SUBSIDING OF THE WATERS. 107 



misery of a lingering doom midst the desolation 

 of the earth. 



With the subsiding of the waters, at length 

 carried to the ocean, a thick deposit of loam is 

 left on those parts which the flood has visited ; 

 from which, in warm weather, an exhalation like 

 a dense fog arises. Extraordinary are the trans- 

 formations effected by the inundation. Large 

 streams appear where none were supposed to 

 exist. Sand banks whirled by the waters have 

 been deposited in fresh places, and trees have 

 disappeared from the margin of streams, while 

 the upper portions of islands appear like a bul- 

 wark of floating trunks and branches. Soon, 

 however, all is fresh life and vigour. Lamenta- 

 tion for the devastations is exchanged for activity 

 in repairing them. 



The settler shoulders his rifle and searches the 

 morass in the hope of discovering some of his 

 scattered possessions. New defences are raised 

 and new habitations erected. Lands are ploughed 

 and fresh crops are raised. Yet many a dis- 

 appointment and many a mis-adventure im- 

 pends from the catastrophe, and many a traveller 

 finds a bank of sand which, seemingly secure, 

 suddenly gives way beneath his horse, which it 

 engulphs to the chest, leaving his master not in 

 the situation he would choose. 



During several weeks these floods rise at the 



