120 Ten Years of TJiy Life. 



we made many excursions, either on horseback or in a carriage, 

 and still more frequently in- a boat on the beautiful Potomac. 

 The valleys of this river above Washington, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the chain bridge, are beautiful, and we passed there 

 sometimes a whole day, taking with us provisions of every kind, 

 and plenty of ice to cool our wine and water, or to preserve 

 our meat, which even when roasted becomes alive in a few 

 hours if that precaution is neglected. There, on the bank of 

 some clear rivulet, bubbling over rocks, lying in luxuriant grass 

 under the shade of dense bushes, we passed many pleasant 

 hours, Mr. and Mrs. Corvin sketching, and I looking on. 



The walks near the Potomac, in the cooler evenings, are 

 delightful. Whole clouds of fire-flies hang, now higher, now 

 lower, over the meadows, studded with larger and more bril- 

 liant glowworms, which were imprisoned sometimes in our 

 hair, so that they formed round our head a circle of stars. 



The loud cicades, w^hich in the daytime scarcely ever inter- 

 rupt their shrill monotonous song, are asleep, and relieved by 

 * the frogs, whose song is far different from the discordant cries 

 of their European cousins, for they seem to come from tiny 

 well-tuned silver bells. Between this pleasant dreamy music is 

 heard at intervals a single sound, as if produced by the cord 

 of a base-viol pinched up between the thumb and index. Then 

 again one is astonished by the mewing of a little cat, coming, 

 however, from some catbirds, awakened by us from their sleep, 

 whilst in the distance is heard occasionally the ' whip-poor- 

 will.' 



On the 4th of July, the greatest festival in the Unit^sd States, 

 we escaped the noise in the stieets, produced by hundreds of 

 thousands of crackers and other fireworks, by making a party 

 to the great Falls of the Potomac, about ten or twelve miles 

 from Washington. It is astonishing that these most pictu- 

 resque Falls are not visited more frequently by the Washington 

 people. Were they situated near a great European city, thou- 

 sands of tourists would constantly make them the aim of their 

 excursions, for they are indeed most wonderiul. It is as if the 

 hands of immensely strong giants had played there with peb- 

 bles, as big as four-story houses, and left them in wild confu- 

 sion. Amongst these stupendous black, sharp-edged rocks 

 rushes down the wide Potomac. One may look for hours on 

 this spectacle and not get tired of it. 



