VALLEYS, PLAINS, AND LOWLANDS 
251 
These marshes, whether seen in the summer, 
when they are so luxuriant in their greens, with 
the flag in blossom and the young cat-tails 
nodding in the breeze, or in the fall, when 
nature is dying and the reeds are day by day 
shifting through green to gold, when the trees 
are gorgeous with autumn tints and the orange 
stain of the short grass is gathering and grow- 
ing and weaving itself into a brilliant carpet 
whose colors do not fade until after snow falls— 
seen, indeed, at any time of the year, they are 
far from being the pestilent congregation of 
vapors and malaria which fancy usually pict- 
ures them. ven those marshes that lie close 
to cities and have ramshackle factories scattered 
over them, like the Hackensack meadows— 
marshes that are damp with mists and fogs and 
thick with smoke and dust—even these have 
their charm of color, broken light, and atmos- 
phere. In picturesqne qualities they are almost 
as fine as the dunes and meadows of Tolland. 
In abbreviated proportions the same lowlands 
line the shores of almost every large river, par- 
ticularly the rivers with broad basins. The 
rushes, reeds, and wild rice grow there even 
better than by the sea. Along the Mississippi 
the low, flat spaces on either side of the river, 
Color 
changes. 
Near to 
etvilization. 
