OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 EARTH 
 SCIENCES 
 LIBRARY 
 
A SECOND VISIT 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 SPOTTISWOODES and SHA\V, 
 New street- Square. 
 
A SECOND VISIT 
 
 TO 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR CHAKLES LYELL, F.E.S. 
 
 PRESIDENT OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP LONDON, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "THE PRINCIPLES OP GEOLOGY," 
 AND " TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA." 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Darien to Savannah. Black Baptist Church and Preacher. 
 Negro Prayer. Negro Intelligence. Bribery of Irish 
 Voters. Dirt-Eaters. Railway Expedition on Hand- 
 Car. Geology of Georgia. Negroes more progressive 
 in Upper Country. Indifference of Georgians to Win- 
 ter Cold. Want of Elbow-Room in Pine-Barrens - 1 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Indian Mounds and Block-house at Macon, Georgia. 
 Fashionists. Funeral of Northern Man. Geology and 
 Silicified Corals and Shells. Stage Travelling to Milledge- 
 ville. Negro Children. Home-made Soap. Decom- 
 position of Gneiss. Deep Ravines recently excavated 
 after clearing of Forest. Man shot in .a Brawl. Disap- 
 
 J 1 pointed Place Hunter. Lynch Law in Florida. Repeal 
 t>f English Corn-Laws. War Spirit abating - 14 
 
 A 3 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Macon to Columbus by Stage. Rough Travelling. Pas- 
 sage of Flint River. Columbus. Recent Departure of 
 Creek Indians. Falls of the Chatahoochie. Competi- 
 tion of Negro and White Mechanics. Age of Pine 
 Trees. Abolitionist " Wrecker" in Railway Car. 
 Runaway Slave. Sale of Novels by News-boys. 
 Character of Newspaper Press. Geology and Creta- 
 ceous Strata, Montgomery. Curfew. Sunday School 
 for Negroes. Protracted Meeting - - 31 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Voyage from Montgomery to Mobile. Description of a 
 large River Steamer. Shipping of Cotton at Bluffs. 
 Fossils collected at Landings. Collision of Steamer with 
 the Boughs of Trees. Story of a German Stewardess. 
 Emigration of Stephanists from Saxony. Perpetuation 
 of Stephanist and Mormon Doctrines. Distinct Table 
 for Coloured and White Passengers. Landing at Clai- 
 borne by Torchlight. Fossil Shells - - - 45 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Claiborne, Alabama. Movers to Texas. State Debts 
 and Liabilities. Lending Money to half-settled States. 
 Rumours of War with England. Macon, Alabama. 
 Sale of Slaves. Drunkenness in Alabama. Laws 
 against Duelling. Jealousy of Wealth. Emigration to 
 the West. Democratic Equality of Whites. Skeleton 
 of Fossil Whale or Zeuglodon. Voyage to Mobile - 60 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Page 
 
 Voyage from Mobile to Tuscaloosa. Visit to the Coal- 
 Field of Alabama. Its Agreement in Age with the an- 
 cient Coal of Europe. Absenteeism in Southern States. 
 Progress of Negroes. Unthriftiness of Slave-Labour. 
 University of Tuscaloosa. Churches. Bankruptcies. 
 Judges and Law Courts. Geology on the Tombeckbee 
 River. Artesian Wells. Limestone Bluff of St. Ste- 
 phen's. Negro shot by Overseer. Involuntary Efforts 
 of the Whites to civilise the Negroes. New Statute in 
 Georgia against Black Mechanics. The Effects of 
 speedy Emancipation and the free Competition of White 
 and Black Labourers considered - 77 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Return to Mobile. Excursion to the Shores of the Gulf 
 of Mexico. View from Lighthouse. Mouth of Alabama 
 River. Gnathodon inhabiting Brackish Water. Banks 
 of these Fossil Shells far Inland. Miring of Cattle. 
 Yellow Fever at Mobile in 1 839. Fire in same Year. 
 Voyage from Mobile to New Orleans. Movers to Texas. 
 Lake Pontchartrain. Arrival at New Orleans. St. 
 Louis Hotel. French Aspect of City. Carnival. Pro- 
 cession of Masks - - - - - 102 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Catholic Cathedral, New Orleans. French Opera. Creole 
 Ladies. Quadroons. Marriage of Whites with Qua- 
 droons. St. Charles Theatre. English Pronunciation. 
 Duellist's Grave. Ladies' Ordinary. Procession of 
 Fire Companies. Boasted Salubrity of New Orleans. 
 Goods selling at Northern Prices. Mr. Wilde. Roman 
 Law. Shifting of Capital to Baton Rouge. Debates in 
 Houses of Legislature. Convention and Revision of 
 the Laws. Policy of Periodical State Conventions. 
 Judges cashiered. Limitation of their Term of Office 114 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 Page 
 
 Negroes not attacked by Yellow Fever. History of Mr. 
 Wilde's Poem. The Market, New Orleans. Motley 
 Character of Population. Levee and Steamers. First 
 Sight of Mississippi River. View from the Cupola of 
 the St. Charles. Site of New Orleans. Excursion to 
 Lake Pontchartrain. Shell Road. Heaps of Gnathodon. 
 Excavation for Gas- Works. Buried upright Trees. 
 Pere Antoine's Date-palm - 127 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Excursion from New Orleans to the Mouths of the River. 
 Steam-Boat Accidents. River Fogs. Successive Growths 
 of Willow on River Bank. Pilot-Station of the Balize. 
 Lighthouse destroyed by Hurricane. Reeds, Shells, and 
 Birds on Mud-Banks. Drift-wood. Difficulty of esti- 
 mating the annual Increase of Delta. Action of Tides 
 and Currents. Tendency in the old Soundings to be 
 restored. Changes of Mouths in a Century inconsi- 
 derable. Return to New Orleans. Battle-Ground. 
 Sugar-Mill. Contrast of French and Anglo-American 
 Races. Causes of Difference. State and Progress of 
 Negroes in Louisiana - - 140 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 Voyage from New Orleans to Port Hudson. The Coast, 
 Villas and Gardens. Cotton Steamers. Flat Boats. 
 Crevasses and Inundations. Decrease of Steam-Boat 
 Accidents. Snag-Boat. Musquitos. Natural Rafts. 
 Bartram on buried Trees at Port Hudson. Dr. Carpen- 
 ter's Observations. Landslip described. Ancient Sub- 
 sidence in the Delta followed by an upward Movement, 
 deducible from the buried Forest at Port Hudson - 1G5 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Fontania near Port Hudson. Lake Solitude. Floating 
 Island. Bony Pike. Story of the Devil's Swamp. 
 Embarking by Night in Steam-Boat. Literary Clerk. 
 Old Levees undermined. Succession of upright buried 
 Trees in Bank. Kaccourci Cut-off. Bar at Mouth of 
 Red River. Shelly Freshwater Loam of Natchez. 
 Recent Ravines in Table-Land. Bones of extinct Qua- 
 drupeds. Human Fossil Bone. Question of supposed 
 co- existence of Man with extinct Mammalia discussed. 
 Tornado at Natchez. Society, Country Houses, and 
 Gardens. Landslips. Indian Antiquities - - 185 
 
 CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 Natchez. Vidalia and Lake Concordia. Hybernation of 
 Alligator. Bonfire on Floating Raft. Grand Gulf. 
 Magnolia Steamer. Vicksburg to Jackson (Mississippi) by 
 Railway. Fossils on Pearl River. Ordinary at Jackson. 
 Story of Transfer of State-House from Natchez. Vote 
 by Ballot. Popular Election of Judges. Voyage from 
 Vicksburg to Memphis. Monotony of River Scenery. 
 Squall of Wind. Actors on Board. Negro mistaken 
 for White. Manners in the Backwoods. Inquisitiveness. 
 Spoilt Children. Equality and Levelling. Silence of 
 English Newspapers on Oregon Question - 202 
 
 CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 Bluffs at Memphis. New Madrid. No Inn. Under- 
 mining of River Bank. Examination of Country shaken 
 by Earthquake of 1811-12. Effects of Passage of Waves 
 through Alluvial Soil. Circular Cavities or Sand-Bursts. 
 Open Fissures. Lake Eulalie drained by Shocks. Bor- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ders of Sunk Country, West of New Madrid. Dead 
 Trees standing erect. A slight Shock felt. Trade in 
 Peltries increased by Earthquake. Trees erect in new- 
 formed Lakes. Indian Tradition of Shocks. Dreary 
 Forest Scene. Rough Quarters. Slavery in Missouri 225 
 
 CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 Alluvial Formations of the Mississippi, ancient and modern. 
 Delta denned. Great Extent of Wooded Swamps. 
 Deposits of pure Vegetable Matter. Floors of Blue 
 Clay with Cypress Roots. Analogy to ancient Coal- 
 Measures. Supposed " Epoch of existing Continents." 
 Depth of Freshwater Strata in Deltas. Time required 
 to bring down the Mud of the Mississippi. New Expe- 
 riments and Observations required. Great Age of buried 
 and living Cypress-trees. Older and newer Parts of 
 Alluvial Plain. Upraised Terraces of Natchez, &c., and 
 the Ohio, the Monuments of an older Alluvial Formation. 
 Grand Oscillation of Level. The ancient Valleys inha- 
 bited by Quadrupeds now extinct. Land-shells not 
 changed. Probable Rate of Subsidence and Upheaval. 
 Relative Age of the ancient Alluvium of the Mississippi, 
 and the Northern Drift - 242 
 
 CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 Departure from New Madrid. Night-watch for Steamers. 
 Scenery of the Ohio River. Mount Vernon, Ornitho- 
 logy. No Undergrowth in Woods. Spring Flowers. 
 Visit to Dr. Dale Owen, New Harmony. Fossil Forest 
 of erect Trees in Coal-Measures. Movers migrating 
 Westward. Voyage to Louisville. Professional Zeal of 
 one of " the Pork Aristocracy." Fossil Coral-reef at the 
 Falls of the Ohio, Louisville. Fossil Zoophites as perfect 
 as recent Stone-corals - - - - 26 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 Louisville. Noble Site for a Commercial City. Geology. 
 Medical Students. Academical Rotation in Office. Epis- 
 copal Church. Preaching against the Reformation. 
 Service in Black Methodist Church. Improved Condi- 
 tion of Negroes in Kentucky. A coloured Slave mar- 
 ried as a free White. Voyage to Cincinnati. Naturalised 
 English Artizan gambling. Sources of Anti-British 
 Antipathies. Progress of Cincinnati. Increase of 
 German Settlers. Democracy of Romanists. Geology 
 of Mill Creek. Land Tortoises. Observatory. Culti- 
 vation of the Vine. Sculpture by Hiram Powers - 279 
 
 CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 Cincinnati to Pittsburg. Improved Machinery of Steamer. 
 Indian Mound. Gravel Terraces. Pittsburg Fire. 
 Journey to Greensburg. Scenery like England. Ore- 
 gon War Question. Fossil Foot-prints of Air-breath- 
 ing Reptile in Coal Strata. Casts of Mud-cracks. 
 Foot-prints of Birds and Dogs sculptured by Indians. 
 Theories respecting the Geological Antiquity of highly 
 organized Vertebrata. Prejudices opposed to the Re- 
 ception of Geological Truths. Popular Education the 
 only Means of preventing a Collision of Opinion be- 
 tween the Multitude and the Learned - - - 297 
 
 CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 Greensburg to Philadelphia. Crossing the Alleghany 
 Mountains. Scenery. Absence of Lakes. Harris- 
 burg. African Slave-trade. Railway Meeting at 
 Philadelphia. Borrowing Money for Public Works. 
 Negro Episcopal Clergyman. Washington. National 
 Fair and Protectionist Doctrines. Dog- wood in Vir- 
 ginia. Excursion with Dr. Wyman. Natural History. 
 Musk-rats. Migration of Humming-birds to New 
 Jersey -- - - - - -319 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 Page 
 
 New York, clear Atmosphere and gay Dresses. Omni- 
 buses. Naming of Streets. Visit to Audubon. Croton 
 Aqueduct. Harper's Printing Establishment. Large 
 Sale of Works by English and American Authors. 
 Cheapness of Books. International Copyright. Sale of 
 Eugene Sue's Wandering Jew. Tendency of the Work. 
 Mr. Gallatin on Indian Corn. War with Mexico. Fa- 
 cility of raising Troops. Dr. Dewey preaching against 
 War. Cause of Influence of Unitarians. Geological 
 Excursion to Albany. Helderberg War. Voting 
 Thanks to the Third House. Place-hunting. Spring 
 Flowers. Geology and Taconic System - - 332 
 
 CHAP. XL. 
 
 Construction and Management of Railways in America. 
 Journey by Long Island from New York to Boston. 
 Whale Fishery in the Pacific. Chewing Tobacco. Vi- 
 sit to Wenham Lake. Cause of the superior Permanence 
 of Wenham Lake Ice. Return to Boston. Skeletons 
 of Fossil Mastodon. Food of these extinct Quadru- 
 peds. Anti-war Demonstration. Voyage to Halifax. 
 Dense Fog. Large Group of Icebergs seen on the 
 Ocean. Transportation of Rocks by Icebergs. Danger 
 of fast sailing among Bergs. Aurora Borealis. Con- 
 nection of this Phenomenon with Drift Ice. Pilot with 
 English Newspapers. Return to Liverpool - - 355 
 
A SECOND VISIT 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 IN THE YEAKS 1845 6. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Darien to Savannah. Black Baptist Church and Preacher. 
 Negro Prayer. Negro Intelligence. Bribery of Irish Voters. 
 Dirt-Eaters. Railway Expedition on Hand- Car. Geology 
 of Georgia. Negroes more progressive in Upper Country. 
 Indifference of Georgians to Winter Cold. Want of Elbow - 
 Room in Pine-Barrens. 
 
 Jan. 9. 1846. WHEN I had finished my geological 
 examination of the southern and maritime part of 
 Georgia, near the mouth of the Alatamaha river, I 
 determined to return northward to Savannah, that I 
 might resume my survey at the point where I left 
 off in 1842% and study the tertiary and cretaceous 
 strata between the Savannah and Alabama rivers. 
 
 On our way back from Hopeton to Darien, Mr. 
 Couper and his son accompanied us in a canoe, and 
 
 * See " Travels in North America," vol. i. pp. 155174. 
 VOL. II. B 
 
2 BLACK BAPTIST CHURCH [CHAP. XX. 
 
 we passed through the General's Cut, a canal so 
 called because, according to tradition, Oglethorpe's 
 soldiers cut it out with their swords in one day. 
 We met a great number of negroes paddling their 
 canoes on their way back from Darien, for it was 
 Saturday, when they are generally allowed a half 
 holiday, and they had gone to sell on their own 
 account their poultry, eggs, and fish, and were bring- 
 ing back tobacco, clothes, and other articles of use or 
 luxury. 
 
 Having taken leave of our kind host, we waited 
 some hours at Darien for a steamer, which was 
 to touch there on its way from St. Augustine in 
 Florida, and which conveyed us speedily to Sa- 
 vannah. Next day, I attended afternoon service in 
 a Baptist church at Savannah, in which I found that 
 I was the only white man, the congregation con- 
 sisting of about 600 negroes, of various shades, most 
 of them very dark. As soon as I entered, I was 
 shown to a seat reserved for strangers, near the 
 preacher. First the congregation all joined, both 
 men and women, very harmoniously in a hymn, most 
 of them having evidently good ears for music, and 
 good voices. The singing was followed by prayers, 
 not read, but delivered without notes by a negro of 
 pure African blood, a grey-headed venerable-looking 
 man, with a fine sonorous voice, named Marshall. 
 He, as I learnt afterwards, has the reputation of 
 being one of their best preachers, and he concluded 
 by addressing to them a sermon, also without notes, 
 in good style, and for the most part in good English ; 
 so much so, as to make me doubt whether a few 
 
CHAP. XX.] AND PREACHER. 
 
 ungrammatical phrases in the negro idiom might not 
 have been purposely introduced for the sake of 
 bringing the subject home to their familiar thoughts. 
 He got very successfully through one flight about 
 the gloom of the valley of the shadow of death, and, 
 speaking of the probationary state of a pious man 
 left for a while to his own guidance, and when in 
 danger of failing saved by the grace of God, he 
 compared it to an eagle teaching her newly fledged 
 offspring to fly by carrying it up high into the air, 
 then dropping it, and, if she sees it falling to the 
 earth, darting with the speed of lightning to save it 
 before it reaches the ground. Whether any eagles 
 really teach their young to fly in this manner, I leave 
 the ornithologist to decide; but when described in 
 animated and picturesque language, yet by no means 
 inflated, the imagery was well calculated to keep the 
 attention of his hearers awake. He also inculcated 
 some good practical maxims of morality, and told 
 them they were to look to a future state of rewards 
 and punishments in which God would deal impar- 
 tially with " the poor and the rich, the black man 
 and the white." 
 
 I went afterwards, in the evening, to a black 
 Methodist church, where I and two others were the 
 only white men in the whole congregation; but I 
 was less interested, because the service and preaching 
 were performed by a white minister. Nothing in 
 my whole travels gave me a higher idea of the capa- 
 bilities of the negroes, than the actual progress which 
 they have made, even in a part of a slave state, where 
 they outnumber the whites, than this Baptist meet- 
 
 B 2 
 
4 NEGRO BAPTISTS. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 ing. To see a body of African origin, who had 
 joined one of the denominations of Christians and 
 built a church for themselves, who had elected a 
 pastor of their own race and secured him an annual 
 'salary, from whom they were listening to a good 
 sermon, scarcely, if at all, below the average standard 
 of the compositions of white ministers, to hear the 
 whole service respectably, and the singing admirably 
 performed, surely marks an astonishing step in civil- 
 isation. 
 
 The pews were well fitted up, and the church 
 well ventilated, and there was no disagreeable odour 
 in either meeting-house. It was the winter season, 
 no doubt, but the room was warm and the numbers 
 great. The late Mr. Sydney Smith, when he had 
 endeavoured in vain to obtain from an American of 
 liberal views, some explanation of his strong objec- 
 tion to confer political and social equality on the 
 blacks, drew from him at length the reluctant con- 
 fession that the idea of any approach to future amal- 
 gamation was insufferable to any man of refinement, 
 unless he had lost the use of his olfactory nerves. 
 On hearing which Mr. Smith exclaimed 
 
 " ' Et si non aliiim late jactaret odorem 
 Civis erat ! ' * 
 
 And such, then, are the qualifications by which the 
 rights of suffrage and citizenship are to be deter- 
 mined ! " 
 
 A Baptist missionary, with whom I conversed on 
 the capacity of the negro race, told me that he was 
 once present when one of their preachers delivered a 
 * Virgil, Georg. ii. 133. 
 
CHAP. XX.] NEGRO PRAYER. 5 
 
 prayer, composed by himself, for the ordination of a 
 minister of his sect, which, said he, was admirable in 
 its conception, although the sentences were so un- 
 grammatical, that they would pass, with a stranger, 
 for mere gibberish. The prayer ran thus : 
 
 " Make he good, like he say, 
 Make he say, like he good, 
 Make he say, make he good, like he God." 
 
 Which may be thus interpreted : Make him good as 
 his doctrine, make his doctrine as pure as his life, and 
 may both be in the likeness of his God. 
 
 This anecdote reminds me of another proof of negro 
 intelligence, related to me by Dr. Le Conte, whose 
 black carpenter came to him one day, to relate to him, 
 with great delight, a grand discovery he had made, 
 namely, that each side of a hexagon was equal to the 
 radius of a circle drawn about it. When informed 
 that this property of a hexagon had long been known, 
 he remarked that if it had been taught him, it would 
 have been practically of great use to him in his busi- 
 ness. 
 
 There had been " a revival " in Savannah a short 
 time before my return, conducted by the Methodists, 
 in the course of which a negro girl had been so much 
 excited, as to be thrown into a trance. The physi- 
 cian who attended her gave me a curious description 
 of the case. If the nerves of only one or two victims 
 are thus overwrought, it is surely more than ques- 
 tionable whether the evil does not counterbalance 
 all the good done, by what is called " the awakening" 
 of the indifferent. 
 
