NORTH AMERICA; $7 
may direct. They are firft produced on, or clofe 
to the more, in eddy water, where they gradually 
fpread themfelves into the river, forming mod de- 
lightful green plains, feveral miles in length, and in 
fome places a quarter of a mile in breadth. Thefe 
plants are nourifhed and kept in their proper hori- 
zontal fituation, by means of long fibrous roots, 
which defcend from the nether centre, downwards, 
towards the muddy bottom. Each plant, when full 
grown, bears a general refemblance to a well grown 
plant of garden lettuce, though the leaves are more 
nervous, of a firmer contexture, and of a full green 
colour, inclining to yellow. It vegetates on the fur- 
face of the ftiil ftagnant water ; and in its natural 
fituation, is propagated from feecf only. In great 
ftorms of wind and rain, when the river is fuddenly 
railed, large rnafTes of thefe floating plains are bro- 
ken loofe, and driven from the mores, into the wide 
water, where they have the appearance of ifiets, and 
float about, until broken to pieces by the winds and 
waves ; or driven again to fhore, on fome diftant 
road of the river, where they again find footing, 
and there, forming new colonies, fpread and extend 
themfelves again, until again broken up and dif* 
perfed as before. Thefe floating iflands prefent a 
very entertaining profpect ; for although we behold 
an affemblage of the primary productions «of nature' 
only, yet the Imagination feems to remain in fuf- 
penfe and doubt ; as in order to enliven the delufion, 
and form a moft piclurefque appearance, we fee not 
only flowery plants, clumps of fhrubs, old weather- 
beaten trees, hoary and barbed, with the long mofs 
waving from their mags, but we alfo fee them com- 
pletely inhabited, and alive, with crocodiles, ferpents, 
frogs, otters, crows, herons, curlews, jackdaws, &c f 
