moment heavier and more difficult to inhale. 

 The part of the prairie that remained visible pre- 

 sented the appearance of a narrow misty valley, 

 enclosed between two mighty ranges of grey moun- 

 tains, which the fog represented. As we gazed 

 around us and beheld these strange phenomena, our 