 I inquired one day, when conversing with some of 
 
 B 3 
 
6 BRIBERY OF VOTERS. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 the citizens here, whether, as New York is called the 
 Empire State, Pennsylvania the Keystone State, 
 Massachusetts the Bay State, and Vermont, when 
 the question of its separation from New Hampshire 
 was long under discussion, " the Future State," 
 in short, as almost all had some name, had they any 
 designation for Georgia ? It ought, they said, to be 
 styled the Pendulum State, for the Whigs and 
 Democrats get alternately possession of power; so 
 that each governor is of opposite politics to his pre- 
 decessor. The metropolis, they added, imitates the 
 example of the State, electing the mayor and alder- 
 men of Savannah one year from the Democratic and 
 the next from the Whig party. It has been of late 
 a great point, in electioneering tactics, to secure the 
 votes of fifty or sixty Irish labourers, who might turn 
 the scale here, as they have so often done in New 
 York, in the choice of city officers. In the larger 
 city they were conciliated for some years by employ- 
 ment in the Croton waterworks, so that "pipe- 
 laying" became the slang term for this kind of 
 bribery ; here, it ought to be called " reed-cutting," 
 for they set the Hibernians to cut down a dense 
 crop of tall reeds (Sesbania vesicaria), which covers 
 the canal and the swamps round the city, grow- 
 ing to the height of fifteen feet, and, like the city 
 functionaries, renewed every year. Some members 
 of the medical college, constituting a board of health, 
 have just come out with a pamphlet, declaring, that 
 by giving to the sun's rays, in summer, free access 
 to the mud in the bogs, and thus promoting the 
 decay of vegetable matter, the cutting down of these 
 reeds has caused malaria. 
 
CHAP. XX.] DIRT-EATERS. 7 
 
 In the course of all my travels, I had never seen 
 one opossum in the woods, nor a single racoon, their 
 habits being nocturnal, yet we saw an abundant 
 supply of both of them for sale in the market here. 
 The negroes relish them much, though their flesh is 
 said to be too coarse and greasy for the palate of a 
 white man. The number of pine-apples and bananas 
 in the market, reminded us of the proximity of the 
 West Indies. "We observed several negroes there, 
 whose health had been impaired by dirt-eating, or 
 the practice of devouring aluminous earth, a diseased 
 appetite, which, as I afterwards found, prevails in 
 several parts of Alabama, where they eat clay. I 
 heard various speculations on the origin of this 
 singular propensity, called " geophagy " in some me- 
 dical books. One author ascribes it to the feeding 
 of slaves too exclusively on Indian corn, which is 
 too nourishing, and has not a sufficiency in it of inor- 
 ganic matter, so that when they give it to cattle, they 
 find it best to grind up the cob and part of the stalk 
 with the grain. But this notion seems untenable, for 
 a white person was pointed out to me, who was quite 
 as sickly, and had a green complexion, derived from 
 this same habit ; and I was told of a young lady in 
 good circumstances, who had never been stinted of 
 her food, yet who could not be broken of eating clay. 
 
 Jan. 13. From Savannah we went by railway 
 to Macon in Georgia, a distance of 191 miles, my 
 wife going direct in a train which carried her in 
 about twelve hours to her destination, accompanied 
 by one of the directors of the railway company, who 
 politely offered to escort her. The same gentleman 
 
 B 4 
 
8 EXPEDITION ON HAND-CAR. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 supplied me with a hand-car and three negroes, 
 so that I was able to perform the journey at my 
 leisure, stopping at all the recent cuttings, and ex- 
 amining the rocks and fossils on the way. I was 
 desirous of making these explorations, because this 
 line of road traverses the entire area occupied by the 
 tertiary strata between the sea and the borders of 
 the granitic region, which commences at Macon, and 
 the section was parallel to that previously examined 
 by me on. the Savannah river in 1842. When I 
 came to low swampy grounds, or pine-barrens, where 
 there were no objects of geological interest, my black 
 companions propelled me onwards at the rate of ten 
 or twelve miles an hour by turning a handle con- 
 nected with the axis of the wheels. Their motions 
 were like those of men drawing water from a well. 
 Throughout the greater part of the route, an intel- 
 ligent engineer accompanied me. As there was only 
 one line of rail, and many curves, and as the negroes 
 cannot be relied on for caution, he was anxious for my 
 safety, while I was wholly occupied with my geology. 
 I saw him frequently looking at his watch, and often 
 kneeling down, like " Fine-ear " in the fairy tale, so as 
 to place his ear in contact with the iron rails to ascer- 
 tain whether a passenger or luggage-train were within 
 a mile or two. We went by Parramore's Hill, where 
 the sandstone rocks detained me some time, and, at the 
 ninety-fifth mile station from Savannah, I collected 
 fossils, consisting of marine shells and corals. These 
 were silicified in the burr-stone, of which mill-stones 
 are manufactured. Near Sandersville I saw a lime- 
 stone from which Eocene shells and corals are pro- 
 
CHAP. XX.] GEOLOGY OF GEOKGIA. 9 
 
 cured, as well as the teeth of sharks and the bones of 
 the huge extinct cetacean called Zeuglodon. Here 
 I had ample opportunities of confirming the opinion 
 I had previously announced as the result of my 
 labours in 1842, that this burr-stone, with its red, 
 yellow, and white sands, and its associated porcelain 
 clays or kaolin, constitutes one of the members of the 
 Eocene group, overlying the great body of cal- 
 careous rock, once supposed by some to be cretaceous, 
 but which really belongs to the same tertiary period.* 
 Although the summit level of the railway attains 
 an elevation of about 500 feet, descending afterwards 
 somewhat abruptly to Macon, which is only 300 feet 
 above the sea, it is surprising how we stole imper- 
 ceptibly up this ascent, as if on a perfectly level 
 plain, every where covered with wood, following 
 chiefly the swampy valley of the Ogeechee river, 
 in such a manner as to miss seeing all the leading 
 features in the physical geography of the country. 
 Had I not, when at Hopeton, seen good examples 
 of that succession of steps, or abrupt escarpments, by 
 which a traveller in passing from the sea-coast to the 
 granite region ascends from one great terrace to 
 another, I should have doubted the accuracy of Bar- 
 tram's description, f 
 
 I had many opportunities, during this excursion, of 
 satisfying myself of the fact for which I had been 
 prepared by the planters " on the sea-board," that the 
 intelligence of the coloured race increased in the 
 interior and upland country in proportion as they 
 
 * See Quarterly Journ. of Geol. Society, 1845, p. 563. 
 t Ante, vol. i. pp. 345, 346. 
 
 B 5 
 
10 NEGROES IN UPPER COUNTRY. [CHAP. XX. 
 
 have more intercourse with the whites. Many of 
 them were very inquisitive to know my opinion 
 as to the manner in which marine shells, sharks' 
 teeth, sea-urchins, and corals could have been buried 
 in the earth so far from the sea and at such 
 a height. The deluge had occurred to them as a 
 cause, but they were not satisfied with it, observing 
 that they procured these remains not merely near 
 the surface, but from the bottom of deep wells, and 
 that others were in flint stones. In some places, 
 when I left the railway and hired a gig to visit 
 plantations far from the main road, the proprietor 
 would tell me he was unable to answer my questions, 
 his well having been sunk ten or twelve years ago. 
 In that period the property had changed hands two or 
 three times, the former owners having settled farther 
 south or south-west; but the estate had remained 
 under the management of the same head negro, to 
 whom I was accordingly referred. This per&onage, 
 conscious of his importance, would begin by enlarging, 
 with much self-complacency, on the ignorance of his 
 master, who had been too short a time in those parts 
 to understand anything I wished to know. When 
 at length he condescended to come to the point, he 
 could usually give me a clear account of the layers 
 of sand, clay, and limestone they had passed 
 through, and of fishes' teeth they had found, some 
 of which had occasionally been preserved. In pro- 
 portion as these coloured people fill places of trust, 
 they are involuntarily treated more as equals by 
 the whites. The prejudices which keep the races 
 asunder would rapidly dimmish, were they not studi- 
 
CHAP. XX.] NEGROES IN UPPER COUNTRY. 11 
 
 ously kept up by artificial barriers, unjust laws, and 
 the re-action against foreign interference. In one 
 of the small farms, where I passed the night, I was 
 struck with the good manners and pleasant expres- 
 sion of countenance of a young woman of colour, 
 who had no dash of white blood in her veins. She 
 managed nearly all the domestic affairs of the house, 
 the white children among the rest, and, when next 
 day I learnt her age, from the proprietor, I ex- 
 pressed surprise that she had never married. " She 
 has had many offers," said he, " but has declined all, 
 for they were quite unworthy of her, rude and un- 
 cultivated country people. I do not see how she 
 is to make a suitable match here, though she might 
 easily do so in a large town like Savannah." He 
 spoke of her just as he might have done of a white 
 free maid-servant. 
 
 If inter-marriages between the coloured and white 
 races were not illegal here, how can we doubt that 
 as Englishwomen sometimes marry black servants in 
 Great Britain, others, who came out here as poor 
 emigrants, would gladly accept an offer from a well- 
 conducted black artizan or steward of an estate, a 
 man of intelligence and sober habits, preferable in 
 so many respects to the drunken and illiterate Irish 
 settlers, who are now so unduly raised above them 
 by the prejudices of race! 
 
 In one family, I found that there were six white 
 children and six blacks, of about the same age, and 
 the negroes had been taught to read by their com- 
 panions, the owner winking at this illegal proceeding, 
 and seeming to think that such an acquisition would 
 
 B 6 
 
1 2 INDIFFERENCE TO COLD. [CHAP. XX 
 
 rather enhance the value of his slaves than otherwise. 
 Unfortunately, the whites, in return, often learn 
 from the negroes to speak broken English, and, in 
 spite of losing much time in unlearning ungramma- 
 tical phrases, well-educated people retain some of 
 them all their lives. 
 
 As I stopped every evening at the point where 
 my geological work for the day happened to end, 
 I had sometimes to put up with rough quarters 
 in the pine-barrens. It was cold, and none of 
 my hosts grudged a good fire, for large logs of 
 blazing pine-wood were freely heaped up on the 
 hearth, but the windows and doors were kept wide 
 open. One morning, I was at breakfast with a 
 large family, at sunrise, when the frost was so hard, 
 that every pool of water in the road was encrusted 
 with ice. In the course of the winter, some ponds, 
 they said, had borne the weight of a man and horse, 
 and there had been a coroner's inquest on the body 
 of a man, lately found dead on the road, where the 
 question had been raised whether he had been mur- 
 dered or frozen to death. They had placed me in a 
 thorough draught, and, unable to bear the cold any 
 longer, I asked leave to close the window. My 
 hostess observed, that " I might do so, if I preferred 
 sitting in the dark." On looking up, I discovered 
 that there was no glass in the windows, and that 
 they were furnished with large shutters only. For 
 my own part, I would willingly have been content 
 with the light which the pine-wood gave us, but 
 seeing the women and girls, with bare necks and 
 light clothing, perfectly indifferent to the cold, I 
 
CHAP. XX.] PINE-BARRENS. 13 
 
 merely asked permission to put on my great coat and 
 hat. These Georgians seemed to me, after their 
 long summer, to be as insensible to the frost as 
 some Englishmen the first winter after their return 
 from India, who come back charged, as it were, with 
 a superabundant store of caloric, and take time, like 
 a bar of iron out of a furnace, to part with their heat. 
 A farmer near Parramore's Hill, thinking I had 
 come to settle there, offered to sell me some land at 
 the rate of two dollars an acre. It was well timbered, 
 and I found that the wood growing on this sandy 
 soil is often worth more than the ground which it 
 covers. Another resident in the same district, told 
 me he had bought his farm at two and a half dollars 
 (or about half-a-guinea) an acre, and thought it dear, 
 and would have gone off to Texas, if he were not 
 expecting to reap a rich harvest from a thriving 
 plantation of peach trees and nectarines, just coming 
 into full bearing. A market for such fruit had re- 
 cently been opened by the new railway, from Macon 
 to Savannah. He complained of want of elbow-room, 
 although I found that his nearest neighbour was six 
 or seven miles distant ; but, he observed, that having 
 a large family of children, he wished to lay out his 
 capital in the purchase of a wider extent of land in 
 Texas, and so be the better able to provide for 
 them. 
 
14 INDIAN MOUNDS. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 CHAP. XXL 
 
 Indian Mounds and Block-house at Macon, Georgia. Fashion- 
 ists. Funeral of Northern Man. Geology and silicified 
 Corals and Shells. Stage travelling to Milledgeville. Negro 
 Children. Home-made Soap. Decomposition of Gneiss. 
 Deep Ravines recently excavated after clearing of Forest. 
 Man shot in a Brawl. Disappointed Place- Hunter. Lynch 
 Law in Florida. Repeal of English Corn-Laws. War 
 Spirit abating. 
 
 Jan. 15. 1846. WHEN I was within twenty miles 
 of Macon, I left the hand-car and entered a railway- 
 train, which carried me in one hour into the town. 
 About a mile south of the place, we passed the base 
 of two conical Indian mounds, the finest monuments 
 of the kind I had ever seen. The first appearance 
 of a large steam-vessel ascending one of the western 
 tributaries of the Mississippi, before a single Indian 
 has been dispossessed of his hunting grounds, or a 
 single tree of the native forest has been felled, 
 scarcely affords a more striking picture of a wilder- 
 ness invaded by "the arts of civilised life, than Macon, 
 in Georgia, resounding to the sound of a locomotive 
 engine. On entering the town, my eye was caught 
 by a striking object, a wooden edifice of very peculiar 
 structure and picturesque form, crowning one of the 
 hills in the suburbs. This, I was told, on inquiry, 
 was a block-house, actually in use against the Indians 
 
CHAP. XXL] FASHIONISTS. 15 
 
 only twenty-five years ago, before any habitations of 
 the white men were to be seen in the forest here. 
 It was precisely one of those wooden forts so faith- 
 fully described by Cooper in the "Path-finder." After 
 the mind has become interested with such antiquities, 
 it is carried back the next moment to the modern 
 state of things by an extraordinary revulsion, when 
 a fellow- passenger, proud of the sudden growth of 
 his adopted city, tells you that another large building, 
 also conspicuous on a height, is a female seminary 
 lately established by the Methodists, " where all the 
 young ladies take degrees;" and then, as you pace 
 the streets with your baggage to the hotel, another 
 says to you, " There go two of our fashionists," 
 pointing to two gaily-dressed ladies, in the latest 
 Parisian costume. 
 
 I had seen, in the pale countenances of the whites 
 in the pine-woods I had lately travelled through, 
 the signs of much fever and ague prevalent in the 
 hot season in Georgia, but at Macon we heard 
 chiefly of consumptive patients, who have fled from 
 the Northern States in the hope of escaping the cold 
 of winter. The frost, this year, has tried them se- 
 verely in the South. Two days before I reached 
 Macon, a young northern man had died in the hotel 
 where my wife was staying, a melancholy event, as 
 none of his friends or relatives were near him. Lucy, 
 the chambermaid of the hotel, an intelligent bright 
 mulatto, from Maryland, who expressed herself as 
 well as any white woman, came to tell my wife that 
 the other ladies of the house were to be present at the 
 funeral, and invited her to attend. She found the two 
 
16 FUNERAL OF NORTHERN MAN. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 drawing-rooms thrown into one, and the coffin placed 
 on a table between the folding doors, covered with 
 a white cloth. There were twenty or thirty gen- 
 tlemen on the one side, and nearly as many ladies 
 and children on the other, none of them in mourning. 
 The Episcopal clergyman who officiated, before read- 
 ing the usual burial service, delivered a short and 
 touching address, alluding to the stranger cut oif 
 in his youth, far from his kindred, and exhorting 
 his hearers not to defer the hour of repentance to a 
 death-bed, when their reason might be impaired or 
 taken from them. After the prayers, six of the 
 gentlemen came forward to carry the coffin down 
 stairs, to put it into a small hearse drawn by a single 
 horse, and three carriages followed with as many as 
 they could hold, to the cemetery of Eose Hill. This 
 burial-ground is in a beautiful situation on a wooded 
 hill, near the banks of the Ocmulgee and overlooking 
 the Falls. 
 
 These Falls, like so many of those on the rivers 
 east of the Alleghanies, are situated on the line of 
 junction of the granitic and tertiary regions.* The 
 same junction may also be seen at the bridge over 
 the Ocmulgee, at Macon, the red loam of the ter- 
 tiary formation resting there on mica schist. At 
 the distance of one mile south-east of the town, 
 a railway cutting has exposed a series of beds 
 of yellow and red clay, with accompanying sands 
 of tertiary formation, and, at the depth of forty 
 feet, I observed a large fossil tree converted into 
 
 * See " Travels in K America," vol. i. p. 132. 
 
CHAP. XXL] SILICIFIED SHELLS AND CORALS. 17 
 
 lignite, the concentric rings of annual growth being 
 visible. Receding from the granitic rocks, six or 
 eight miles still farther to the south-east, I found 
 at Brown Mountain, a bluff on the Ocmulgee river, 
 and at other places in the neighbourhood, a great 
 many siliceous casts of fossil shells and corals, and 
 among others a large nautilus, the whole indicating 
 that these beds of cherty sandstone and impure lime- 
 stone belong to the Eocene period. 
 
 As there is much kaolin in this series of chert and 
 burr-stone strata, I have little doubt that the petri- 
 faction of fossil wood, and of shells and corals, has 
 taken place in consequence of the decomposition of 
 the imbedded felspathic rocks and crystals of felspar, 
 taking place simultaneously with the putrefaction of 
 the organic bodies. The silex, just set free from its 
 chemical combination in the felspar, would replace 
 each organic particle as fast as it decayed or was re- 
 solved into its elements. 
 
 From Macon I went to Milledgeville, twenty-five 
 miles to the north-east, the capital of Georgia. 
 Instead of taking the direct road, we made a detour, 
 going the first thirty miles on the Savannah railway, 
 to a station called Gordon, where we found a stage- 
 coach ready to drag us through the deep sands of the 
 pine-barrens, or to jolt us over corduroy roads in the 
 swamps. As we were traversing one of the latter, at 
 the rate of half a mile an hour, I began to contrast 
 the speed of the new railway with stage-travelling. 
 Our driver maintained that he could go as fast as the 
 cars. " How do you make that out ? " said I. " Put 
 a locomotive," he replied, " on this swamp, and see 
 
18 NEGRO CHILDREN. [ CHAP. XXI. 
 
 which will get on l>est. The most you can say is, 
 that each kind of vehicle runs fastest on its own line 
 of road." 
 
 We were passing some cottages on the way-side, 
 when a group of children rushed out, half of them 
 white and half negro, shouting at the full stretch of 
 their lungs, and making the driver fear that his 
 horses would be scared. They were not only like 
 children in other parts of the world, in their love of 
 noise and mischief, but were evidently all associating 
 on terms of equality, and had not yet found out that 
 they belonged to a different caste in society. One 
 of our passengers was a jet black youth, about ten 
 years old, who got down at a lone house in the woods, 
 from the door of which two mulatto boys a year or 
 two younger ran out. There was much embracing 
 and kissing, and mutual caressing, with more warmth 
 of manner than is usually shown by the whites. We 
 were glad to see the white mistress of the house, 
 probably the owner of them and their parents, looking 
 on with evident pleasure and interest at the scene. 
 
 Milledgeville, a mere village, though the capital of 
 the State, is provided with four neat and substantial 
 wooden churches, clustered together, the Presbyterian, 
 Baptist, Methodist, and Episcopalian. In the latter we 
 found there was to be no service, as the clergyman had 
 been recently " called" to a larger church, newly built, 
 at Savannah. The Presbyterian minister was from 
 New England, and an excellent preacher. He ex- 
 horted his congregation to take the same view of 
 their short sojourn on this globe, which the emigrant 
 takes of his journey to the far west, bearing patiently 
 
CHAP. XXI.] THE "EXECUTIVE MANSION." 19 
 
 great hardships and privations, because, however 
 severe at the time, he knows they will soon end, and 
 prove momentary in their duration, in comparison 
 with the longer period which he hopes to spend in a 
 happier land. 
 
 At our hotel apologies were made to us by a 
 neatly-dressed coloured maid, for the disorderly 
 state of our room, the two beds having been recently 
 occupied by four members of the Legislature, who, 
 according to her, " had turned the room into a hog- 
 pen, by smoking and spilling their brandy and wine 
 about the floor." 
 
 While I was geologising in the suburbs, the Go- 
 vernor's lady called on my wife and took her to her 
 residence, called here the " Executive Mansion," as 
 appears by the inscription over the door. It con- 
 tained some handsome reception-rooms newly fur- 
 nished by the last Governor, but the white ground of 
 a beautiful Axminster carpet had been soiled and 
 much damaged the first evening after it was put 
 down, at a levee, attended by several hundred men, 
 each walking in after a heavy rain with his shoes 
 covered with mud. 
 
