ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA. 177 



boat, he lighted them, doing everything with such 

 extraordinary deliberation, and so oddly, that in spite 

 of our unpleasant situation we could scarce help 

 laughing. Meantime the boat pushed off with two 

 men in it, leaving Carleton, myself, the old man, 

 and another American, standing at the edge of the 

 swamp. 



" Follow me, step by step, and as if you were 

 treading on eggs," said our leader ; " and you, 

 Jonathan, have an eye to the strangers, and don't 

 Avait till they are up to their necks in the mud to 

 pick them out of it." 



"We did not feel much comforted by this speech ; 

 but, mustering all our courage, we strode on after our 

 plain-spoken guide. 



We had proceeded but a very short distance into 

 the swamp before we found out the use of the 

 torches. The huge trunks of the cypress - trees, 

 which stood four or five yards asunder, shot up to 

 a height of fifty feet, entirely free from branches, 

 which then, however, spread out at right angles to 

 the stem, making the trees appear like gigantic 

 umbrellas, and covering the whole morass with an 

 impenetrable roof, through which not even a sun- 

 beam could find a passage. On looking behind us 

 we saw the daylight at the entrance of the swamp as 

 at the mouth of a vast cavern. The further we went 

 the thicker became the air ; and at last the effluvia 

 was so stifling and pestilential, that the torches burnt 



VOL. VI. JI 



