106 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
‘the destruction of their houses by the current 
Boats are tossed like playthings by the waters, 
and even the steam-vessels groan, distressed by 
the number of logs and branches, which float 
alongside, impeding their course. 
Here and there along the shore, the entire pop- 
ulation of a district congregate to strengthen 
and repair the artificial barrier or levée, as it is 
called, several feet above,the general level of the 
ground, which prudence has raised as a defence 
against the overflow. Yet sometimes, in spite 
of all exertions, a crevace or channel opens, and 
the water bursting in, lays waste all the crops 
lately luxuriating in the bloom of spring. In 
the vast tracts of the interior country, over- 
whelmed by the waters, all is silent and melan- 
choly. The mournful bleating of the deer alone 
is heard, or the dismal scream of the ravens or 
eagles, which, brooding over the desolation, allay 
their ravenous appetites on the wretched rem- 
nants of the catastrophe. Bears, cougars, and 
lynxes crouch among the topmost branches of 
the trees, glaring down with ferocious, restless 
glance; for, agonized perhaps with the pangs of 
hunger, though beholding around them abun- 
dance of animals as their prey, they dare not 
brave the glistening sheet of waters beneath. 
At such times they would quietly stand the 
hunter’s fire, preferring instant destruction to the 