 When the Governor's wife paid us a second visit, 
 our landlady made herself one of the party just as 
 if we were all visitors at her house. She was very 
 much amused at my wife's muff, having never seen 
 one since she was a'girl, half a century before, at Balti- 
 more, yet the weather Was now cold enough to make 
 such an article of dress most comfortable. Among 
 other inquiries, she said to my wife, " Do tell me 
 how you make your soap in England." Great was 
 
20 HOME-MADE SOAP. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 her surprise to hear that ladies in that country were 
 in the habit of buying the article in shops, and would 
 be much puzzled if called upon to manufacture it 
 for themselves. As it was evident she had never 
 studied Adam Smith on the Division of Labour, she 
 looked upon this fine-lady system of purchasing 
 every article at retail stores, as very extravagant. 
 " That's the way they do in the North," said she, 
 fc though I never could understand where all their 
 money comes from." She then explained how eco- 
 nomically she was able to supply herself with soap. 
 "First, there is the wood, which costs nothing but 
 the trouble of felling the trees ; and, after it has 
 served for fuel, it yields the ashes, from which we 
 get the potash. This is mixed with the fat of sixty 
 hogs, which costs nothing, for what else could I do 
 with all this fat at killing time ? As for the labour, 
 it is all done by my own people. I have nine maids, 
 and they make almost everything in the house, even 
 to the caps I wear." Touching the soap, she ob- 
 served, we must be careful to select the ashes of the 
 oak, hiccory, ash, and other hard wood, for the pines 
 yield no potash"; a remark which led me to speculate 
 on the luxuriant growth of the long-leaved pines 
 in the purely siliceous tertiary soils, from which it 
 would have been difficult to conceive how the roots 
 of the trees could extract any alkaline matter, 
 whereas the soil of the " hiccory grounds " is derived 
 from the disintegration of granitic rocks, which arc 
 very felspathic here, and are decomposing in situ. 
 
 Having occasion to hire a horse, I found that the 
 proprietor of the livery stables was a coloured man, 
 
CHAP. XXL] BLOCKS OF GKANITE AND GNEISS. 21 
 
 who came himself to bargain about the price, which 
 was high compared to that asked in the North. 
 
 The site of Milledgeville is 577 feet above the 
 level of the sea, and, like Macon, it stands on the 
 boundary of the tertiary and granitic region. Dr. J. 
 R. Getting, who had been employed by the State to 
 make a geological survey of part of Georgia, showed 
 me in the State House some fossils collected by him, 
 and he accompanied me in an excursion into the 
 neighbourhood of the capital. It is well worthy of 
 remark, that here, as everywhere in Georgia and Ala- 
 bama, there are loose blocks of granite and gneiss 
 strewed over the granitic area ; but no fragments of 
 them are ever seen to cross the boundary into the 
 area composed of the tertiary strata, where small 
 pebbles only are seen washed out of the sands. 
 Farther to the north, in Massachusetts, for example, 
 and the island of Martha's Vineyard, we see enor- 
 mous erratics of granite, twenty-five and thirty feet 
 in diameter, which must have come from the north, 
 probably from the mountains of New Hampshire, rest- 
 ing on the tertiary clays and rocks * ; and in Long 
 Island (New York), a variety of transported blocks 
 repose upon, or are interstratified with, very modern 
 deposits. In the Southern States the same causes 
 have not been in action, and if we suppose, ice- 
 bergs to have been the transporting power in the 
 north, it seems natural that their action should not 
 have extended to the Southern States, so as to carry 
 fragments of crystalline rocks out of the granitic 
 
 * Travels in N. America, vol. i. p. 259. chap, xii. 
 
22 DECOMPOSITION OF GNEISS. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 region. Yet it is striking around Milledgeville, to see 
 so many large detached and rounded boulders of 
 granite lying on the surface of the soil, and all strictly 
 confined within the limits of the granitic region. One 
 of these, on the slope of a hill three miles from the 
 town, resting on gneiss, measured twelve feet in its 
 longest diameter, and was four feet high. I pre- 
 sume that these boulders are nearly in situ ; they 
 may have constituted " tors " of granite, like those in 
 Cornwall, fragments of masses, once more extensive, 
 left by denudation at a period when the country was 
 rising out of the sea, and fragments may have been 
 occasionally thrown down by the waves, and swept 
 to a small distance from their original sites. The lati- 
 tude of Milledgeville is 32 20' north, or considerably 
 to the south of the most southern limits to which 
 the northern drift with its erratics has hitherto been 
 traced in the United States. 
 
 Another most singular phenomenon in the environs 
 of Milledgeville is the depth to which the gneiss and 
 mica schist have decomposed in situ. Some very in- 
 structive sections of the disintegrated rocks have been 
 laid open in the precipices of recently formed ravines. 
 Were it not that the original intersecting veins of 
 white quartz remain unaltered to show that the 
 layers of sand, clay, and loam are mere lamina? of 
 gneiss and mica schist, resolved into their elements, a 
 geologist would suppose that they were ordinary 
 alternations of sandy and clayey beds with occasional 
 cross stratification, the w r hole just in the state in 
 which they were first deposited. Now and then, as 
 if to confirm the deception, a large crystal of felspar, 
 
CHAP. XXL] MODERN RATINES. 23 
 
 eight or ten inches long, is seen to retain its angles, 
 although converted into kaolin. Similar crystals, 
 almost as perfect, may be seen washed into the tertiary 
 strata south of the granitic region, where white 
 porcelain clays, quartzose, gravel, sand, and micaceous 
 loam are found, evidently derived from the waste of 
 decomposed crystalline rocks. I am not surprised, 
 therefore, that some geologists should have con- 
 founded the ancient gneiss of this district, thus de- 
 composed in situ, with the tertiary deposits. Their 
 close resemblance confirms me in the opinion, that 
 the arrangement of the gneiss and mica schist in beds 
 with subordinate layers, both horizontal and oblique, 
 was originally determined, in most cases at least, by 
 aqueous deposition, although often modified by sub- 
 sequent crystalline action. 
 
 The surprising depth of some of the modern 
 ravines, in the neighbourhood of Milledgeville, sug- 
 gests matter of curious speculation. At the distance 
 of three miles and a half due west of the town, on the 
 direct road to Macon, on the farm of Pomona, is the 
 ravine represented in the annexed wood-cut (p. 25.). 
 Twenty years ago it had no existence ; but when the 
 trees of the forest were cut down, cracks three feet 
 deep were caused by the sun's heat in the clay ; and, 
 during the rains, a sudden rush of water through 
 these cracks, caused them to deepen at their lower ex- 
 tremities, from whence the excavating power worked 
 backwards, till, in the course of twenty years, a 
 chasm, measuring no less than 55 feet in depth, 300 
 yards in length, and varying in width from 20 to 
 
24 MODERN RAVINES. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 180 feet, was the result. (See fig. 7. p. 25.) The high 
 road has been several times turned to avoid this 
 cavity, the enlargement of which is still proceeding, 
 and the old line of road may be seen to have held 
 its course directly over what is now the widest part 
 of the ravine. In the perpendicular walls of this 
 great chasm appear beds of clay and sand, red, white, 
 yellow, and green, produced by the decomposition in 
 situ of hornblendic gneiss, with layers and veins of 
 quartz, as before-mentioned, and of a rock consisting 
 of quartz and felspar, which remain entire to prove 
 that the whole mass was once crystalline. 
 
 In another place I saw a bridge thrown over a 
 recently formed gulley, and here, as in Alabama, the 
 new system of valleys and of drainage, attendant on 
 the clearing away of the woods, is a source of serious 
 inconvenience and loss. 
 
 I infer, from the rapidity of the denudation caused 
 here by running water after the clearing or re- 
 moval of wood, that this country has been always 
 covered with a dense forest, from the remote time 
 when it first emerged from the sea. However long 
 may have been the period of upheaval required to 
 raise the marine tertiary strata to the height of more 
 than 600 feet, we may conclude that the surface has 
 been protected by more than a mere covering of 
 herbage from the effects of the sudden. flowing off 
 of the rain water. 
 
 I know it may be contended that, when the granite 
 and gneiss first rose as islands out of the sea, they may 
 have consisted entirely of hard rock, which resisted 
 denudation, and therefore that we can only affirm 
 
CHAP. XXL] RAVINE NEAR MILLEDGEVILLE. 25 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Ravine on the Farm of Pomona, near Milledgeville, Georgia, 
 January, 1846. 
 
 Excavated in the last twenty years, 55 feet deep, and 180 feet broad. 
 VOL. II. C 
 
GHAP. XXL] MAN SHOT IN A BRAWL. 27 
 
 that the forest has been continuous from the time 
 of the decomposition and* softening of the upper 
 portion of these rocks. But I may reply, that 
 similar effects are observable, even on a grander 
 scale, in recently excavated ravines seventy or eighty 
 feet deep, in some newly cleared parts of the tertiary 
 regions of Alabama, as in Clarke county for ex- 
 ample, and also in some of the cretaceous strata of 
 loose gravel, sand, and clay, in the same State at 
 Tuscaloosa. These are at a much greater height 
 above the sea, and must, from the first, have been as 
 destructible as they are now. 
 
 We returned to Macon by our former route, 
 through the pine woods, and when we stopped to 
 change horses, a lady, who was left for a time alone 
 in the coach with my wife, informed her, that a 
 young man who had been sitting opposite to them, 
 had, the day before, shot an Irishman in a tavern, 
 and was flying from justice. A few days later we 
 learnt that the wounded man had not died, but as it 
 was a Penitentiary offence, it was prudent for the 
 culprit to keep out of the way for a time. On hear- 
 ing this, I asked one of my companions, how it was 
 possible, when such affairs were occurring, and the 
 police was so feeble, we could travel night and day, 
 and feel secure from personal violence. " There is 
 no danger here," he said, " of robbery, as in Europe, 
 for we have none who are poor, or rendered vicious 
 and desperate by want. No murders are committed 
 here except in personal quarrels, and are almost 
 always the act of restless and unquiet spirits, who 
 
 c 2 
 
28 DISAPPOINTED PLACE-HUNTER. [CHAP. XXI. 
 
 seek excitement in gambling and drink. The wars 
 in Texas relieved us of many of these dare-devils." 
 
 One of our fellow-travellers seemed to be a disap- 
 pointed place-hunter, who had been lobbying the 
 Houses of Legislature in vain for the whole session. 
 He was taking his revenge by telling many a story 
 against an assembly, which had been so obtuse as not 
 to discover his merits. Twelve of them, he said, 
 from the upper country, could not even read, and 
 one of these happening, when in the House, to receive 
 an invitation to the Governor's annual dinner, rose, 
 and, holding the card in his hand, with the writing 
 upside down, said, " Mr. Speaker, I am determined 
 to oppose this resolution." Another, when they 
 were debating whether they should move the Capitol, 
 or seat of legislature, from Milledgeville to Macon, 
 went out, and, on resuming his seat, declared they were 
 wasting their time, for he had measured, and made a 
 rough estimate of the weight of the building (which 
 was of stone), and found, on calculation, that all the 
 oxen in Georgia could not drag it a single mile ! 
 
 There was much talk here of a recent exhibition 
 on the frontiers of Georgia, of what is commonly 
 called Lynch Law," which invalidated the assertion 
 of my companion in regard to the absence of robbers. 
 Many people having been plundered of their pro- 
 perty, especially their negroes, organised a private 
 association for putting down the thieves, who came 
 from Florida, and having arrested one of them, 
 named Yoermans, they appointed a committee of 
 twelve to try him. Witnesses having been sworn, a 
 verdict of guilty was returned, and the punishment 
 
CHAP. XXL] LYNCH LAW IN FLORIDA. 29 
 
 of death decided upon, by a vote of six to one. They 
 then crossed from Georgia into Florida, where the 
 prisoner confessed, under the gallows, that he was a 
 murderer and robber, and called upon a preacher of 
 the gospel, three or four of whom were present, as 
 well as a justice of the peace, to pray for him, after 
 which he was hung. 
 
 I expressed my horror at these transactions, ob- 
 serving that Florida, if in so rude and barbarous a 
 state, ought not to have been admitted into the 
 Union. My companions agreed to this, but said 
 they believed the man had fair play on his trial, and 
 added, " If you were a settler there, and had no 
 other law to defend you, you would be glad of the 
 protection of Judge Lynch." 
 
 The news had just reached Milledgeville and 
 Macon of the English Premier's speech in favour of 
 the free importation of foreign corn, a subject dis- 
 cussed here with as much interest as if it were a 
 question of domestic policy. The prospect of in- 
 creased commercial intercourse with England, is 
 regarded by all as favourable to peace, especially as 
 the Western States, the most bellicose in the whole 
 Union, will be the chief gainers. Even before this 
 intelligence arrived, the tone of the public mind was 
 beginning to grow somewhat less warlike. The hero 
 in a new comic piece, on the stage at New York, 
 personifies the member for Oregon, and talks big 
 about f( our destiny," and (( the whole of Oregon or 
 none." We also observe an extract from the " North 
 American Review" going the round of the news- 
 papers, in which the Oregon dispute is compared to 
 
 c s 
 
30 WAR SPIRIT ABATING. [ CHAI>. XXI. 
 
 Dandle Dinmont's famous law-suit with Jock 
 o'Dawston about the marches of their farms, and 
 Counsellor Pleydell's advice to his client is recom- 
 mended for imitation. 
 
 " We should have a war to-morrow," said a Whig 
 politician to me at Macon, " if your democracy were 
 as powerful as ours, for the most radical of your 
 newspapers are the most warlike. Your ministers 
 seem more free from anti- American prejudices than 
 the ordinary writers of travels, reviews, or newspaper 
 articles, and they have a great advantage over our 
 government at Washington. One of our statesmen, 
 a late candidate for the presidentship, is said to have 
 declared, that when so many millions are admitted 
 into the Cabinet, it is scarcely possible to manage a 
 delicate point of foreign policy with discretion." 
 
CHAP. XXII.] MACON TO COLUMBUS. 31 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Macon to Columbus by Stage. Rough Travelling. Passage 
 of Flint River. Columbus. Recent Departure of Creek 
 Indians. Falls of the Chatahoochie. Competition of Negro 
 and White Mechanics. Age of Pine Trees. Abolitionist 
 " Wrecker " in Railway Car. Runaway Slave. Sale of 
 Novels by News-boys. Character of Newspaper Press. 
 Geology and Cretaceous Strata, Montgomery. Curfew. 
 Sunday School for Negroes. Protracted Meeting. 
 
 Jan. 21. 1846. HITHERTO we had travelled from 
 the north by railway or steam-ship, but from Macon, 
 on our way south, we were compelled to resort to 
 the stage-coach, and started first for Columbus. For 
 the first time, we remarked that our friends, on part- 
 ing, wished us a safe journey, instead of a pleasant 
 one, as usual. There had been continued rains, and 
 the roads were cut up by waggons bringing heavy 
 bales of cotton to the Savannah railroad. We passed 
 Knoxville, a small and neat town, and, after dark, 
 supped at a small road-side inn, on pork-chops, 
 waffles, and hominy, or porridge, made of Indian 
 meal. Here we were told that the stage of the 
 night before had been water-bound by the rising of 
 the rivers. We went on, however, to the great Flint 
 river, where the stage drove into a large flat boat or 
 raft. The night was mild, but dark, and the scene 
 which presented itself very picturesque. A great 
 
 c 4 
 
32 ROUGH TRAVELLING. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 number of negroes were standing on both banks, 
 chattering incessantly, and holding in their hands 
 large blazing torches of pine-wood, which threw a 
 red light on the trees around. The river was much 
 swollen, but we crossed without impediment. It 
 was the first stream we had come to of those flowing 
 into the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Our coach was built on a plan almost universal in 
 America, and like those used in some parts of 
 France, with three seats, the middle one provided 
 with a broad leather strap, to lean back upon. The 
 best places are given to the ladies, and a husband is 
 seated next his wife. There are no outside pas- 
 sengers, except occasionally one sitting by the 
 driver's side. We were often called upon, on a 
 sudden, to throw our weight first on the right, and 
 then on the left side, to balance the vehicle and 
 prevent an upset, when one wheel was sinking into a 
 deep rut. Sometimes all the gentlemen were or- 
 dered to get out in the dark, and walk in the wet 
 and muddy road. The coachman would then whip 
 on his steeds over a fallen tree or deep pool, causing 
 tremendous jolts, so that my wife was thrown first 
 against the roof, and then against the sides of the 
 lightened vehicle, having almost reason to envy those 
 who were merely splashing through the mud. To 
 sleep was impossible, but at length, soon after day- 
 break, we found ourselves entering the suburbs of 
 Columbus; and the first sight we saw there was a 
 long line of negroes, men, women, and boys, well 
 dressed and very merry, talking and laughing, who 
 stopped to look at our coach. On inquiry, we were 
 
CHAP. XXII. ] COLUMBUS. 33 
 
 told that it was a gang of slaves, probably from Vir- 
 ginia, going to the market to be sold. 
 
 Columbus, like so many towns on the borders of 
 the granitic and tertiary regions, is situated at the 
 head of the navigation of a large river, and the 
 rapids of the Chatahoochie are well seen from the 
 bridge by which it is here spanned. The vertical 
 rise and fall of this river, which divides Georgia 
 from Alabama, amounts to no less than sixty or 
 seventy feet in the course of the year; and the 
 geologist should visit the country in November, 
 when the season is healthy, and the river low, for 
 then he may see exposed to view, not only the hori- 
 zontal tertiary strata, but the subjacent cretaceous 
 deposits, containing ammonites, baculites, and other 
 characteristic fossils. These organic remains are met 
 with some miles below the town, at a point called 
 " Snake's Shoals ; " and Dr. Boykin showed us a 
 collection of the fossils, at his agreeable villa in 
 the suburbs. In an excursion which I made with 
 Mr. Pond to the Upotoy Creek, I ascertained that 
 the cretaceous beds are overlaid everywhere by ter- 
 tiary strata, containing fossil wood and marine shells. 
 
 The last detachment of Indians, a party of no less 
 than 500, quitted Columbus only a week ago for 
 Arkansas, a memorable event in the history of the 
 settlement of this region, and part of an extensive 
 and systematic scheme steadily pursued by the Go- 
 vernment, of transferring the Aborigines from the 
 Eastern States to the Far- West. 
 
 Here, as at Milledgeville, the clearing away of the 
 woods, where these Creek Indians once pursued 
 
 c 5 
 
34 NEGRO AND WHITE MECHANICS. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 their game, has caused the soil, previously level and 
 unbroken, to be cut into by torrents, so that deep 
 gullies may everywhere be seen ; and I am assured 
 that a large proportion of the fish, formerly so 
 abundant in the Chatahoochie, have been stifled by 
 the mud. 
 
 The water-power at the rapids has been recently 
 applied to some newly-erected cotton mills, and 
 already an anti-free-trade party is beginning to be 
 formed. The masters of these factories hope, by- 
 excluding coloured men or, in other words, slaves 
 from all participation in the business, to render it 
 a genteel employment for white operatives ; a mea- 
 sure which places in a strong light the inconsistencies 
 entailed upon a community by slavery and the an- 
 tagonism of races, for there are numbers of coloured 
 mechanics in all these Southern States very expert 
 at trades requiring much more skill and knowledge 
 than the functions of ordinary work-people in fac- 
 tories. Several New Englanders, indeed, who have 
 come from the North to South Carolina and Georgia, 
 complain to me that they cannot push on their 
 children here, as carpenters, cabinet-makers, black- 
 smiths, and in other such crafts, because the planters 
 bring up the most intelligent of their slaves to these 
 occupations. The landlord of an inn confessed to 
 me, that, being a carrier, he felt himself obliged to 
 have various kinds of work done by coloured artisans, 
 because they were the slaves of planters who employed 
 him in his own line. " They interfere," said he, 
 "with the fair competition of white mechanics, by 
 whom I could have got the work better done." 
 
CHAP. XXII.] JOUKNEY TO MONTGOMERY. 35 
 
 These Northern settlers are compelled to pre- 
 serve a discreet silence about such grievances when 
 in the society of Southern slave-owners, but are 
 open and eloquent in descanting upon them to a 
 stranger. They are struck with the difficulty ex- 
 perienced in raising money here, by small shares, for 
 the building of mills. " Why," say they, " should 
 all our cotton make so long a journey to the North, 
 to be manufactured there, and come back to us at so 
 high a price ? It is because all spare cash is sunk 
 here in purchasing negroes. In order to get a 
 week's work done for you, you must buy a negro 
 out and out for life." 
 
