A CITY OF THE DEAD. 215 



the interminable succession of rocks resembles the massive monuments 

 of antiquity; nor are turrets wanting, nor flying buttresses, nor grace- 

 ful arches, nor vaulted portals, groups of columns, fa9ades, and taper 

 spires. If at one place the eye lights upon the ruins of a feudal for- 

 tress, at another it surveys the graceful ensemble of a Saracenic 

 mosque. Or you might almost say, in the distance, that it is a fan- 

 tastic " city of the dead " which looms before you ; or the gigantic 

 palace of a race of unseen beings, fashioned by the power of spell 

 and enchantment. And if the illusion vanishes when, descending 

 from the heights, you penetrate into the mazes of this Dcedalian 

 marvel, the reality is not less calculated to inspire you with astonish- 

 ment, and the imagination remains confused before this wild, this 

 grand, yet ominous freak of Nature ominous, for the place seems 

 like a colossal Golgotha, and the rocks may be the monuments conse- 

 crated by invisible hands to the things and creatures, the life and 

 majesty, of a forgotten Past ! 



A spectacle unexpected by the European traveller comes at intervals 

 to heighten and confirm the illusion. Here and there are reared con- 

 structions of manifest human work, but of a truly primitive character. 

 They consist of four poles, supporting a rude platform of wicker. 

 Mount any adjacent hillock, and you will see corpses and human 

 skeletons outstretched upon the platform. These constructions are, 

 in truth, the burial-places of the Sioux Indians, who wander still in 

 the neighbouring districts. 



The whole coast of the Mexican Gulf, from the Pearl River east- 

 ward, through Alabama and a great part of Florida, is occupied by 

 the so-called "pine barrens," which extend far into the interior. 

 These "vast monotonous tracts of sand, covered with forests of 

 gigantic pine trees," are not less a characteristic feature of North 

 America than the " rolling prairies." They are not limited to this 

 part of the United States, but occur to a great extent in Virginia, 

 North Carolina, and elsewhere. Tennessee and Kentucky, though the 

 plough has passed over extensive areas, still possess large forests, and 

 the Ohio flows for hundreds of miles among patriarchal trees, with a 



