104 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
jay, accompanied by the run away and his fam. 
ily, he departed from the hut, leaving the 
ibises hung around the walls of the hut, and 
many a notch in the neighbouring trees as a me- 
mento of his presence. They then bent their 
way towards the dwelling of the negro’s first 
master. On arriving there, they were received 
with the most generous kindness. At the re- 
quest of Audubon, according to the desire of the 
fugitives, they were repurchased from their late 
master, and admitted once again into the be- 
nevolent planter’s family, were ever after regard- 
ed as a part of it, and gratefully remembered the 
good fortune which had brought Audubon to 
them as a guest. 
Rich in interest as are the environs of the 
Mississippi, not less so is the extraordinary river 
itself, exhibiting on the recurrence of certain 
seasons, that truly marvellous spectacle, appall- 
ing in its splendour, known asa Flood. With 
the sudden melting of the snow which had en- 
wrapt the mountains during the severity of 
winter, an enormous volume of water, turbid 
and swollen, inundates its broad channels. Its 
magnitude may be imagined, from the gigantic 
dimensions of this stream, the course of which is 
several thousand miles in extent. At the periods 
of inundation, the waters of the Ohio sometimes 
mingle with those of the Mississippi, and then it 