 From Columbus we travelled fifty-five miles west to 
 Chehaw, to join a railway, which was to carry us on to 
 Montgomery. The stage was drawn by six horses, 
 but as it was daylight we were not much shaken. 
 We passed through an undulating country, sometimes 
 on the tertiary sands covered with pines, sometimes 
 in swamps enlivened by the green palmetto and tall 
 magnolia, and occasionally crossing into the borders 
 of the granitic region, where there appeared imme- 
 diately a mixture of oak, hiccory, and pine. There 
 was no grass growing under the pine trees, and the 
 surface of the ground was everywhere strewed with 
 yellow leaves, and the fallen needles of the fir trees. 
 The sound of the wind in the boughs of the long- 
 leaved pines always reminded me of the waves break- 
 ing on a distant sea-shore, and it was agreeable to 
 hear it swelling gradually, and then dying away, as 
 the breeze rose arid fell. Observing at Chehaw a 
 great many stumps of these firs in a new clearing, I 
 
 c 6 
 
36 AGE OF PINE TREES. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 was curious to know how many years it would take 
 to restore such a forest if once destroyed. The first 
 stump I examined measured 2 feet 5 inches in di- 
 ameter at the height of 3 feet from the ground, and 
 I counted in it 120 rings of annual growth; a second 
 measured less by 2 inches in diameter, yet was 260 
 years old ; a third, at the height of 2 feet above the 
 ground, although 180 years old, was only 2 feet in 
 diameter ; a fourth^ the oldest I could find, measured, 
 at the height of 3 feet above its base, 4 feet, and pre- 
 sented 320 rings of annual growth; and I could have 
 counted a few more had the tree been cut down even 
 with the soil. The height of these trees varied from 
 70 to 120 feet. From the time taken to acquire 
 the above dimensions, we may confidently infer that 
 no such trees will be seen by posterity, after the 
 clearing of the country, except where they may 
 happen to be protected for ornamental purposes. I 
 once asked a surveyor in Scotland why, in planting 
 woods with a view to profit, the oak was generally 
 neglected, although I had found many trunks of very 
 large size buried in peat-mosses. He asked if I had 
 ever counted the rings of growth in the buried trees, 
 to ascertain their age, and I told him I had often 
 reckoned up 300, and once upwards of 800 rings; to 
 which he replied, " then plant your shillings in the 
 funds, and you will see how much faster they would 
 grow." 
 
 Before reaching Chehaw, we stopped to dine at a 
 small log-house in the woods, and had prepared our 
 minds, from outward appearances, to put up with 
 bad fare ; but, on entering, we saw on the table a 
 
CHAP. XXII.] RUNAWAY SLAVE. 37 
 
 wild turkey roasted, venison steaks, and a partridge- 
 pie, all the product of the neighbouring forest, 
 besides a large jug of delicious milk, a luxury not 
 commonly met with so far south. 
 
 The railway cars between Chehaw and Mont- 
 gomery consisted, like those in the North, of a long 
 apartment, with cross benches and a middle passage. 
 There were many travellers, and among them one 
 rustic, evidently in liquor, who put both his feet on 
 one of the cushioned benches, and began to sing. 
 The conductor told him to put his feet down, and 
 afterwards, on his repeating the offence, lifted them 
 off. On his doing it a third time, the train was 
 ordered to stop, and the man was told, in a pe- 
 remptory tone, to get out immediately. He was a 
 strong-built labourer, and would have been much 
 more than a match for the conductor, had he re- 
 sisted ; but he instantly complied, knowing, doubt- 
 less, that the officer's authority would be backed by 
 the other passengers, if they were appealed to. We 
 left him seated on the ground, many miles from any 
 habitation, and with no prospect of another train 
 passing for many a long hour. As we go south- 
 wards, we see more cases of intoxication, and hear 
 more swearing. 
 
 At one of the stations we saw a runaway slave, 
 who had been caught and handcuffed ; the first I had 
 fallen in with in irons in the course of the present 
 journey. On seeing him, a New Englander, who 
 had been with us in the stage before we reached 
 Chehaw, began to hold forth on the miserable con- 
 dition of the negroes in Alabama, Louisiana, Mis- 
 
38 ABOLITIONIST " WRECKER." [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 sissippi, and some other States which I had not yet 
 visited. For a time I took for granted all he said of 
 the sufferings of the coloured race in those regions, 
 the cruelty of the overseers, their opposition to the 
 improvement and education of the blacks, and espe- 
 cially to their conversion to Christianity. I began 
 to shudder at what I was doomed to witness in the 
 course of my further journey ings in the South and 
 West. He was very intelligent, and so well in- 
 formed on politics and political economy, that at first 
 I thought myself fortunate in meeting with a man so 
 competent to give me an unprejudiced opinion on 
 matters of which he had been an eye-witness. At 
 length, however, suspecting a disposition to exag- 
 gerate, and a party-feeling on the subject, I gradually 
 led him to speak of districts with which I was already 
 familiar, especially South Carolina and Georgia. I 
 immediately discovered that there also he had every- 
 where seen the same horrors and misery. He went 
 so far as to declare that the piny woods all around 
 us were full of hundreds of runaways, who subsisted 
 on venison and wild hogs ; assured me that I had 
 been deceived if I imagined that the coloured men in 
 the upper country, where they have mingled more with 
 the whites, were more progressive ; nor was it true 
 that the Baptists and Methodists had been successful 
 in making proselytes. Few planters, he affirmed, 
 had any liking for their negroes ; and, lastly, that a 
 war with England about Oregon, unprincipled as 
 would be the measure on the part of the democratic 
 faction, would have at least its bright side, for it 
 might put an end to slavery. ff How in the world," 
 
CHAP. XXII] ABOLITIONIST " WKECKEE." 39 
 
 asked I, " could it effect this object ? " " England," 
 he replied, " would declare all the slaves in the South 
 free, and thus cripple her enemy by promoting a 
 servile war. The negroes would rise, and although, 
 no doubt, there would be a great loss of life and 
 property, the South would nevertheless be a gainer 
 by ridding herself of this most vicious and impo- 
 verishing institution." This man had talked to me 
 so rationally on a variety of topics so long as he was 
 restrained by the company of Southern fellow-pas- 
 sengers from entering on the exciting question of 
 slavery, that I now became extremely curious to 
 know what business had brought him to the South, 
 and made him a traveller there for several years. 
 I was told by the conductor that he was "a wrecker ;" 
 and I learnt, in explanation of the term, that he was 
 a commercial agent, and partner of a northern house 
 which had great connexions in the South. To him 
 had been assigned the unenviable task, in those times 
 of bankruptcy and repudiation which followed the 
 financial crisis of 1839-40, of seeking out and re- 
 covering bad debts, or of seeing what could be saved 
 out of the wreck of insolvent firms or the estates of 
 bankrupt planters. He had come, therefore, into 
 contact with many adventurers who had been over- 
 trading, and speculators who had grown unscrupu- 
 lous, when tried by pecuniary difficulties. Every 
 year, on revisiting the Free States, he had contrasted 
 their progress with the condition of the South, which 
 by comparison seemed absolutely stationary. His 
 thoughts had been perpetually directed to the eco- 
 nomical and moral evils of slavery, especially its 
 
40 NEWS-BOYS. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 injuriousness to the fortunes and characters of that 
 class of the white aristocracy with which he had most 
 to do. In short, he had seen what was bad in the 
 system through the magnifying and distorting me- 
 dium of his own pecuniary losses, and had imbibed 
 a strong anti-negro feeling, which he endeavoured to 
 conceal from himself, under the cloak of a love of 
 freedom and progress. While he was inveighing 
 against the cruelty of slavery, he had evidently dis- 
 covered no remedy for the mischief but one, the hope 
 of which he confessedly cherished, for he was ready 
 to precipitate measures which would cause the Afri- 
 cans to suffer that fate which the aboriginal Indians 
 have experienced throughout the Union. 
 
 When I inquired if, in reality, there were hun- 
 dreds of runaway slaves in the woods, every one 
 laughed at the idea. As a general rule, they said, 
 the negroes are well fed, and, when they are so, will 
 very rarely attempt to escape unless they have com- 
 mitted some crime : even when some punishment is 
 hanging over them, they are more afraid of hunger 
 than of a whipping. 
 
 Although we had now penetrated into regions 
 where the schoolmaster has not been much abroad, 
 we observe that the railway cars are everywhere 
 attended by news-boys, who, in some places, are 
 carried on a whole stage, walking up and down " the 
 middle aisle " of the long car. Usually, however, at 
 each station, they, and others who sell apples and 
 biscuits, may be seen calculating the exact speed at 
 which it is safe to jump off, and taking, with the 
 utmost coolness, a few cents in change a moment 
 
CHAP. XXII.] NEWSPAPER PRESS. 41 
 
 before they know that the rate acquired by the train 
 will be dangerous. I never witnessed an accident, 
 but as the locomotive usually runs only fifteen miles 
 an hour, and is some time before it reaches half that 
 pace, the urchins are not hurried as they would be in 
 England. One of them was calling out, in the midst 
 of the pine-barren between Columbus and Chehaw, 
 " A novel, by Paul le Koch, the Bulvver of France, 
 for 25 cents all the go ! more popular than the 
 Wandering Jew," &c. Newspapers for a penny or 
 two-pence are bought freely by the passengers ; and, 
 having purchased them at random wherever we went 
 in the Northern, Middle, Southern, and Western 
 States, I came to the conclusion that the press of 
 the United States is quite as respectable as our own. 
 In the present crisis the greater number of prints 
 condemn the war party, expose their motives, and do 
 justice to the equitable offers of the English ministry 
 in regard to Oregon. A large portion of almost 
 every paper is devoted to literary extracts, to novels, 
 tales, travels, and often more serious works. Some 
 of them are specially devoted to particular religious 
 sects, and nearly all of this class are against war. 
 There are also some "temperance," and, in the 
 North, " anti-slavery " papers. 
 
 We at length arrived at Montgomery, on the river 
 Alabama, where I staid a few days to examine the 
 geology of the neighbourhood. From the high 
 ground near the town there is a distant view of the 
 hills of the granitic region around Wetumpka. But 
 the banks of the river at Montgomery are composed 
 of enormous beds of unconsolidated gravel, thirty 
 
42 CRETACEOUS STRATA. [CHAP. XXII. 
 
 feet thick, alternating with red clay and sand, which 
 I at first supposed to be tertiary, from their re- 
 semblance to strata near Macon and Augusta in 
 Georgia. The fossil shells, however, of the accom- 
 panying marls (Inoceramus and Rostellaria arenaruni), 
 soon convinced me that they belonged to the cre- 
 taceous formation. About three miles south of the 
 town there is a broad zone of calcareous marl, con- 
 stituting what is called the prairie, or cane-brake 
 country, bare of natural wood, and where there is so 
 great a want of water, that it was at first difficult for 
 settlers to establish themselves upon it, until, by aid 
 of the Artesian auger, they obtained an abundant 
 supply from a depth of 300, and often 500 feet, 
 derived from the underlying gravelly and sandy beds. 
 Farther from the outcrop of these gravelly beds 
 borings have been made 800 feet deep without suc- 
 cess. The temperature of the water was found to 
 increase in proportion to the depth of the wells. 
 A proprietor told me he had found it very difficult 
 to get trees to grow on the prairie land, but he 
 had succeeded, with great care, in rearing a few- 
 mulberries. 
 
 The common name for themarlite, of which this tree- 
 less soil is composed, is " rotten limestone." I found 
 many lumps on the surface, much resembling white 
 chalk, and containing shells of the genera, Inocera- 
 mus, Baculite, Ammonite, Hippurite, and that well- 
 known fossil of the English chalk, Ostrea vesicularis. 
 
 In the market-place of Montgomery, I saw an 
 auctioneer selling slaves, and calling but, as I passed, 
 " Going for 300 dollars." The next day another 
 
CHAP. XXII.] CURFEW. 43 
 
 auctioneer was selling horses in the same place. 
 Nearly the same set of negroes, men, women, and 
 boys, neatly dressed, were paraded there, day after 
 day. I was glad to find that some settlers from the 
 North, who had resided here many years, were an- 
 noyed at the publicity of this exhibition. Such 
 traffic, they say, might as well be carried on quietly in 
 a room. Another resident, who had come from Ken- 
 tucky, was forming a party, who desire to introduce 
 into Alabama a law, like one now in force in Ken- 
 tucky, that no negroes shall henceforth be imported. 
 By that statute, the increase of slaves has, he says, 
 been checked. A case had lately occurred, of a dealer 
 who tried to evade the law by bringing forty slaves 
 into Kentucky, and narrowly escaped being fined 
 600 dollars for each, but had the ingenuity to get off 
 by pretending that he was ignorant of the prohibi- 
 tion, and was merely passing through with them to 
 Louisiana. " By allowing none to come in, while so 
 many are emigrating to the West and Texas, we may 
 hope," he said, " very soon to grow white." 
 
 Every evening, at nine o'clock, a great bell, or cur- 
 few, tolls in the market-place of Montgomery, after 
 which no coloured man is permitted to be abroad without 
 a pass. This custom has, I understand, continued ever 
 since some formidable insurrections, which happened 
 many years ago, in Virginia and elsewhere. I was glad 
 to find that the episcopal clergyman at Montgomery 
 had just established a Sunday school for the negroes. 
 I also hear that a party in this church, already com- 
 prising a majority of the clergy, are desirous that the 
 negro congregations should be represented in their 
 
44 PKOTKACTED MEETING.. [CHAP. XXIL 
 
 triennial conventions, which would be an important 
 step towards raising the black race to a footing of 
 equality with the whites. In these times when many 
 here are entertaining a hostile feeling towards Great 
 Britain, and when the government is lending itself 
 to the excitement, I find the ministers of the Epis- 
 copal Church peculiarly free from such a spirit, and 
 cherishing a desire for peace and a friendly disposi- 
 tion towards the English. The Methodists had just 
 been holding a protracted meeting in Montgomery, 
 and such is the effect of sympathy and of the spirit 
 of competition, that the religious excitement had 
 spread to all the other sectst 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] MONTGOMERY TO MOBILE. 45 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Voyage from Montgomery to Mobile. Description of a large 
 River Steamer. Shipping of Cotton at Bluffs. Fossils 
 collected at Landings. Collision of Steamer with the Soughs 
 of Trees. Story of a German Stewardess. Emigration of 
 Stephanists from Saxony. Perpetuation of Stephanist and 
 Mormon Doctrines. Distinct Table for Coloured and White 
 Passengers. Landing at Claiborne by Torchlight. Fossil 
 Shells. 
 
 Wednesday, Jan. 28. 1846. THE steamer Ama- 
 ranth was lying at the bluff at Montgomery on 
 the Alabama river, and was advertised to sail for 
 Mobile, a navigation of more than 300 miles, at 
 ten o'clock in the morning. From information ob- 
 tained here, I had determined to follow up my 
 geological inquiries by going next to Tuscaloosa, on 
 the Black Warrior river, about 100 miles distant 
 by land, in a north-westerly direction. Every one 
 agreed, however, that it was better for me to go 800 
 miles by water, half of it against the stream, instead 
 of taking the direct road ; so I determined to go first 
 to Mobile, due south, and then up the Tombecbee to 
 the capital of Alabama, being assured that I should 
 gain, both in time and money, by this great detour. 
 Should I attempt the straight road at this season, no 
 one could ensure my making two miles an hour, so 
 tenaciously does the marlite of the cretaceous forma- 
 
46 SOUTHERN STEAM-BOAT. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 tion, when it is wet, hold the carriage wheels which 
 sink into it. 
 
 Accustomed to the punctuality of northern steam- 
 ers, we got down with our luggage to the landing at 
 the hour appointed, but were told they were not 
 ready. I re-examined a good geological section in 
 the bluff, till a friend came to me, and regretted I 
 had come down to the boat so early, for perhaps she 
 might not sail till the next day. I was much annoyed 
 at this intelligence, although I had been forewarned 
 that much less value was set on time in the Southern 
 States than in the North. At length we went on 
 board, and, having engaged a good private cabin, 
 made up our minds to read and write there, and 
 consider it as our inn. It was the first of these mag- 
 nificent southern river boats we had seen, fitted up 
 for the two-fold purpose of carrying as many bales of 
 cotton as can be heaped upon them without their gink- 
 ing, and taking in as many passengers as can enjoy 
 the luxuries which southern manners and a hot cli- 
 mate require, especially spacious cabins, abundance 
 of fresh air, and protection from the heat of the sun. 
 We afterwards saw many larger steam-vessels, and 
 some of them fitted up in finer style, but none which 
 made such an impression on our minds as the 
 Amaranth. A vessel of such dimensions makes a 
 grand appearance in a river so narrow as the Alabama 
 at Montgomery ; whereas, if she were a third longer, 
 she would be comparatively insignificant on the 
 Mississippi. The principal cabins run the whole 
 length of the ship on a deck above that on which 
 the machinery is placed, and where the cotton is 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] SOUTHERN STEAM-BOAT. 47 
 
 piled up. This upper deck is chiefly occupied with 
 a handsome saloon, about 200 feet long, the ladies' 
 cabin at one end, opening into it with folding doors. 
 Sofas, rocking-chairs, tables, and a stove are placed in 
 this room, which is lighted by windows from above. 
 On each side of it is a row of sleeping apartments, each 
 communicating by one door with the saloon, while 
 the other leads out to the guard, as they call it, a 
 long balcony or gallery, covered with a shade or 
 verandah, which passes round the whole boat. The 
 second class, or deck passengers, sleep where they 
 can on the lower floor, where, besides the engine and 
 the cotton, there are prodigious heaps of wood, which 
 are devoured with marvellous rapidity by the furnace, 
 and are as often restored at the different landings, a 
 set of negroes being purposely hired for that work. 
 
 These steamers, notwithstanding their size, draw 
 very little water, for they are constructed for rivers 
 which rise and fall very rapidly. They cannot quite 
 realise the boast of a Western captain, " that he 
 could sail wherever it was damp;" but I was as- 
 sured that some of them could float in two-foot 
 water. The high-pressure steam escapes into the air, 
 by a succession of explosions alternately from the pipes 
 of the two engines. It is a most unearthly sound, like 
 that of some huge monster gasping for breath ; and 
 when they clear the boilers of the sediment collected 
 from the river-water, it is done by a loud and pro- 
 tracted discharge of steam, which reminded us of the 
 frightful noise made by the steam gun exhibited at 
 the Adelaide Gallery in London. Were it not for 
 the power derived from the high-pressure principle, 
 
48 SOUTHERN STEAM-BOAT. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 of blowing out from the boilers the deposit collected 
 in them, the muddiness of the American rivers would 
 soon clog the machinery. Every stranger who has 
 heard of fatal accidents by the bursting of boilers 
 believes, the first time he hears this tremendous 
 noise, that it is all over with him, and is surprised to 
 see that his companions evince no alarm. Habit 
 soon reconciled us to the sound ; and I was amused 
 afterwards to observe that the wild birds perched on 
 the trees which overhung the river, looked on with 
 indifference while the paddle-wheels were splashing 
 in the water, and the steam-pipes puffing and gasping 
 loud enough to be heard many miles off. 
 
 After we had been on board a great part of the 
 day, we at length got under weigh in the afternoon ; 
 but. what was my surprise when I actually discovered 
 that we were ascending the stream instead of sailing 
 down towards Mobile. On asking the meaning of 
 this proceeding, the mate told me, very coolly, that 
 the captain had just heard of some cotton ready for 
 exportation some miles above Montgomery. To this 
 higher landing we repaired ; but news being sent that 
 a rival steam-boat was making her way up the river, 
 the Amaranth set off down stream in good earnest, 
 moving by aid of her powerful engines and the force 
 of the mid-current with such velocity, that I could 
 readily believe that 800 miles by river was shorter 
 than 100 by land. 
 
