106 AUDUBON" THE NATURALIST, 



the destruction of their houses by the current. 

 Boats are tossed Hke playthings by the waters^ 

 and even the steam-vessels groan, distressed by 

 the number of logs and branches, which float 

 alongside, impeding their course. 



Here and there along the shore, the entire pop- 

 ulation of a district congregate to strengthen 

 and repair the artificial barrier or leveC; as it is 

 called, several feet above the general level of the 

 ground, which prudence has raised as a defence 

 against the overflow. Yet sometimes, in spite 

 of all exertions, a crevace or channel opens, and 

 the water bursting in, lays waste all the crops 

 lately luxuriating in the bloom of spring. In 

 the vast tracts of the interior country, over- 

 whelmed by the waters, all is silent and melan- 

 choly. The mournful bleating of the deer alone 

 is heard, or the dismal scream of the ravens or 

 eagles, which, brooding over the desolation, allay 

 their ravenous appetites on the wretched rem- 

 nants of the catastrophe. Bears, cougars, and 

 lynxes crouch among the topmost branches of 

 the trees, glaring down with ferocious, restless 

 glance ; for, agonized perhaps with the pangs of 

 hunger, though beholding around them abun- 

 dance of animals as their prey, they dare not 

 brave the glistening sheet of waters beneath. 

 At such times they would quietly stand the 

 hunter's fire, preferring instant destruction to the 



