EPISODES 437 



was safely landed at Eastport, where, on looking over the 

 waters, and observing the dense masses of vapor that 

 veiled the shores, we congratulated ourselves at having 

 escaped from the Bay of Fundy. 



A FLOOD 



Many of our larger streams, such as the Mississippi, the 

 Ohio, the Illinois, the Arkansas, and the Red River, ex- 

 hibit at certain seasons the most extensive overflowings 

 of their waters, to which the name oi floods is more appro- 

 priate than the term freshets, usually applied to the sud- 

 den risings of smaller streams. If we consider the vast 

 extent of country through which an inland navigation is 

 afforded by the never-failing supply of water furnished by 

 these wonderful rivers, we cannot suppose them exceeded 

 in magnitude by any other in the known world. It will 

 easily be imagined what a wonderful spectacle must pre- 

 sent itself to the eye of the traveller who for the first 

 time views the enormous mass of waters, collected from 

 the vast central regions of our continent, booming along, 

 turbid and swollen to overflowing, in the broad channels 

 of the Mississippi and Ohio, the latter of which has a 

 course of more than a thousand miles, and the former of 

 several thousands. 



To give you some idea of a Booming Flood of these 

 gigantic streams, it is necessary to state the causes which 

 give rise to it. These are, the sudden melting of the 

 snows on the mountains, and heavy rains continued for 

 several weeks. When it happens that, during a severe 

 winter, the Alleghany Mountains have been covered with 

 snow to the depth of several feet, and the accumulated 

 mass has remained unmelted for a length of time, the 

 materials of a flood are thus prepared. It now and then 