 The pilot put into my hands a list of the landings 
 on the Alabama river from Wetumpka to Mobile, 
 no less than 200 of them in a distance of 434 miles. 
 A. small part only of these consisted of bluffs, or 
 
CHAP. XXIII. ] SHIPPING COTTON AT BLUFFS. 49 
 
 those points where the high land comes up to the 
 river's edge in other words, where there is no allu- 
 vial plain between the great stream and the higher 
 country. These spots, being the only ones not 
 liable to inundation, and which can therefore 
 serve as inland ports when the river is full, or 
 when the largest boats can sail up and down, are of 
 great importance in the inland navigation of the 
 country. A proprietor whose farm is thus advan- 
 tageously situated, usually builds a warehouse, not 
 only for storing up for embarkation the produce of 
 his own land, but large enough to take in the cotton 
 of his neighbours. A long and steeply-inclined plane 
 is cut in the high bank, down which one heavy bale 
 after another is made to slide. The negroes show 
 great dexterity in guiding these heavy packages ; but 
 occasionally they turn over and over before reaching 
 the deck of the boat, and sometimes, though rarely, 
 run off the course and plunge into the river, where 
 they float till recovered. Had I not been engaged 
 in geological inquiries, I should probably have had 
 my patience severely tried by such repeated stoppings 
 at every river cliff; but it so happened that the 
 captain always wanted to tarry at the precise points 
 where alone any sections of the cretaceous and ter- 
 tiary strata were visible, and was often obliged to 
 wait long enough to enable me to make a tolerably 
 extensive collection of the most characteristic fossils. 
 In the present instance and I shall have by-and-by 
 to mention other similar ones Captain Bragdon 
 was not only courteous, but perfectly understood, 
 and entered into my pursuits, and had himself col- 
 VOL. II. D 
 
50 FOSSILS COLLECTED AT LANDINGS. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 lected organic remains for a friend in the college of 
 Louisville, Kentucky ; so that while the cotton or 
 wood were taking on board, he would often assist me 
 in my labours. Were it not for one serious drawback, 
 a cruise in a cotton steamer would be the paradise of 
 geologists. Unfortunately, in the season when the 
 water is high, and when the facilities of locomotion 
 are greatest, the base of every bluff is many feet, 
 and sometimes fathoms, under water, and the lower 
 portion of a series of horizontal strata is thus entirely 
 concealed from view. The bluffs which I first exa- 
 mined consisted of a marlite divided into horizontal 
 layers as regular as those of the lias of Europe, and 
 which might have been taken for lias but for the 
 included fossils, which prove them to belong to the 
 cretaceous formation. At Gentreport these unc- 
 tuous marls or calcareous clays are called by the 
 people soap-stone, and form cliffs 150 feet in per- 
 pendicular height, in which, as well as at Selma, 
 I collected the large Gryphcsa costata and the Ostrea 
 falcata, more than one species of Inoceramus, and 
 other characteristic fossil shells. At White Bluff, 
 where the blue marlite whitens- when exposed to the 
 air, a fine range of precipices covered with wood 
 forms a picturesque feature in the scenery ; but I 
 obtained the richest harvest of cretaceous fossils far 
 below, at a landing called Prairie Bluff. 
 
 The banks of the Alabama, like those of the Sa- 
 vannah and Alatamaha rivers, are fringed with canes, 
 over which usually towers the deciduous cypress, 
 covered with much pendant moss. The misletoe 
 enlivens the boughs of several trees, still out of 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] COLLISION WITH TREES. 51 
 
 leaf, and now and then, through an opening in the 
 thicket bordering the river, the evergreen pine-forest 
 appears in the back-ground. Some of the largest 
 trees on the banks are sycamores (Platanus occiden- 
 talis), called button-wood, one of which I measured, 
 and found it to be eighteen feet in circumference. 
 The old bark is continually peeling off, and the new 
 is as white as if the trunk of the tree had been 
 painted. 
 
 When it was growing dusk, and nearly all had 
 retired to their cabins, and some to their beds, we 
 were startled by a loud crash, as if parts of the wood- 
 work of the steamer were giving way over our heads. 
 At the same moment a shower of broken glass came 
 rattling down on the floor of the cabin. As I ex- 
 pected to land in the course of the night at Clai- 
 borne, I had not taken off my clothes, so I rushed 
 immediately on deck, and learnt from the captain 
 that there was no danger. I then went down to tell 
 the passengers, especially the women, who were na- 
 turally in no small alarm, that all was safe. I found 
 them, in great consternation, crowded together at 
 the door of the ladies' cabin, several mothers with 
 children in their arms. When I returned to see 
 what had happened, a most singular and novel 
 scene presented itself. Crash after crash of broken 
 spars and the ringing of shattered window-glasses 
 were still heard, and the confusion and noise were 
 indescribable. " Don't be alarmed ; we have only 
 got among the trees," said the captain. This, I 
 found, was no uncommon occurrence when these 
 enormous vessels are sweeping down at full speed 
 
 D 2 
 
52 COLLISION WITH TREES. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 in the flood season. Strange as it may seem, the 
 higher the waters rise the narrower is the river 
 channel. It is true that the adjoining swamps and low 
 lands are inundated far and wide ; but the steamers 
 must all pass between two rows of tall trees which 
 adorn the opposite banks, and as the branches of 
 these noble trees stretch half way over the stream, 
 the boat, when the river has risen forty or sixty feet, 
 must steer between them. In the dark, when they 
 are going at the rate of sixteen miles an hour or 
 more, and the bends are numerous, a slight miscal- 
 culation carries the woodwork of the great cabin in 
 among the heads of the trees. In this predicament 
 I found the Amaranth when I got on deck. Many 
 a strong bough had pierced right through the cabin- 
 windows on one side, throwing down the lights, and 
 smashing the wooden balustrade and the roof of the 
 long gallery, and tearing the canvas awning from the 
 verandah. The engine had been backed, or its 
 motion reversed, but the steamer, held fast by the 
 trees, was swinging round with the force of the 
 current. A large body of men were plying their 
 axes freely, not only cutting off boughs, but treating 
 with no respect the framework of he cabin itself. 
 I could not help feeling thankful that no branch had 
 obtruded itself into our berths. At length we got 
 off, and the carpenters and glaziers set to work 
 immediately to make repairs. 
 
 The evening before this adventure we had been 
 sitting for some hours enjoying the privacy of our 
 own state-room, from the windows of which we had 
 a good view of the river's bank, when at length my 
 
CHAP. XXIIL] A GERMAN STEWARDESS. 53 
 
 wife had thought it polite to visit the ladies' cabin, 
 as they might otherwise think her unsociable. She 
 found there a young Irish milliner who had come out 
 from the county of Monaghan, and was settled at 
 Sehna, one of the towns on this river, where she said 
 she was getting on extremely well. There was also 
 a cracker family, consisting of a squalling child and 
 its two parents, who were " moving to the Washita 
 river in Louisiana." The young mother was smoking 
 a pipe, which her husband, a rough-looking back- 
 woodsman, had politely lighted for her. As this prac- 
 tice was against the regulations, my wife joined the 
 other ladies in remonstrating, and she immediately 
 went out to smoke in the open air on the guard. I 
 had been before amused by seeing a girl, about nine 
 years old, employed, by way of imitating her elders, 
 in smoking a paper cigar on the deck, and a mother, 
 after suckling an infant of two years, give it some 
 tobacco to chew. 
 
 Another inmate of the ladies' cabin was a Ger- 
 man stewardess, who soon found out that my wife 
 understood her mother tongue, and, being in .great 
 want of sympathy, poured out her tale of suffer- 
 ing in the New World with the simplicity of cha- 
 racter and unreservedness of her countrywomen. 
 Seven years ago she had been a happy and con- 
 tented peasant at Chemnitz in Saxony, one of a 
 united family of Lutherans, when she was persuaded 
 by a priest to embrace the opinions of Martin Stephan, 
 a preacher of Dresden, who taught that all theolo- 
 gical study should be confined to the Bible ; that 
 literature and the fine arts, being of human, origin 
 
 D 3 
 
54 EMIGRATION OF STEPHAN1STS. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 and worldly in their nature, ought to be despised ; 
 that no one could enjoy freedom of conscience in 
 Germany ; and that the only path to salvation was 
 to follow him, and emigrate to North America. He 
 himself was to be their temporal and spiritual chief, 
 and to him they were to deliver up all their property. 
 In November, 1838, 700 victims of this impostor 
 embarked from Bremen, including six pastors and 
 four schoolmasters. One of the transports, the 
 Amelia, carrying about sixty emigrants, including 
 children, a crazy old ship, was never heard of again, 
 and doubtless foundered on the Atlantic. The other 
 carried Stephan and the rest of his followers to New 
 Orleans, from whence they ascended the Mississippi, 
 and founded a settlement, called Wittenberg, on a 
 rich, aguish flat, bordering the Missouri, above St. 
 Louis. Here one fourth of their number were swept 
 off by fever, and Stephan, who had deserted a wife 
 and nine children in Germany, was detected carrying 
 on a licentious intercourse with some of the women of 
 the new community. Before, however, this scandal 
 became notorious, he contrived to make off with all 
 the money which had been entrusted to him to buy 
 land for the new colony. Hanne Rottgen, the young 
 woman who related this story, went, as soon as she 
 recovered from the ague, to St. Louis, her eyes 
 having at length been opened, like those of many 
 other Stephanists, to the fraud of which they had been 
 the dupes. She was immediately employed to attend a 
 hospital filled with numbers of her poor country people 
 of both sexes, who had been scalded by the bursting of 
 the boiler of a large steam-boat. After witnessing 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] STEPHANISTS AND MOKMONS. 55 
 
 the terrible sufferings and death of not a few of these 
 emigrants, she had engaged herself as stewardess in 
 several vessels, and at length in the Amaranth. 
 " But what became of Stephan ? " asked my wife. 
 " He escaped entirely," she said, " for you know, 
 madam, there is no law in this country as there is in 
 Saxony ; but for all that, this is the land for the poor 
 to thrive in. They pay me twenty dollars a month, 
 and I am saving money fast ; for, though home-sick, 
 I cannot, after all my follies, return and throw myself 
 penniless on my relations." Here she began to shed 
 tears and to be much affected, wondering whether 
 her mother was still alive. She had written to ask 
 her forgiveness, as she had been her darling, and in 
 spite of her prayers and entreaties had left her almost 
 heart-broken. " I thought it my duty to go ; for 
 how should we poor peasants not be deceived when 
 so many of our clergy were led astray by the cunning 
 of that artful man ? I have written to my two sis- 
 ters to tell them how bitterly I repent, and to ask 
 them to pardon me." 
 
 When I afterwards talked of this adventure in a 
 steamer on the Mississippi, a fellow traveller ex- 
 claimed, " But would you believe it, there are still 
 many Stephanists ? " " Why not," said I, " are 
 there not also many thousand Mormons ? The fraud 
 of Stephan was not more transparent than that of 
 Joseph Smith or his vision, and the story he related 
 so circumstantially of records engraven on metallic 
 plates, shining like gold, which were delivered to him 
 by the angel of the Lord on the 22d day of Septem- 
 ber, 1827." 
 
 D 4 
 
56 STEPHANISTS AND MORMONS. [CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Are we then to despair of the progress of the 
 human mind in inquiries in which it must ever 
 take the deepest interest, because in a land where 
 there are so many schools, and so many millions 
 of readers, a free press, and religious toleration, 
 it is so hard to extinguish a belief in the grossest 
 impostures ? By no means in the doctrines 
 taught by Stephan and Smith there was a mixture of 
 some fiction with much truth ; they adopted nearly 
 all the highest truths of theology common to the pre- 
 vailing religions of the world, with the addition of 
 nearly all which Christians believe. In each sect the 
 difficulty consists in clearing away a greater or less 
 amount of human error and invention from the divine 
 truths which they obscure or conceal. The multi- 
 tude are taught by their spiritual guides in three 
 fourths of Christendom, that they are not to inquire 
 for themselves. Even of the Protestant minority, 
 who profess that it is their right and duty to exercise 
 their own judgment, how many are there who annex 
 the condition "provided they arrive at the conclusions 
 to which the Church has come, without which they 
 cannot be saved ! " What more would a Stephanist or 
 Mormon preacher ask, than the privilege of borrow- 
 ing and inculcating these maxims ? and how, if the 
 use of them be freely granted, and they have motives 
 for perpetuating some peculiar sectarian dogmas, is 
 the delusion ever to end ? 
 
 In a Southern steamer abundant opportunities are 
 afforded of witnessing the inconveniences arising out 
 of the singular relation subsisting between the ne- 
 goes, whether free or slave, and the white race. 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] DEMOCRACY AND SLAVERY. 57 
 
 The succession of breakfasts, dinners, and suppers 
 entailed by it appears endless. In a Northern boat, 
 after the passengers and officers of the ship have 
 dined, the few servants who waited on them have 
 their meal ; but here we had five distinct repasts 
 set out, one after the other. First, the cabin pas- 
 sengers dine ; then come the white nurses, children, 
 and officers of the ship ; thirdly, the deck pas- 
 sengers, being white, answering to our steerage ; 
 fourthly, the white waiters, waited upon by co- 
 loured men ; fifthly, coloured passengers, free or 
 slave, and coloured waiters. It sometimes happens 
 that a free negro who has made a good deal of 
 money is on board ; he must wait till all the white 
 aristocracy, including the waiters, are served, and 
 then take his turn with the lowest of the blacks. 
 To a European this exclusiveness seems the more 
 unnatural and offensive in the Southern States, be- 
 cause they make louder professions even than the 
 Northerners of democratic principles and love of 
 equality. I must do them the justice, however, to 
 admit, that they are willing to carry out their prin- 
 ciples to great lengths when the white race alone is 
 concerned. I heard of a newly-arrived Irish ditcher 
 at Chehaw, who was astonished when invited to sit 
 down at table with his employer, a proprietor in the 
 neighbourhood, who thought it necessary to recog- 
 nise him as an equal. On one occasion, when I 
 visited a lawyer at his country-house in Alabama 
 one accustomed to the best society of a large city, 
 and the ladies of whose family were refined and cul- 
 tivated he felt it incumbent on him, to my great 
 
 D 5 
 
58 LANDING AT CLAIBOKNE. [CHAP. XXIII 
 
 discomfiture, to invite the driver of my gig, a half- 
 caste Indian, who travelled without any change 
 of clothes, to sit down with us at table. He was of 
 a dark shade, but the blood was Indian, not African, 
 and he was therefore one of the Southern aristocracy. 
 The man was modest and unobtrusive, and scarcely 
 spoke ; but it need scarcely be said, that his pre- 
 sence checked the freedom of conversation, and I 
 was glad when his duties in the stable called him 
 away. 
 
 In the course of the night we were informed that 
 the Amaranth had reached Claiborne. Here we 
 found a flight of wooden steps, like a ladder, lead- 
 ing up the nearly perpendicular bluff, which was 
 150 feet high. By the side of these steps was a 
 framework of wood, forming the inclined plane down 
 which the cotton bales were lowered by ropes. 
 Captain Bragdon politely gave his arm to my wife, 
 and two negroes preceded us with blazing torches of 
 pine-wood, throwing their light on the bright shining 
 leaves of several splendid magnolias which covered 
 the steep. We were followed by a long train of 
 negroes, each carrying some article of our baggage. 
 Having ascended the steps, we came to a flat terrace, 
 covered with grass, the first green sward we had 
 seen for many weeks, arid found there a small, quiet 
 inn, where we resolved to spend some days, to make 
 a collection of the fossil tertiary shells, so well 
 known to geologists as abounding in the strata of 
 this cliff. About 400 species, belonging to the 
 Eocene formation, derived from this classic ground, 
 have already been named, and they agree, some of 
 
CHAP. XXIII.] FOSSIL REMAINS. 59 
 
 them specifically, and a much greater number in 
 their generic forms, with the fossils of the middle 
 division of the deposits of the same age of London 
 and Hampshire.* 
 
 The remains of the zeuglodon have been also 
 found, by Mr. Hale, in this cliff; but, although I 
 met with many leaves of terrestrial plants, I could 
 neither obtain here, nor in any part of the United 
 States, a single bone of any terrestrial quadruped, 
 although we know that many of that class inhabited 
 Europe at this period. That some of these may be 
 discovered in America, I can hardly doubt ; but the 
 fact is worthy of remark, as connected with the 
 weight due to negative evidence. When strata have 
 been formed far from land, so as to afford few, if 
 any, indications of land plants, we must not look for 
 indications of air-breathing quadrupeds, nor infer 
 their non-existence, if it be so difficult to discover 
 them even at Claiborne, where the land, at the 
 period of the deposition of the marine strata, cannot 
 have been far distant, f 
 
 * They correspond with the middle or Bracklesham series of 
 Prestwich's triple division. See " Quart. Journ. of Geol. Soc.," 
 voL iii. May, 1847. 
 
 f Since writing the above, I hear that Mr. Hale, of Mobile, 
 has met with some bones of land quadrupeds in these strata. 
 For remarks on the strata at Claiborne, see a paper by the 
 Author, "Quart. Journ. of Geol. Society of London," vol. iv. 
 p. 10. June, 1848. 
 
 D 6 
 
60 MOVERS TO TEXAS. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 Claiborne, Alabama. Movers to Texas. State Debts and 
 Liabilities. Lending Money to half -settled States. Rumours 
 of War with England. Macon, Alabama. Sale of Slaves. 
 Drunkenness in Alabama. Laws against Duelling. Jealousy 
 of Wealth. Emigration to the West. Democratic Equality 
 of Whites. Skeleton of Fossil Whale or Zeuglodon. 
 Voyage to Mobile. 
 
 THE morning after our arrival at Claiborne, we 
 found at the inn a family of "movers" on their way 
 to Texas, sitting in the verandah enjoying the warm 
 sunshine after a shower of rain. At this season, 
 January 29th, the thermometer stood at 80 Fahren- 
 heit in the shade, and the air was as balmy as on an 
 English summer day. The green sward was covered 
 with an elegant flower, the Houstonia serpyllifolia, 
 different from the H. cerulea, so common in the New 
 England meadows. Before the house stood a row of 
 Pride-of-India trees (Melia azedarach\ laden with 
 bunches of yellow berries. I had been often told 
 by the negroes that the American robin (Turdus 
 miyratorius) "got drunk" on this fruit, and we had 
 now an opportunity of witnessing its narcotic pro- 
 perties ; for we saw some children playing with one 
 of these birds before the house, having caught it 
 after it had been eating freely of the berries. My 
 wife, seeing that the robin was in no small danger of 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] MOVERS TO TEXAS. 61 
 
 perishing, bought it of the children for some sugar- 
 plums, and it soon revived in our room, and flew out of 
 the window. In the evening we enjoyed a sight of 
 one of those glorious sunsets, the beauty of which in 
 these latitudes is so striking, when the clouds and 
 sky are lighted up with streaks of brilliant red, 
 yellow, and green, which, if a painter should repre- 
 sent faithfully, might seem as exaggerated and gaudy 
 as would the colours of an American forest in 
 autumn, when compared with European woods. 
 
 The movers, who were going to Texas, had come 
 down 200 miles from the upper country of Alabama, 
 and were waiting for some others of their kindred 
 who were to follow with their heavy waggons. One 
 of these families is carrying away no less than forty 
 negroes, and the cheerfulness with which these slaves 
 are going they know not where with their owners, 
 notwithstanding their usual dislike to quit the place 
 they have been brought up in, shows a strong bond 
 of union between the master and " his people." In 
 the last fifteen months, 1300 whites, and twice that 
 number of slaves, have quitted Alabama for Texas 
 and Arkansas, and they tell me that Monroe county 
 has lost 1 500 inhabitants. " Much capital," said one 
 of my informants, " is leaving this State, and no won- 
 der ; for if we remain here, we are reduced to the 
 alternative of high taxes to pay the interest of money 
 so improvidently borrowed from England, or to suffer 
 the disgrace of repudiation, which would be doubly 
 shameful, because the money was received in hard cash, 
 and lent out, often rashly, by the State, to farmers for 
 agricultural improvements. Besides," he added, " all 
 
62 STATE DEBTS. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 the expenses of Government were in reality defrayed 
 during several years by borrowed money, and the 
 burthen of the debt thrown on posterity. The 
 facility with which your English capitalists, in 
 1821, lent their cash to a State from which the In- 
 dians were not yet expelled, without reflecting on 
 the migratory nature of the white population, is as- 
 tonishing! The planters who got grants of your 
 money, and spent it, have nearly all of them moved 
 off and settled beyond the Mississippi. 
 
 "First, our Legislature negotiates a loan ; then bor- 
 rows to pay the interest of it ; then discovers, after 
 some years, that five out of the sixteen millions lent 
 to us have evaporated. Our democrats then stig- 
 matise those who vote for direct taxes to redeem 
 their pledges as ( the high taxation men.' Possibly 
 the capital and interest may eventually be made 
 good, but there is some risk at least of a suspension 
 of payment. At this moment the State is selling 
 land forfeited by those to whom portions of the bor- 
 rowed money were lent on mortgage, but the value 
 of property thus forced into the market, is greatly 
 depreciated." 
 
