7'elating to the Vale of the Mississippi. 63 



the appearance of a moving forest. This extraordinnry tnotion of 

 the water, so wedged together the logs, that a complete bridge was 

 formed across, and along the river as far as the eye could reach. 



In the above case, the backward current, alternating with the 

 downward stream, produced by the repetition of the Heavings, which 

 took place in the river, each Throw brought upon its back, from a 

 vast depth, sand, fossil coal, and the river, and carried all to a con- 

 siderable height before the confined air escaped, and the convul- 

 sion ceased. While this mountain of sand, coal and water was 

 going up, and during its stay, the river was running down the sides, 

 alike, to the north, and to the south; the boats and the timbers, on 

 the south side experienced occasional vollies which continued to 

 drive them with irregular velocity in the same direction ; but it 

 was otherwise on the northern or upper side ; here the current,' 

 when it had descended, united with the accumulated waters above, 

 and with inconceivable violence returned back, upon the yielding 

 of the heave. These billows of convulsive nature, repeatedly oc- 

 occurred in the course of thirty or forty minutes ; when the boats, 

 trees, coal, and sand that Were at, or near the summit of this mountain 

 wave, retreated and pitched headlong into the yawning abyss be- 

 neath, where they now sleep in silence and darkness. Had a thick 

 stratum of rock above the confined air formed the bed of this 

 river, a mountain would have been made ; and a rampart formed 

 which would have driven the Mississippi out of its bed, and caused 

 it to have sought a channel beyond the limits of this mighty bulwark. 



Will this river ever lose its primitive character? Should the vale and 

 adjacent country, be raised by future upheavings of earthquakes, so 

 as to give the Mississippi its second and final heave, and should it thus 

 become, like the other rivers of America, fixed within impassible 

 shores, the principal mountain may be formed in the fork of the Ohio, 

 and Mississippi, throwing these rivers out of their present channels, 

 extending the throw along the vale, obliterating the Mexican Gulf, 

 and Carribean sea, and receiving into her bosom the great Antilles. 

 The coal beds then exhibited here, would probably equal those 

 of Pittsburg in quality ; and for quantity would more than equal all 

 the beds of the United States. 



But waving hypothetical considerations as to what may be ; and 

 considering what now exists, or soon will be ; we shall suppose the 

 day not distant, when this river will be perfectly subdued, and its 

 vale brought within the control of man ; that parallel and cross ca- 



