104 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



day, accompanied by the run away and his fam- 

 ily, he departed from tlie hut, leaving the 

 ibises hung around the walls of the hut, and 

 many a notch in the neighbouring trees as a me- 

 mento of his presence. They then bent their 

 way towards the dwelling of the negro's first 

 master. On arriving there, they were received 

 with the most generous kindness. At the re- 

 quest of Audubon, according to the desire of the 

 fugitives, they were repurchased from their late 

 master, and admitted once again into the be- 

 nevolent planter's family, were ever after regard- 

 ed as a part of it, and gratefully remembered the 

 good fortune which had brought Audubon to 

 them as a guest. 



Rich in interest as are the environs of the 

 Mississippi, not less so is the extraordinary river 

 itself, exhibiting on the recurrence of certain 

 seasons, that truly marvellous spectacle, appall- 

 ing in its splendour, known as a Flood. With 

 the sudden melting of the snow which had en- 

 wrapt the mountains during the severity of 

 winter, an enormous volume of water, turbid 

 and swollen, inundates its broad channels. Its 

 magnitude may be imagined, from the gigantic 

 dimensions of this stream, the course of which is 

 several thousand miles in extent. At the periods 

 of inundation, the waters of the Ohio sometimes 

 mingle with those of the Mississippi, and then it 



