SUBSIDING OF THE WATERS. 107 
misery of a lingering doom midst the desolation 
of the earth. 
_ With the subsiding of the waters, at length 
carried to the ocean, a thick deposit of loam is 
left on those parts which the flood has visited ; 
from which, in warm weather, an exhalation like 
a dense fog arises. Extraordinary are the trans- 
formations effected by the inundation. Large 
streams appear where none were supposed to 
exist. Sand banks whirled by the waters have 
been deposited in fresh places, and trees have 
disappeared from the margin of streams, while 
the upper portions of islands appear like a bul- 
wark of floating trunks and branches. Soon, 
however, all is fresh life and vigour. Lamenta- 
tion for the devastations is exchanged for activity 
1u repairing them. 
The settler shoulders his rifle and searches the 
morass in the hope of discovering some of hig 
scattered possessions. New defences are raised 
and new habitations erected. Lands are ploughed 
and fresn crops are raised. Yet many a dis- 
appointment and many a mis-adventure im- 
pends from the catastrophe, and many a traveller 
finds a bank of sand which, seemingly secure, 
suddenly gives way beneath his horse, which it 
ergulphs to the chest, leaving his master not in 
the situation he would choose. 
During several weeks these floods rise at the 