 Although, since my departure in 1846, Alabama 
 has not repudiated, I was struck with the warn- 
 ing here conveyed against lending money to a new 
 and half-formed community, where everything is 
 fluctuating and on the move a State from which 
 the Indians are only just retreating, and where few 
 whites ever continue to reside three years in one 
 place, where thousands are going with their negroes 
 to Louisiana, Texas, or Arkansas, where even the 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] WAK WITH ENGLAND. 63 
 
 County Court Houses and State Capitol are on the 
 move, the Court House of Clarke county, for ex- 
 ample, just shifted from Clarkesville to Macon, and 
 the seat of Legislature about to be transferred from 
 Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. In the midst of such in- 
 stability, a feeling of nationality, or State pride, cannot 
 easily be fostered. Nevertheless, the resources, both 
 mineral and agricultural, of so vast a territory as 
 Alabama, a fifth larger in area than the whole of 
 England proper, may enable them with moderate 
 economy to overcome all their difficulties. 
 
 Often was the question put to us, "Are you 
 moving ?" But at the small tavern at Claiborne it 
 was supposed that I might be the Methodist minister 
 whom they were expecting to come from the North, 
 to preach a trial sermon. Two Alabamans, who, as 
 I afterwards learnt, were under this persuasion, 
 were talking beside me of the chances of a war with 
 England, and praised the British ministers for their 
 offer of mediation. They condemned the folly of 
 the Government at Washington for not accepting it, 
 and agreed that the trade of Mobile would suffer 
 seriously, if they came to blows with the English. 
 " Calhoun," said one of them, " has pronounced in 
 favour of peace; but they say that the Governor 
 General of Canada is spending a mint of money on 
 fortifications." "It is satisfactory," replied his com- 
 panion, " to think that we have not yet spent a dollar 
 on preparations ; yet I doubt not, if we had to fight, 
 that the English would get the worst of it." " Yes," 
 said his friend, " we have whipped them twice, and 
 should whip them a third time." 
 
64 INNS OF SOUTHERN STATES. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 I am bound to state, that never once, where I was 
 known to be an Englishman, were any similar speeches, 
 uncourteous in their tone towards my country, 
 uttered in my hearing. 
 
 On the table of the inn at Claiborne, I found a 
 book entitled " Walsh's Appeal from the Judgment 
 of Great Britain," in which all the provocations given 
 to the Americans by English travellers, and the 
 daily and periodical press of Great Britain, were 
 brought together in one view. It is at least in- 
 structive, as showing that a disposition to run down 
 our Transatlantic brethren was quite as marked, and 
 perhaps even more conspicuous, before any of the 
 States had repudiated, than after the financial crisis of 
 1841. So long as such an unfriendly and disparaging 
 tone is encouraged, England does well to keep up a 
 larger military force in Canada, and a larger navy 
 than would otherwise be called for. It is only to be 
 regretted that the Chancellor of the Exchequer can- 
 not set down as a separate item, the charge for in- 
 dulging in anti- American prejudices, for it is possible 
 that John Bull, patient as he is of taxation, might 
 doubt whether the luxury was worth its cost. When 
 the landlord saw me making an extract from Walsh, 
 he begged me to accept the book; the second occa- 
 sion in this tour in which mine host had pressed me 
 to take a volume out of his library, which he had seen 
 me reading with interest. 
 
 There is a considerable uniformity in the scale of 
 charges in country inns in the Southern States. Great 
 hotels in large cities are more expensive, and small 
 inns in out-of-the-way places, where there were few 
 
CHAF. XXIV.] MACON, ALABAMA. 65 
 
 comforts, considerably cheaper. We never made any 
 bargains, and observed that the bill was always 
 equitably adjusted according to the accommodation 
 provided. 
 
 From Claiborne we crossed the Alabama river, 
 and were hospitably received by Mr. Blount, to 
 whom I had a letter of introduction from Mr. 
 Hamilton Couper. While my wife stayed with 
 Mrs. Blount at Woodlands, he took me in his 
 carriage through the forest, to the county town of 
 Macon, where he had business as a magistrate. 
 Macon (Alabama) happened to lie directly in my 
 way to Clarkesville, where I wished to examine the 
 geology of the region where the fossil skeletons of the 
 gigantic zeuglodon had been procured. The district 
 we passed through was situated in the fork of the 
 Alabama and Tombeckbee rivers, where the abo- 
 riginal forest was only broken here and there by a 
 few clearings. To travel with an accomplished and 
 agreeable resident proprietor, who could entirely 
 sympathise with my feelings and opinions in a district 
 so recently deserted by the Indians, was no small ad- 
 vantage. When I got to Macon, my attention was 
 forcibly called to the newness of things, by my 
 friend's pointing out to me the ground where there 
 had been a bloody fight with the Chocktaws and 
 Chickasaws, and I was told how many Indians had 
 been slaughtered there, and how the present clerk of 
 the Circuit Court was the last survivor of those who 
 had won the battle. The memory of General Jackson 
 is quite idolized here. It was enough for him to give 
 public notice in the papers that he should have great 
 
66 SALE OF SLAVES. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 pleasure in meeting his friends at a given point on a 
 given day, and there was sure to be a muster of 
 several hundred settlers, armed with rifles, and pre- 
 pared for a desperate fight with 5000 or 7000 
 Indians. 
 
 At Macon I was fortunate enough to meet with Mr. 
 William Pickett, a friend of Mr. Blount's, who, after 
 returning from the wars in Texas, had most actively 
 aided Mr. Koch in digging up the skeleton of the 
 fossil whale, or zeuglodon, near Clarkesville. As I 
 was anxious to know the true position of that re- 
 markable fossil, and to ascertain how much of it had 
 been obtained in a single locality, I gladly accepted 
 Mr. Pickett's offer, to act as guide in this excursion. 
 On repairing to the stable for the horse destined to 
 draw our vehicle, we were met with a singular piece 
 of intelligence. The stable-boy who had groomed it 
 in the morning was "up for sale." Without his 
 assistance we could not start, for this boy had the 
 key of the harness-room. So I determined to go to 
 the auction, where I found that a sale of land and 
 negroes was going on, in consequence of the State 
 having foreclosed one of those mortgages, before 
 alluded to, on which public money borrowed from Eu- 
 ropean capitalists had been lent by the State, for agri- 
 cultural improvements. I first saw an old man sold for 
 150 dollars ; then a boy, seventeen years old, knocked 
 down for 535 dollars, on which a bystander remarked 
 to me, " They are selling well to-day." Next came 
 on the young man in whose immediate release I was 
 more especially interested. He stepped forward, hat 
 in hand, with an easy natural air, seeming to be very 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] DRUNKENNESS IN ALABAMA. 67 
 
 indifferent to the scene around him, while the 
 auctioneer began to describe him as a fine griff (which 
 means three parts black), twenty -four years old, and 
 having many superior qualities, on which he enlarged 
 in detail. There was a sharp bidding, which lasted 
 only a few minutes, when he was sold for 675 dollars. 
 Mr. Pickett immediately asked him to get ready our 
 horse, and, as he came away with us, began to joke 
 with him, and told him " they have bid a hundred 
 dollars more for you than I would have given ; " to 
 which he replied, very complacently, " My master, 
 who has had the hire of me for three years, knew 
 better than to let any one outbid him." I discovered, 
 in short, that he had gone to the sale with a full con- 
 viction that the person whom he had been serving 
 was determined to buy him in, so that his mind was 
 quite at ease, and the price offered for him had made 
 him feel well satisfied with himself. 
 
 I witnessed no mal-treatment of slaves in this State, 
 but drunkenness prevails to such a degree among their 
 owners, that I cannot doubt that the power they exer- 
 cise must often be fearfully abused. In the morning the 
 proprietor of the house where I lodged was intoxicated, 
 yet taking fresh drams when I left him, and evidently 
 thinking me somewhat unpolite when I declined to 
 join him. In the afternoon, when I inquired at the 
 house of a German settler, whether I could see some 
 fossil -bones discovered on his plantation, I was told 
 that he was not at home ; in fact, that he had not re- 
 turned the night before, and was supposed to be lying 
 somewhere drunk in the woods, his wife having set 
 out in search of him in one direction, and his sister 
 
68 LAWS AGAINST DUELLING. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 in another. In the Congress at Washington I had 
 seen one of the representatives of this State, the 
 worse for liquor, on his legs in the House, and I 
 afterwards heard of his being killed in a brawl in 
 Alabama; yet every one here speaks of the great 
 reform which the Temperance movement has made, 
 it being no longer an offence to decline taking a 
 dram with your host. 
 
 When the conversation at Macon turned on duel- 
 ling, I remarked to one of the lawyers, that a new 
 bill had just been passed by the State of Mississippi, 
 inflicting political disfranchisement as a penalty on 
 every one concerned, whether as first or second, in a 
 duel. He laughed, and said, " We have a similar 
 statute here, but it is nugatory, for the forfeited rights 
 are always restored by the Legislature, as a matter of 
 course, if the offenders can prove that there was no 
 unfair play in the fight." Notwithstanding this 
 assertion, such enactments are not without their sig- 
 nificance, and I believe that the example of New 
 England and the progress of civilisation is rapidly 
 changing the tone of public opinion in regard to this 
 barbarous practice. Soon after I left Macon, the 
 news reached us of a fatal duel at Richmond, in 
 Virginia, between two newspaper editors, one of 
 whom, in the prime of life, and leaving a family de- 
 pendent on him, was killed ; and where the coroner's 
 jury had given a verdict of murder, although the 
 survivor was afterwards acquitted. The newspaper 
 comments on this tragedy, even in some of the 
 Southern States, were admirable. The following ex- 
 tract may be taken as an example : " Mr. P , 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] JEALOUSY OF WEALTH. 69 
 
 a man of fifty years' experience, had been called a 
 
 coward by a young man, Mr. Thomas R . This 
 
 touched his honour, which must be vindicated by 
 putting his duty as a son, a father, a citizen, a Chris- 
 tian, and a man at stake. The point to be proved 
 
 by being murdered, was that Tom R 's opinion 
 
 was incorrect, and that Mr. P was a man of 
 
 honour and of courage. Mr. P is dead. Did his 
 
 conduct prove that he was a brave or wise man ? Is 
 his reputation better, or is it worse for all this ? If 
 he could rise from the dead, and appear again in the 
 streets of Richmond, would he be counted more a 
 man of courage or honour, than if he had never taken 
 
 the least notice of T. R or his opinion ? Mr. 
 
 R lives, and has his opinion still, and other 
 
 people have also their opinion of him," &c. 
 
 I heard many anecdotes, when associating with 
 small proprietors in Alabama, which convinced me 
 that envy has a much ranker growth among the 
 aristocratic democracy of a newly settled Slave State 
 than in any part of New England which I visited. 
 I can scarcely conceive the ostracism of wealth or 
 superior attainments being carried farther. Let 
 a gentleman who has made a fortune at the bar, in 
 Mobile or elsewhere, settle in some retired part of 
 the newly cleared country, his fences are pulled 
 down, and his cattle left to stray in the woods, and 
 various depredations committed, not by thieves, for 
 none of his property is carried away, but by neigh- 
 bours who, knowing nothing of him personally, have 
 a vulgar jealousy of his riches, and take for granted 
 that his pride must be great in proportion. In a 
 
70 JEALOUSY OF WEALTH. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 recent election for Clarke county, the popular candi- 
 date admitted the upright character and high qualifi- 
 cations of his opponent, an old friend of his own, and 
 simply dwelt on his riches as a sufficient ground for 
 distrust. " A rich man," he said, " cannot sympa- 
 thise with the poor." Even the anecdotes I heard, 
 which may have been mere inventions, convinced me 
 how intense was this feeling. One, who had for 
 some time held a seat in the Legislature, finding 
 himself in a new canvass deserted by many of his 
 former supporters, observed that he had always voted 
 strictly according to his instructions. " Do you 
 think," answered a former partisan, "that they would 
 vote for you, after your daughter came to the ball in 
 them fixings?" His daughter, in fact, having been 
 at Mobile, had had a dress made there with flounces 
 according to the newest Parisian fashion, and she 
 had thus sided, as it were, with the aristocracy of the 
 city, setting itself up above the democracy of the 
 pine woods. In the new settlements there the small 
 proprietors, or farmers, are keenly jealous of thriving 
 lawyers, merchants, and capitalists. One of the 
 candidates for a county in Alabama confessed to 
 me that he had thought it good policy to go every- 
 where on foot when soliciting votes, though he could 
 have commanded a horse, and the distances were 
 great. That the young lady, whose " fixings " I 
 have alluded to, had been ambitiously in the fashion, 
 I make no doubt; for my wife found that the cost of 
 making up a dress at Mobile was twenty dollars, or 
 four times the ordinary London price ! The material 
 costs about the same as in London or Paris. At 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] INCONVENIENCES IN BACKWOODS. 71 
 
 New Orleans the charge for making a gown is equally 
 high. 
 
 I often rejoiced, in this excursion, that we had 
 brought no servants with us from England, so strong 
 is the prejudice here against what they term a white 
 body-servant. Besides, it would be unreasonable to 
 expect any one, who is not riding his own hobby, 
 to rough it in the backwoods. In many houses I 
 hesitated to ask for water or towels, for fear of giving 
 offence, although the yeoman with whom I lodged 
 for the night allowed me to pay a moderate charge 
 for my accommodation. Nor could I venture to 
 beg any one to rub a thick coat of mud off my boots 
 or trousers, lest I should be thought to reflect on 
 the members of the family, who had no idea of in- 
 dulging in such refinements themselves. I could 
 have dispensed cheerfully with milk, butter, and 
 other such luxuries ; but I felt much the want of 
 a private bed- room. Very soon, however, I came to 
 regard it as no small privilege to be allowed to have 
 even a bed to myself. On one occasion, when my 
 host had humoured my whims so far in regard to 
 privacy, I felt almost ashamed to see, in consequence, 
 a similar sized bed in the same room, occupied by my 
 companion and two others. When I related these in- 
 conveniences afterwards to an Episcopal clergyman, he 
 told me that the bishop and some of his clergy, when 
 they travel through these woods in summer, and the 
 lawyers, when on the circuit or canvassing for votes 
 at elections, have, in addition to these privations, to 
 endure the bites of countless musquitos, fleas, and 
 bugs, so that I had great reason to congratulate 
 
72 EMIGRANTS TO THE WEST. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 myself that it was now so cold. Moreover, there 
 are parties of emigrants in some of these woods, 
 where women delicately brought up, accustomed to be 
 waited on, and with infants at the breast, may now 
 be seen on their way to Texas, camping out, although 
 the ground within their tent is often soaked with 
 heavy rain. <e If you were here in the hot season," 
 said another, " the exuberant growth of the creepers 
 and briars would render many paths in the woods, 
 through which you now pass freely, impracticable, 
 and venomous snakes would make the forest dan- 
 gerous." 
 
 Calling on a proprietor to beg him to show me 
 some fossil bones, he finished by offering me his 
 estate for sale at 3500 dollars. He said he had been 
 settled there for twenty years with his wife, longer 
 than any one else in the whole country. He had no 
 children ; and when I expressed wonder that he 
 could leave, at his advanced age, a farm which he 
 had reclaimed from the wilderness and improved so 
 much, he answered, " I hope to feel more at home 
 in Texas, for all my old neighbours have gone there, 
 and new people have taken their place here." 
 
 The uncertainty of the cotton crops, and the sudden 
 fluctuations in the value of cotton from year to year, 
 have been the ruin of many, and have turned almost 
 every landowner into a merchant and speculator. The 
 maize, or Indian corn, appears to be almost as pre- 
 carious a crop, for this year it has entirely failed in 
 many places owing to the intense summer heat. I 
 passed some mills in which the grain, cob, and husk 
 were all ground up together for the cattle and hogs, 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] DEMOCRATIC EQUALITY. 73 
 
 and they are said to thrive more on this mixture 
 than on the grain alone. 
 
 The different stages of civilisation to which fami- 
 lies have attained, who live here on terms of the 
 strictest equality, is often amusing to a stranger, but 
 must be intolerable to some of those settlers who 
 have been driven by their losses from the more 
 advanced districts of Virginia and South Carolina, 
 having to begin the world again. Sometimes, in 
 the morning, my host would be of the humblest 
 class of "crackers," or some low, illiterate German 
 or Irish emigrants, the wife sitting with a pipe in 
 her mouth, doing no work and reading no books. 
 In the evening, I came to a neighbour, whose library 
 was well stored with works of French and English 
 authors, and whose first question to me was, " Pray 
 tell me, who do you really think is the author of the 
 Vestiges of Creation?" If it is difficult in Europe, 
 in the country far from towns, to select society on a 
 principle of congeniality of taste and feeling, the 
 reader may conceive what must be the control of 
 geographical circumstances here, exaggerated by 
 ultra-democratic notions of equality and the pride of 
 race. Nevertheless, these regions will probably 
 bear no unfavourable comparison with such parts of 
 our colonies, in Canada, the Cape, or Australia, as 
 have been settled for an equally short term of years, 
 and I am bound to say, that I passed my time agree- 
 ably and profitably in Alabama, for every one, as I 
 have usually found in newly peopled districts, was 
 hospitable and obliging to a stranger. Instead of 
 the ignorant wonder, very commonly expressed in 
 
 VOL. II. E 
 
74 FOSSIL WHALE, [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 out-of-the-way districts of England, France, or Italy, 
 at travellers who devote money and time to a search 
 for fossil bones and shells, each planter seemed to vie 
 with another in his anxiety to give me information 
 in regard to the precise spots where organic remains 
 had been discovered. Many were curious to learn 
 my opinion as to the kind of animal to which the 
 huge vertebra, against which their ploughs some- 
 times strike, may have belonged. The magnitude, 
 indeed, and solidity of these relics of the colossal 
 zeuglodon, are such as might well excite the asto- 
 nishment of the most indifferent. Dr. Buckley 
 informed me, that on the estate of Judge Creagh, 
 which I visited, he had assisted in digging out one 
 skeleton, where the vertebral column, almost un- 
 broken, extended to the length of seventy feet, and 
 Dr. Emmons afterwards showed me the greater part 
 of this skeleton in the Museum of Albany, New 
 York. On the same plantation, part of another back- 
 bone, fifty feet long, was dug up, and a third was 
 met with at no great distance. Before I left Ala- 
 bama, I had obtained evidence of so many localities 
 of similar fossils, chiefly between Macon and Clarkes- 
 ville, a distance of ten miles, that I concluded they 
 must have belonged to at least forty distinct in- 
 dividuals. 
 
 I visited, with Mr. Pickett, the exact spot where 
 he and Mr. Koch disinterred a portion of the skeleton 
 afterwards exhibited in New York under the name 
 of Hydrarchos, or " the Water- king." The bones were 
 imbedded in a calcareous marly stratum of the Eocene 
 formation, and I observed in it many casts of the 
 
CHAP. XXIV.] OR ZEUGLODON. 75 
 
 chambers of a large nautilus, which were at first 
 mistaken by Koch for the paddles of the huge 
 animal. Portions of the vertebral column, exhibited 
 by him, in 1845, at New York and Boston, were 
 procured in Washington county, fifteen miles dis- 
 tant in a direct line from this place, where the head 
 was discovered.* Some single vertebrae, which I 
 found here, were so huge and so impregnated with 
 carbonate of lime, that I could not lift them from 
 the ground without an effort. Professor Jeffries 
 Wyman was the first who clearly pointed out that 
 the bones, of which the factitious skeleton called 
 Hydrarchos was made up, must have belonged to 
 different individuals. They were in different stages 
 of ossification, he said, some adult, others immature, 
 a state of things never combined in one and the same 
 individual. Mr. Owen had previously maintained, 
 that the animal was not reptilian, but cetacean, be- 
 cause each tooth was furnished with double roots, 
 implanted in corresponding double sockets. After 
 my return from America, a nearly entire skull of 
 the zeuglodon was found by Mr. S. F. Holmes and 
 Professor L. R. Gibbes, of Charleston, S. C., and it 
 was found to have the double occipital condyles, only 
 met with in mammals, and the convoluted tympanic 
 bones which are characteristie of cetaceans, so that 
 the real nature of this remarkable extinct species of 
 the whale tribe has now been placed beyond all 
 doubt. 
 
