104 EIVER STEAHEES. 



and tlie people live in tlie open air, round large fires, to protect 

 themselves from the insect. The farther north you go in these 

 latitudes, during the short but hot summer, the more you are 

 liable to be tormented by musquitoes. 



Our steamer, which draws only 28 inches of water, is a huge 

 structure. The saloon is 200 feet long and 8 feet high, with 

 Gothic roof painted white and gold. There are little sleeping 

 cabins along both sides of the entire length, sufficient to ac- 

 commodate 130 passengers. The fare includes provisions, and 

 an abundant table is served three times a day. There is hardly 

 any difference in the meals in this western country, except that 

 to breakfast and supper we are offered tea and coffee, while at 

 dinner cold water is the only beverage. The manners of the 

 people we meet with on the Mississippi are not a whit exagger- 

 ated by Dickens in " Martin Chuzzlewit." I have met with 

 instances of every dirty habit which he describes, and any Eng- 

 lishman who desires to see the West must steel himself against 

 disagreeable incidents of hourly occurrence. He will be amply 

 repaid for any inconvenience of this kind by the vastness of the 

 new scenes constantly opening before him. 



The high-pressure engine every minute emits a melancholy 

 sigh, but it drives us quietly along against the stream at a tol- 

 erable rate. A traveller on the shore holds up his umbrella ; 

 the huge vessel, as if watching him, sheers in towards the soft 

 bank, runs her nose upon it, a plank is shoved out, and the 

 ^* gent " walks on board : we back off and proceed. The ship 

 is managed by a pilot, who has a glass-house elevated between 

 the paddle-boxes, above the whole superstructure, and from this 

 commanding position both steers the vessel and communicates 

 his orders to the engineer by a signal bell. The captain's 

 business seems to be to keep order in the ship, and to take the 

 head of the table at the various meals. While standing beside 

 Mm at the front of the elevated deck, our ship began to back 



