206 GRAND GULF. [CHAP, xxxii. 



the uppermost 60 feet, composed, as at Natchez, of 

 yellow loam or loess, beneath which was white 

 quartzose sand, partially concreted into solid sand 

 stone, which is quarried here for building. From 

 the summit the river-plain to the westward seemed 

 as level, blue, and boundless as the ocean. As w^e 

 had now travelled two degrees of latitude northward, 

 the spring was not more advanced than when we left 

 New Orleans, but the woods crowning the bluffs are 

 beautiful from the variety of trees, many of them 

 evergreens, and we were charmed with the melody of 

 the mocking-birds, and the warm sun brought out 

 many large and brilliantly coloured butterflies, and 

 more insects of other kinds than I had yet seen in the 

 south. Among these were a beetle (P/ianeus carni- 

 fex), with green and gold wing-cases, and a horn on 

 the thorax. The name of bug is given to all beetles 

 {Coleoptera) here, and does not seem to awaken the 

 same unpleasant associations as it suggests to English 

 ears. Even the elegant fire-fly is called a lightning- 

 bug, and ladies who have diamond beetles set in 

 brooches, ask you to admire their beautiful bugs. 

 The Londoners, by way of compensation, miscall the 

 cockroach a black beetle. 



From Grand Gulf, we embarked in the Magnolia, 

 which had brought my wife to Natchez, and, having 

 since made a trip to St. Louis and New Orleans, 

 was on its return up the river. It is a new boat, 

 and, among other improvements, has a separate sleep 

 ing cabin for the coloured servants. The furniture 

 in the principal saloon is of fine Utrecht velvet, 

 and the hanging lustres for gas very brilliant : the 