 Feb. 5. On my return from this excursion, 
 
 * See " American Journ. of Science," New Series, vol. i. 
 p. 312. 
 
76 VOYAGE TO MOBILE. [CHAP. XXIV. 
 
 I rejoined my wife at Mr. Blount's, and we then 
 went back to the inn at Claiborne to wait for a 
 steamer bound for Mobile. The first large vessel 
 which touched for a moment at the landing, came 
 up the river from that city, and stopped to know if 
 there were any passengers. The answer was, " No, 
 what news ? " To which they replied, " Cotton up one 
 eighth no war." They were off in an instant, and, 
 a few hours later, when it was dark, another large 
 vessel was hailed coming down stream. We were 
 glad to find that it was the Amaranth, commanded 
 by our old friend Captain Bragdon, who had sailed 
 up and down, more than 800 miles, in the interval 
 since we saw him. Once more we descended the 
 steep cliff, on the slope of which we had spent many 
 pleasant hours, gathering hundreds of beautifully 
 preserved shells, and saw it illuminated by a blaze 
 of torch-light. 
 
 Between Claiborne and Mobile, there are about 
 100 miles of river navigation, our course being nearly 
 due south. About half way, we passed, in the night, 
 the junction of the Tombeckbee and Alabama rivers, 
 and, in the morning, saw in all directions a low flat 
 country, which continued till we reached the metro- 
 polis of Alabama. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] MOBILE TO TUSCALOOSA. 77 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Voyage from Mobile to Tuscaloosa. Visit to the Coal-Field of 
 Alabama. Its Agreement in Age with the ancient Coal of 
 Europe. Absenteeism in Southern States. Progress of 
 Negroes. Unthriftiness of Slave-Labour. University of 
 Tuscaloosa. Churches. Bankruptcies. Judges and Law 
 Courts. Geology on the Tombechbee River. Artesian 
 Wells. Limestone Bluff of St. Stephen's. Negro shot by 
 Overseer. Involuntary Efforts of the Whites to civilise the 
 Negroes. New Statute in Georgia against Black Mechanics. 
 The Effects of speedy Emancipation and the free Com- 
 petition of White and Black Labourers considered. 
 
 Feb. 8. 1846. THE Tuscaloosa steamer was just 
 ready to sail the next morning from Mobile, up the 
 great western tributary of the Alabama, called the 
 Tombeckbee (or more familiarly "the Bigby"); I 
 determined, therefore, to embark in her for the capital 
 of the State, about 400 miles distant by water to the 
 north, where I wished to explore the coal-field in 
 which the coal used for gas and fuel at Mobile is pro- 
 cured, and to ascertain its geological age. Our steamer 
 was 170 feet long, and made about ten miles an hour 
 against the stream. She carried stores of all kinds to 
 the upper country, but was not heavily laden ; and, on 
 her return, is to bring down a large freight of cotton. 
 By means of the high pressure principle and the 
 horizontal movement of the piston, she draws only a 
 
 E 3 
 
78 THE TOMBECKBEE KIVER. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 few feet water, notwithstanding her great length. 
 These steamers never appear to such advantage as 
 when stemming an adverse current, for the boat can 
 then be steered with more precision, and less time is 
 lost at the landings ; at each of these they can go up 
 direct to the bank, whereas, in descending, they have 
 to turn round and reascend the stream before they 
 can stop. There were also rafts laden with huge 
 piles of wood ready to be taken in tow at different 
 points, the logs being thrown on board by our ne- 
 groes, while the steamer was going on at full speed. 
 The empty raft is then turned adrift, and is easily 
 piloted down stream by two men, a mano3uvre which 
 could not be practised when vessels are going in the 
 opposite direction. All the chairs in the cabin of 
 the Tuscaloosa were so constructed as to be capable 
 of floating, and acting as life-preservers a useful 
 precaution on a river, whatever may be thought of 
 such safe-guards in an ocean steamer. 
 
 The river Tombeckbee was so high that the trees 
 of both banks seemed to be growing in a lake. Be- 
 fore dark, we came to the limestone bluff at St. 
 Stephen's, more than sixty miles due north of Mobile, 
 and nearly 150 miles by the windings of the river. 
 The tide is still slightly perceptible, even at this dis- 
 tance from the sea, and the water never rises during 
 a flood more than five or six feet above its ordinary 
 level ; whereas, higher up, at Demopolis, the extreme 
 rise is "not less than fifty feet, and at Tuscaloosa, 
 sixty-nine feet. At the latter place, indeed, we 
 found the waters so high, that the falls were con- 
 verted into mere rapids. The magnificent scale of 
 
CHAP. XXV.] TUSCALOOSA. 79 
 
 the navigation on these southern rivers in the rainy 
 season, contrasts remarkably with the want of similar 
 facilities of water communication in Texas and the 
 more western countries bordering the Gulf of Mexico. 
 We admired the canes on the borders of the river 
 between Tuscaloosa and Demopolis, some of which I 
 found to be thirty feet high. Whether this mag- 
 nificent reed, which is said sometimes to grow forty 
 feet high, is a distinct species, or merely a variety of 
 Miegia macrosperma, which I had seen from six to 
 ten feet high, as far north as Kentucky and North 
 Carolina, botanists are not yet agreed. 
 
 Tuscaloosa is situated, like Augusta, Milledgeville, 
 and Columbus, at the falls of a river, though, in this 
 instance, the falls do not occur, as usual at the junc- 
 tion of the granitic rocks, with the tertiary or cre- 
 taceous strata, but at the point where the latter first 
 meet the carboniferous formation. The lower beds 
 of the horizontal cretaceous series in contact with the 
 inclined coal-measures, consist of gravel, some of the 
 quartzose pebbles being as large as hen's eggs, and 
 they look like an ancient beach, as if the cretaceous 
 sea had terminated here, or shingle had been accu- 
 mulated near a shore. 
 
 There is a flourishing college at Tuscaloosa, stand- 
 ing upon a hill 450 feet above the level of the sea. 
 Here I was welcomed by the professor of chemistry, 
 Mr. Brumby, who had the kindness to set out im- 
 mediately with me (Feb. 10.) to examine the coal- 
 fields lying immediately north of this place. Starting 
 in a north-easterly direction, we first entered a hilly 
 country formed of sandstone, grit, and shale of the 
 
 E 4 
 
80 COAL-FIELD OF ALABAMA. [ CHAP. XXV. 
 
 coal formation, precisely like the strata in which 
 coal occurs in England. These hills were covered 
 with long-leaved pines, and the large proportion 
 they bear to the hard wood is said to have been 
 increased by the Indian practice of burning the 
 grass ; the bark of the oak and other kinds of hard 
 wood being more combustible, and more easily in- 
 jured by fire, than that of the fir tribe. Everywhere 
 the young seedlings of the long-leaved pine were 
 coming up in such numbers, that one might have sup- 
 posed the ground to have been sown with them ; and 
 I was reminded how rarely we see similar self-sown 
 firs in English plantations. When we had gone 
 about twenty miles north-east of Tuscaloosa, we came 
 to a higher country, where nearly all the pines dis- 
 appeared, and were replaced by oak, hiccory, sumach, 
 gum trees, sassafras, and many others. In some 
 clearings here, as in Georgia and the Carolinas, the 
 quantity or cordage of wood fit for charcoal produced 
 in thirty years by the new growth, is said, from its 
 greater density, to have equalled the wood contained 
 in the aboriginal forest. 
 
 Near the banks of the Black Warrior river, we 
 examined several open quarries of coal, where the 
 edges of the beds had been dug into by different pro- 
 prietors, no regular mining operations having as yet 
 been attempted. Even at the outcrop the coal is of 
 excellent quality, and highly bituminous, and I soon 
 satisfied myself that the strata were not of the age of 
 the Richmond coal before described * , but were 
 as ancient as that of the Alleghany Hills, or of 
 
 * Ante, vol. i. p. 283. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] COAL-FIELD OF ALABAMA. 81 
 
 Western Virginia. In the beds of black shale cover- 
 ing each coal-seam, were impressions of fossil plants, 
 precisely similar to those occurring in the ancient 
 coal-measures of Europe and America. Among these 
 we found more than one species of Calamite, several 
 ferns of the genera Sphenopteris and Neuropteris, 
 the trunks of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, the stems 
 and leaves of Aster ophyllite, and in other beds the 
 characteristic root called Stigmaria, not uncommon.* 
 
 According to Professor Brumby, this coal-field of 
 the Warrior river is ninety miles long from north to 
 south, and from ten to thirty miles in breadth, and in- 
 cludes in it some coal-seams not less than ten feet 
 thick. It forms a southern prolongation of the great 
 Appalachian coal-field, with which I was unacquainted 
 when I compiled my map, published in 1845, of the 
 geology of North America .f Its geographical situa- 
 tion is peculiarly interesting ; for, being situated in 
 lat. 33 10' north, it constitutes at present the extreme 
 southern limit to which the ancient carboniferous vege- 
 tation has been traced in the northern hemisphere, 
 whether on the east or west side of the Atlantic. 
 
 Continuing our route into the upland country, we 
 entered, about thirty-three miles N. E. of Tuscaloosa, 
 a region called Rook's Valley, where rich beds of 
 ironstone and limestone bid fair, from their proximity 
 to the coal, to become one day a source of great 
 mineral wealth. At present the country has been 
 suffered to retrograde, and the population to grow less 
 
 * See " Quart. Journ. of Geol. Soc.," vol. ii. p. 278., and for 
 a list of the plants, by Mr. C. J. F. Bunbury, p, 282. ibid, 
 t See " Travels," &c., vol. ii. 
 
 E 5 
 
82 ABSENTEEISM IN SOUTHERN STATES. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 numerous than it was twenty years ago, owing to 
 migrations to Louisiana and Texas, and partly to the 
 unthriftiness of slave-labour. 
 
 We travelled in a carriage with two horses, and could 
 advance but a few miles a day, so execrable and often 
 dangerous was the state of the roads. Occasionally 
 we had to get out and call at a farm-house to ask 
 the proprietor's leave to take down his snake-fence, 
 to avoid a deep mud-hole in the road. Our vehicle 
 was then driven over a stubble field of Indian corn, 
 at the end of which we made our exit, some fifty 
 yards on, by pulling down another part of the fence. 
 In both places the labour of rebuilding the fence, 
 which consists simply of poles loosely placed together, 
 and not nailed, was entailed upon us, and caused 
 no small delay. 
 
 One of the evils, tending greatly to retard the pro- 
 gress of the Southern States, is absenteeism, which is 
 scarcely known in the North. The cheapness of 
 land, caused by such rapid emigration to the South and 
 West, and the frequent sales of the estates of insol- 
 vents, tempts planters to buy more land than they can 
 manage themselves, which they must therefore give 
 in charge to overseers. Accordingly, much of the 
 property in Alabama belongs to rich Carolinians, and 
 some wealthy slave-owners of Alabama have estates 
 in Mississippi. With a view of checking the increase 
 of these " pluralities," a tax has recently been imposed 
 on absentees. In Alabama, as in Georgia, I found 
 that the coloured people were more intelligent in the 
 upper country, and I listened with satisfaction to 
 complaints of their setting themselves up, and being 
 
CHAP. XXV.] PROGRESS OF NEGROES. 83 
 
 less content than formerly with their lot. That men 
 of colour can sometimes make large fortunes in trade, 
 was proved to me by a fact which came accidentally 
 to my knowledge. One of them, by standing security 
 for a white man, had lately lost no less than 17,000 
 dollars, or 3400 guineas ; yet he was still prospering, 
 and kept a store, and, being a free man, would wil- 
 lingly have sent his son to the college of Tuscaloosa, 
 had he not been prevented by the prejudices of a 
 white aristocracy, ostentatiously boastful of its love of 
 equality. In consequence of similar impediments, 
 many thriving artisans of the coloured race remain 
 uneducated, and are obliged to have white men to 
 write for them and collect their debts ; and I found 
 that many cabinet-makers, carpenters, builders, and 
 other mechanics earning high wages, who, in New 
 England, would send their sons to college, do not 
 contribute here even to the maintenance of common 
 schools, their children not being permitted by law to 
 learn to read and write. I cannot believe, however, 
 that this state of things can endure many years, for I 
 found that an excellent sabbath school had been 
 established by the Presbyterians in Tuscaloosa, for 
 the children of negroes. There are two coloured men 
 in this town, who, having a dash of Indian as well as 
 negro blood in their veins, have become the owners 
 of slaves. 
 
 Frequent mention was made during our stay in 
 Alabama, of a negro named Ellis, a blacksmith, who 
 had taught himself Greek and Latin. He is now 
 acquiring Hebrew, and I was sorry to hear that the 
 Presbyterians contemplate sending him as a mission- 
 
 E 6 
 
84 COLOURED DOMESTICS. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 ary to Liberia. If it were an object in the South to 
 elevate the blacks, he might be far more instrumental 
 in forwarding the cause of civilisation and Chris- 
 tianity by remaining at home, for the negroes like a 
 preacher of their own race. 
 
 The coloured domestic servants are treated with 
 great indulgence at Tuscaloosa. One day some of 
 them gave a supper to a large party of their friends 
 in the house of a family which we visited, and they 
 feasted their guests on roast turkeys, ice-creams, 
 jellies, and cakes. Turkeys here cost only seventy- 
 five cents, or about three shillings the couple, pre- 
 pared for the table ; the price of a wild turkey, an 
 excellent bird, is twenty-five cents, or one shilling. 
 After calculating the interest of the money laid out 
 in the purchase of the slaves, and the price of their 
 food, a lawyer undertook to show me that a negro 
 cost less than an English servant ; "but, as two blacks 
 do the work of only one white, it is a mere delusion," 
 he said, " to imagine that their labour is not dearer." 
 It is usual, moreover, not to exact the whole of their 
 time for domestic duties. I found a footman, for 
 example, working on his own account as a bootmaker 
 at spare hours, and another getting perquisites by 
 blacking the student's shoes. 
 
 That slave labour is more expensive than free, is 
 an opinion which is certainly gaining ground in the 
 higher parts of Alabama, and is now professed openly 
 by some Northerners who have settled there. One 
 of them said to me, " Half the population of the 
 South is employed in seeing that the other half do 
 their work, and they who do work, accomplish half 
 
CHAP. XXV.] FREE AND SLAVE LABOUR. 85 
 
 what they might do under a better system." " We 
 cannot," said another, " raise capital enough for new 
 cotton factories, because all our savings go to buy 
 negroes, or, as has lately happened, to feed them, 
 when the crop is deficient." A white bricklayer had 
 lately gone from Tuscaloosa to serve an apprentice- 
 ship in his trade at Boston. He had been earning 
 there 2^ dollars a day, by laying 3000 bricks daily. 
 A Southern planter, who had previously been ex- 
 ceedingly boastful and proud of the strength of one of 
 his negroes (who could, in fact, carry a much greater 
 \\eight than this same white bricklayer), was at first 
 incredulous when he heard of this feat, for his pattern 
 slave could not lay more than 1000 bricks a day. 
 
 During my absence on the geological excursion 
 above mentioned, through forests recently abandoned 
 by the Indians, and where their paths may still be 
 traced, I found that my wife had made many agree- 
 able acquaintances at Tuscaloosa. Two of the ladies 
 she had seen (New Englanders, who had married 
 Southerners), were reading the works of Schiller and 
 Goethe in the original for their amusement. My 
 companion, the Professor of Chemistry, was not the 
 only one from whom I obtained much scientific in- 
 formation, and we enjoyed the pleasure, one clear 
 night, of looking through a telescope recently sent 
 from London, and were shown by Mr. Barnard, the 
 teacher of astronomy, some double stars and southern 
 constellations not visible in England. 
 
 The annual expense of a student in the University 
 is 300 dollars, or sixty guineas a year, including 
 board. A gentleman, whose family consisted of eight 
 
86 CHURCHES. [CHAP.. XXV. 
 
 individuals, with eight negro servants, told me that 
 he could not live respectably for less than 1700 
 dollars a year (340 guineas). Yet he paid no less 
 than 40 dollars, or eight guineas, a year, for a pew in 
 the Presbyterian church, holding six persons, which 
 will give some idea of the liberal support afforded, 
 under the voluntary system, to the ministers of re- 
 ligion. Among the professors here, there are Bap- 
 tists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and I was told of 
 one that he was not a member of any church, but a 
 regular attendant at the Baptist or Presbyterian 
 meeting. On Sunday, we heard the Bishop of Ala- 
 bama preach, the congregation here being reckoned 
 the second in the State. The first is at Mobile, and 
 there are about ten in all. The service was read by 
 another clergyman, and as, according to the usual 
 custom in America, there was no clerk, the Bishop 
 read the responses and gave out the psalms, seeming 
 to us, at first, to be performing the office of clerk. 
 It often struck me as an advantage in the United 
 States, that the responses are never read by an il- 
 literate man, as happens not uncommonly in our 
 country parishes, and the congregation joins in the 
 service more earnestly when the part which pro- 
 perly belongs to them does not devolve on a regular 
 functionary. A few days later, when I was on my 
 way, in a steamer, to Mobile, I conversed with an 
 Episcopal clergyman, a high churchman, whose pro- 
 fession I had recognised by the strictness of his 
 costume. He told me he meant to visit England, 
 and, with that view, had for some months abstained 
 entirely from the chewing of tobacco, having been 
 
CHAP. XXV.] BANKRUPTCIES. 87 
 
 told it would be considered a breach of good manners 
 there. His physician, also, had assured him, that 
 this habit, which he had taken pains to acquire when 
 a boy, because he thought it manly, though much 
 against his natural taste, was injuring his health. 
 He seemed to know the names of almost every bishop 
 and dignitary of the English Church, their incomes 
 and shades of opinion, and regretted that Archbishop 
 Whately had taken such low ground in regard to the 
 apostolic succession. " The bishop of this diocese," 
 he said, " receives about 800Z. a year, and has to 
 pay his own travelling expenses, but in the older 
 States the bishops have higher salaries." Episcopal 
 clergymen usually receive about 500 dollars (or 
 100 guineas) in country parishes, and four times 
 that sum in large towns, or even more. Upon the 
 whole, he thought them well paid, in proportion to 
 the average scale of fortunes in the United States, 
 and he was convinced, that as the wealthiest class 
 are so often Episcopalians, his church is a gainer in 
 worldly advantages as well as spiritual influence, by 
 being wholly unconnected with the State. 
 
 In the afternoon, the Presbyterian minister of 
 Tuscaloosa delivered a good discourse on the neces- 
 sity of a higher standard of honour in commercial 
 affairs. Channing had said, that they who become 
 insolvent by over-trading, often inflict more misery 
 than highwaymen and thieves; and this preacher 
 affirmed that for each hundred persons engaged in 
 trade in Alabama, there had been ninety-seven bank- 
 ruptcies. One of the citizens, who was scandalised 
 at this assertion, afterwards raised the question, 
 
88 JUDGES AND LAW COURTS. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 whether it was true, and I asked if any one of the 
 party could name a tradesman in their town who 
 had not failed once in the last twenty years. They 
 were only able to mention two. 
 
 I was surprised at the number of lawyers at 
 Tuscaloosa who enjoyed the title of Judge, and 
 equally amused when the cause was explained to me. 
 False notions of economy have from time to time 
 induced the democracy to lower the salaries of the 
 judges, especially in the inferior courts. The con- 
 sequence has been, that as the State can no longer 
 command the services of the best lawyers, the bench 
 has grown weaker than the bar, and the authority of 
 judicial decisions has been impaired. Hence the in- 
 creased number of appeals to the Supreme Court of 
 the State now sitting at Tuscaloosa. Yet, in spite 
 of this augmentation of business, the income of the 
 judges in this court also has been lowered from 3000 
 to 2500 dollars ; although lawyers in good practice 
 in Mobile have been known to make 10,000 or 
 1 4,000 dollars a year. It is by no means uncommon, 
 therefore, for one who has a large family, to give up 
 the bench and return to the bar ; but, in that case, 
 the title of Judge is still given to him by courtesy, 
 and is much prized, especially by northern men, 
 who are willing to make a sacrifice for this honour 
 by serving a few years on the bench and then re- 
 tiring from it. 
 
