EPISODES 441 



melancholy, unless when the mournful bleating of the 

 hemmed-in Deer reaches your ear, or the dismal scream 

 of an Eagle or a Raven is heard, as the foul bird rises, dis- 

 turbed by your approach, from the carcass on which it 

 was allaying its craving appetite. Bears, Cougars, Lynxes, 

 and all other quadrupeds that can ascend the trees are 

 observed crouched among their top branches. Hungry 

 in the midst of abundance, although they see floating 

 around them the animals on which they usually prey, 

 they dare not venture to swim to them. Fatigued by the 

 exertions which they have made to reach the dry land, 

 they will there stand the hunter's fire, as if to die by a 

 ball were better than to perish amid the waste of waters. 

 On occasions like this, all these animals are shot by 

 hundreds. 



Opposite the city of Natchez, which stands on a bluff 

 bank of considerable elevation, the extent of inundated 

 land is immense, the greater portion of the tract lying 

 between the Mississippi and the Red River, which is 

 more than thirty miles in breadth, being under water. 

 The mail-bag has often been carried through the im- 

 mersed forests, in a canoe, for even a greater distance, in 

 order to be forwarded to Natchitochez. 



But now, kind reader, observe this great flood gradually 

 subsiding, and again see the mighty changes which it has 

 effected. The waters have now been carried into the dis- 

 tant ocean. The earth is everywhere covered by a deep 

 deposit of muddy loam, which in drying splits into deep 

 and narrow chasms, presenting a reticulated appearance, 

 and from which, as the weather becomes warmer, disa- 

 greeable, and at times noxious, exhalations arise, and fill 

 the lower stratum of the atmosphere as with a dense fog. 

 The banks of the river have almost everywhere been 

 broken down in a greater or less degree. Large streams 

 are now found to exist, where none were formerly to be 

 seen, having forced their way in direct lines from the 