 I have before alluded to the deep ravines recently 
 cut through incoherent strata in Georgia, after the 
 natural wood has been felled.* One of these modern 
 
 * Ante, p. 25. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] GEOLOGY. 89 
 
 gullies may now be seen intersecting most incon- 
 veniently the main street of Tuscaloosa, and several 
 torrents are cutting their way backwards through 
 the " cretaceous " clay, sand, and gravel of the hill on 
 which the Capitol stands. They even threaten in a 
 few years to undermine that edifice. I had observed 
 other recent ravines, from seventy to eighty feet deep, 
 in the Eocene strata between Macon and Clarkes- 
 ville (Alabama), where the forest had been felled a 
 few years before. 
 
 On my way back from Tuscaloosa to Mobile, I had 
 a good opportunity of examining the geological struc- 
 ture of the country, seeing various sections, first of 
 the cretaceous, and then lower down of the tertiary 
 strata. The great beds of gravel and sand above 
 alluded to, forming the inferior part of the cretaceous 
 series, might from their want of consolidation be 
 mistaken for much newer deposits, if their position 
 on the Tombeckbee, as well as on the Alabama river 
 at Montgomery, were not perfectly clear. They 
 pass beneath the great marlite formation, full of cre- 
 taceous shells, which gives rise to the prairie soils 
 before described*, as nearly destitute of natural wood, 
 and crossing Alabama in an east and west direction. 
 These I examined at Erie, at Demopolis, and at 
 Arcola, where they contain hippurites and other 
 characteristic fossils. The depth to which they have 
 sunk Artesian wells through them in many places 
 (between 500 and 1000 feet), is astonishing. One 
 boring through blue marl and limestone at Erie, in 
 
 * Ante, p. 42. 
 
90 ARTESIAN WELLS. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Greene county, was 469 feet deep, and the well 
 yielded 350 gallons of water per minute at the sur- 
 face. The water rises forty feet above the surface, 
 and can be made to reach fifty feet, though in di- 
 minished quantity. Here, as in Europe, the tempe- 
 rature of the earth's crust is found to increase as we 
 descend, the water being sensibly warmer than that 
 of the air, so much so that in cold weather it sends 
 forth steam. Each new excavation at Erie robs the 
 wells previously bored of part of their supply. The 
 auger with which they perforate the soil is four 
 inches in diameter, and the average cost of excavation 
 sixty-two cents, or about 2s. 6d. per foot, for the 
 whole depth of 469 feet. No solid rock has been 
 pierced here, the strata consisting throughout of soft 
 horizontally stratified blue limestone. They have 
 also pierced these same rocks, at a distance of three 
 miles from Demopolis (a town situated at the junction 
 of the Tombeckbee and Black Warrior rivers), to the 
 depth of 930 feet without gaining the water, yet 
 they do not despair of success, as sand has just been 
 reached. 
 
 At Arcola, the proprietor presented me with se- 
 veral cretaceous fossils, and some irregular tubular 
 bodies, the origin of which he wished to have ex- 
 plained. I immediately recognised them as identical 
 with the vitreous tubes found at Drigg, in Cumber- 
 land, in hills of shifting sand, which have been de- 
 scribed and figured in the Transactions of the Geolo- 
 gical Society of London.* They have a glazed and 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 528. and vol. v. p. 617., 1st series. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] BLUFF OF ST. STEPHEN'S. 91 
 
 vitrified interior, and bodies of similar form and 
 structure were first supposed by Saussure to have 
 been due to the passage of lightning through sand, 
 a theory now generally adopted. 
 
 If any geologist retains to this day the doctrine 
 once so popular, that at remote periods marine de- 
 posits of contemporaneous origin were formed every- 
 where throughout the globe with the same mineral 
 characters, he would do well to compare the succes- 
 sion of rocks on the Alabama river with those of the 
 same date in England. If there were no fossils, he 
 might suppose the Lower cretaceous beds of loose 
 gravel to be the newest tertiary, the main body of 
 the chalk to be lias, and the soft limestone of St. 
 Stephen's, which is tertiary, to be the representative 
 of chalk. When I arrived at the last-mentioned 
 rock, or the white calcareous bluff of St. Stephen's, 
 it was quite dark, but Captain Lavargy, who com- 
 manded the vessel, was determined I should not be 
 disappointed. He therefore said he would stop and 
 take in a supply of wood at the place, and gave 
 me a boat, with two negroes amply provided with 
 torches of pine-wood, which gave so much light that 
 I was able to explore the cliff from one end to the 
 other, and to collect many fossils. The bluff was 
 more than 100 feet high, and in parts formed of an 
 aggregate of corals resembling nummulites, but 
 called, by A. D'Orbigny, orbitoides. 
 
 I had seen the same " orbitoidal " limestone in the 
 interior of Clarke county, forming knolls, on which 
 many cedars or junipers were growing, reminding 
 me greatly of parts of the English South Downs, 
 
92 BLUFF OF ST. STEPHEN'S. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 covered with yew trees or juniper, where the pure 
 calcareous soil of the chalk reaches the surface. 
 
 When I looked down from the top of the precipice 
 at St. Stephen's, the scene which presented itself was 
 most picturesque. Near us was the great steam-boat, 
 throwing off a dense column of white vapour, and 
 an active body of negroes throwing logs on board 
 by torch-light. One of my companions had clam- 
 bered with me, torch in hand, to the top of the bluff; 
 the other was amusing himself in the boat below by 
 holding another blazing torch under large festoons 
 of Spanish moss, which hung from the boughs of a 
 huge plane tree. These mossy streamers had at 
 length been so dried up by the heat, that they took 
 fire, and added to the brilliant illumination. My 
 fellow passengers were asleep during this transaction, 
 but congratulated me the next morning on having 
 had the command of the vessel during the night. 
 
 On board the steamer were three gentlemen of 
 respectable families and good standing in society, 
 who had been ruined by their drunken habits. They 
 had ah 1 been brought up to the bar, and two of them 
 were married. One had become quite imbecile ; and 
 I saw the captain and clerk interfere to prevent him 
 from taking more spirits. We heard many lamenta- 
 tions at the prevalence of this vice in Alabama, and 
 were told of a skilful physician who had lost all his 
 practice by giving way to intemperance. While one 
 of the passengers was conversing with me on this 
 subject, he called my attention to an overseer just 
 coming on board, who, not long ago, had shot a 
 negro, a ringleader in a conspiracy. The affair, he 
 
CHAP. XXV.] NEGRO SHOT BY OVEESEER. 93 
 
 said, had not reached a desperate point, and might 
 have been better managed, had he not been a pas- 
 sionate man. I was going to express my indigna- 
 tion at the idea of such an agent continuing to be 
 entrusted with power, when I saw him approaching 
 us. His countenance was by no means prepossessing, 
 and I involuntarily withdrew. To my surprise, my 
 companion, whose general opinions had pleased me 
 much, greeted and shook hands with his acquaint- 
 ance with apparent cordiality. 
 
 This adventure, and my meeting with the slave- 
 stealer on board the " General Clinch," before re- 
 lated * , were the two cases which most shocked 
 my feelings in the course of my present tour in 
 Georgia and Alabama. To inquire into the condition 
 of the negroes, and the evils arising out of the relation 
 of master and slave, was not the object of my visit ; 
 but when I afterwards related to an Abolitionist in 
 Massachusetts, how little actual suffering had ob- 
 truded itself on my notice, he told me that great 
 pains must have been taken by the planters to con- 
 ceal from me the true state of things, while they had 
 taken care to propitiate me by hospitable attentions. 
 I was glad, however, to find my experience borne 
 out by that of a Scotch weaver, William Thomson, 
 of Stonehaven, who travelled in the year 1841-42 
 for his health in the Southern States. He supported 
 himself as he went along by manual labour, and lived 
 on intimate terms with persons of a different class of 
 society from those with whom I had most intercourse. 
 
 * Ante, vol. i. p. 309. 
 
94 SLAVERY IN SOUTHERN STATES. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 On his return home he published a small book, in 
 which he says, " It will appear, to those who knew 
 my opinions on slavery before I visited America, 
 that, like most others who can judge dispassionately, 
 I have changed my opinion considerably." He gives 
 a detailed account of his adventures in the regions 
 which I traversed in Alabama, Georgia, and many 
 other States, and concludes by observing, " After 
 witnessing negro slavery in mostly all the slave- 
 holding States, having lived for weeks in cotton 
 plantations, observing closely the actual condition of 
 the negroes, I can assert, without fear of contra- 
 diction from any man who has any knowledge of 
 the subject, that I have never witnessed one-fifth 
 of the real suffering that I have seen in manufac- 
 turing establishments in Great Britain." In refer- 
 ence to another topic, he affirms " that the members 
 of the same family of negroes are not so much scat- 
 tered as are those of working men in Scotland, whose 
 necessities compel them to separate at an age when 
 the American slave is running about gathering health 
 and strength."* 
 
 I am aware that there is some danger, when one 
 hears the philanthropist declaiming in terms of gross 
 exaggeration on the horrors of slavery and the crimes 
 of the planters, of being tempted by a spirit of con- 
 tradiction, or rather by a love of justice, to coun- 
 teract misrepresentation, by taking too favourable a 
 view of the condition and prospects of the negroes. 
 But there is another reason, also, which causes the tra- 
 
 * Tradesman's Travels in the United States, &c., in the years 
 1840-42, p. 182. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] INCREASE OF NEGROES. 95 
 
 veller in the South to moderate his enthusiasm for 
 emancipation. He is forced continually to think of 
 the responsibility which would be incurred, if several 
 millions of human beings were hastily set aside, like 
 so many machines, by withdrawing from them sud- 
 denly the protection afforded by their present mo- 
 nopoly of labour. In the opening of the market 
 freely to white competitors, before the race is more 
 improved, consists their danger. 
 
 Yet, on taking a near view of the slave question, 
 we are often thrown into opposite states of mind and 
 feeling, according as the interests of the white or 
 negro race happen, for the moment, to claim our 
 sympathy. It is useless now to look back and wish, 
 for the sake of civilisation, that no Africans had ever 
 crossed the Atlantic. Their number in the Union 
 now exceeds three millions, and, as they have doubled 
 in the last twenty-five years, we must expect, unless 
 some plan can be devised to check their increase, 
 that they will amount, before the close of this cen- 
 tury, to twelve millions, by which time the white 
 population will have augmented to eighty millions. 
 Notwithstanding this increase of negroes, were it 
 not for disturbing causes, to which I shall presently 
 advert, I should cherish the most sanguine hopes of 
 their future improvement and emancipation, and even 
 their ultimate amalgamation and fusion with the 
 whites, so highly has my estimate of their moral and 
 intellectual capabilities been raised by what I have 
 lately seen in Georgia and Alabama. Were it not 
 for impediments which white competition and po- 
 litical ascendency threaten to throw in the way of 
 
96 CIVILISATION OF NEGROES. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 negro progress, the grand experiment might be fairly 
 tried, of civilising several millions of blacks, not by 
 philanthropists, but by a steadier and surer agency 
 the involuntary efforts of several millions of whites. 
 In spite of prejudice and fear, and in defiance of 
 stringent laws enacted against education, three mil- 
 lions of a more enlightened and progressive race are 
 brought into contact with an equal number of la- 
 bourers lately in a savage state, and taken from a 
 continent where the natives have proved themselves, 
 for many thousand years, to be singularly unpro- 
 gressive. Already their task-masters have taught 
 them to speak, with more or less accuracy, one 
 of the noblest of languages, to shake off many old 
 superstitions, to acquire higher ideas of morality, 
 and habits of neatness and cleanliness, and have 
 converted thousands of them to Christianity. Many 
 they have emancipated, and the rest are gradually 
 approaching to the condition of the ancient serfs of 
 Europe half a century or more before their bondage 
 died out. 
 
 All this has been done at an enormous sacrifice of 
 time and money, an expense, indeed, which all the 
 governments of Europe and all the Christian mis- 
 sionaries, whether Romanist or Protestant, could 
 never have effected in five centuries. Even in the 
 few States which I have already visited since I 
 crossed the Potomac, several hundred thousand whites 
 oY all ages, among whom the children are playing 
 by no means the least effective part, are devoting 
 themselves with greater or less activity to these in- 
 voluntary educational exertions. 
 
CHAP. XXV.] LAW AGAINST BLACK MECHANICS. 97 
 
 It had previously been imagined that an impassable 
 gulf separated the two races ; but now it is proved 
 that more than half that space can, in a few gene- 
 rations, be successfully passed over, and the humble 
 negro of the coast of Guinea has shown himself to 
 be one of the most imitative and improvable of human 
 beings. Yet the experiment may still be defeated, 
 not so much by the fanaticism of abolitionists, or the 
 prejudices of those slave-owners who are called per- 
 petualists, who maintain that slavery should be per- 
 manent, and that it is a blessing in itself to the negro, 
 but by the jealousy of an unscrupulous democracy 
 invested with political power. Of the imminent na- 
 ture of this peril, I was never fully aware, until I 
 was startled by the publication of an act passed by 
 the Legislature of Georgia during my visit to that 
 State, December 27. 1845. The following is the 
 preamble and one of the clauses : 
 
 " An act to prohibit coloured mechanics and ma- 
 sons, being slaves, or free persons of colour, being 
 mechanics or masons, from making contracts for the 
 erection of buildings, or for the repair of buildings, 
 and declaring the white person or persons directly or 
 indirectly contracting with of employing them, as 
 well as the master, employer, manager, or agent for 
 said slave, or guardian for said free person of colour, 
 authorising or permitting the same, guilty of a mis- 
 demeanor," and prescribing punishment for the vio- 
 lation of this act. 
 
 " Section 1. Beit enacted by the Senate and House 
 of Representatives of the State of Georgia in General 
 Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the au- 
 
 VOL. II. F 
 
98 LAW AGAINST BLACK MECHANICS. [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 thority of the same, That from and after the 1st day 
 of February next, each and every white person who 
 shall hereafter contract or bargain with any slave, 
 mechanic, or mason, or free person of colour, being a 
 mechanic or mason, shall be liable to be indicted for 
 a misdemeanor ; and, on conviction, to be fined, at 
 the discretion of the Court, not exceeding two hun- 
 dred dollars." 
 
 Then follows another clause imposing the like 
 penalties on the owners of slaves, or guardians of 
 free persons of colour, who authorise the contracts 
 prohibited by this statute. 
 
 I may first observe, in regard to this disgraceful 
 law, which was only carried by a small majority in 
 the Georgian Legislature, that it proves that not a few 
 of the negro race have got on so well in the world in 
 reputation and fortune, and in skill in certain arts, that 
 it was worth while to legislate against them in order 
 to keep them down, and prevent them from entering 
 into successful rivalry with the whites. It confirms, 
 therefore, most fully the impression which all I saw 
 in Georgia had left on my mind, that the blacks are 
 steadily rising in social importance in spite of slavery ; 
 or, to speak more correctly, by aid of that institution, 
 assuming, as it does, in proportion as the whites be- 
 come civilised, a more and more mitigated form. In 
 the next place I shall endeavour to explain to the 
 English reader the real meaning of so extraordi- 
 nary a decree. Mr. R. H. Wilde, formerly senator 
 for Georgia, told me that he once knew a coloured 
 freeman who had been brought up as a saddler, and 
 was a good workman. To his surprise he found him 
 
CHAP. XXV.] DEGRADED POSITION OF NEGROES. 99 
 
 one day at Saratoga, in the State of New York, 
 acting as servant at an hotel. " Could you not get 
 higher wages," he inquired, " as a saddler ?" " Yes," 
 answered he ; " but no sooner was I engaged by a 
 6 boss,' than all the other workmen quitted." They 
 did so, not because he was a slave, for he had long 
 been emancipated, but because he was a negro. It 
 is evident, therefore, that it requires in Georgia the 
 force of a positive statute to deprive the negro, 
 whether he be a freeman or slave, of those advan- 
 tages from which, in a free State like New York, 
 he is excluded, without any legislative interference. 
 
 I have heard apologists in the North endeavouring 
 to account for the degraded position which the negroes 
 hold, socially and politically, in the Free States, by say- 
 ing they belong to a race which is kept in a state of 
 slavery in the South. But, if they really desired to 
 accelerate emancipation, they would begin by setting 
 an example to the Southern States, and treating the 
 black race with more respect and more on a footing of 
 equality. I once heard some Irish workmen complain in 
 New York, "that the niggers shut them out from 
 all the easiest ways of getting a livelihood ; " and many 
 white mechanics, who had emigrated from the North 
 to the Slave States, declared to me that every opening 
 in their trades was closed to them, because black arti- 
 sans were employed by their owners in preference. 
 Hence, they are now using in Georgia the power 
 given to them by an exclusive franchise, to pass dis- 
 abling statutes against the blacks, to prevent them 
 from engaging in certain kinds of work. In several 
 States, Virginia among others, I heard of strikes, 
 
 p 2 
 
100 EFFECTS OF [CHAP. XXV. 
 
 where the white workmen bound themselves not to 
 return to their employment until the master had 
 discharged all his coloured people. Such combina- 
 tions will, no doubt, forward the substitution of 
 white for negro labour, and may hasten the era of 
 general emancipation. But if this measure be pre- 
 maturely adopted, the negroes are a doomed race, 
 and already their situation is most critical. I found 
 a deep conviction prevailing in the minds of expe- 
 rienced slave-owners, of the injury which threatened 
 them ; and, more than once, in Kentucky and else- 
 where, in answer to my suggestions, that the time 
 for introducing free labour had come, they said, " I 
 think so ; we must get rid of the negroes." " Do 
 you not think," said I, " if you could send them all 
 away, that some parts of the country would be de- 
 populated, seeing how unhealthy the low grounds 
 are for the whites ? " " Perhaps so," replied one 
 planter, " but other regions would become more pro- 
 ductive by way of compensation ; the insalubrity of 
 the Pontine marshes would be no excuse for negro 
 slavery in Italy. All might end well," he added, 
 " were it not that so many anti-slavery men in the 
 North are as precipitate and impatient as if they 
 believed, like the Millerites, that the world was 
 coming to an end." 
 
 One of the most reasonable advocates of immediate 
 emancipation whom I met with in the North, said to 
 me, " You are like many of our politicians, who can 
 look on one side only of a great question. Grant the 
 possibility of these three millions of coloured people, 
 or even twelve millions of them fifty years hence, 
 
CHAP. XXV.] IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. 101 
 
 being capable of amalgamating with the whites, such 
 a result might be to you perhaps, as a philanthropist 
 or physiologist, a very interesting experiment ; but 
 would not the progress of the whites be retarded, and 
 our race deteriorated, nearly in the same proportion 
 as the negroes would gain ? Why not consider the 
 interests of the white race by hastening the abolition 
 of slavery. The whites constitute nearly six-sevenths 
 of our whole population. As a philanthropist, you 
 are bound to look to the greatest good of the two 
 races collectively, or the advantage of the whole 
 population of the Union." 
 
 F 3 
 
102 RETURN TO MOBILE. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Return to Mobile. Excursion to the Shores of the Gulf of 
 Mexico. View from Lighthouse. Mouth of Alabama River. 
 Gnathodon inhabiting Brackish Water. Banks of these 
 Fossil Shells far Inland. Miring of Cattle. Yellow Fever 
 at Mobile in 1839. Fire in same Year. Voyage from Mo- 
 bile to New Orleans. Movers to Texas. Lake Pontchar- 
 train. Arrival at New Orleans. St. Louis Hotel. French 
 Aspect of City. Carnival. Procession of Masks. 
 
 Feb. 21. 1846. THERE had been some very cold 
 weather in the beginning of the month in the upper 
 country, the thermometer at Tuscaloosa having 
 been down as low as 17 Fahr. ; yet, on our return to 
 Mobile, we saw the signs of approaching spring, for 
 on the banks of the Alabama river the deciduous 
 cypress and cotton trees were putting out their 
 leaves, and the beautiful scarlet seed-vessels of the 
 red maple (Acer Drummondii) enlivened the woods. 
 
 Once more at Mobile, I was impatient to see, 
 for the first time, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and therefore lost no time in making an excursion to 
 the mouth of the Alabama river. I was fortunate 
 in having as my companion the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, 
 minister of the principal Presbyterian congregation, 
 who was well acquainted with the natural history of 
 this region. He drove me first to the lighthouse, 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] VIEW FROM LIGHTHOUSE. 103 
 
 where, from the top of the tower, we had a splendid 
 view of the city to the north, and to the south the 
 noble Bay of Mobile, fourteen miles across. The 
 keeper of the lighthouse looked sickly, which is not 
 surprising, as he is living in a swamp in this region 
 of malaria. It was his first year of residence, and the 
 second year is said to be most trying to the consti- 
 tution. The women, however, of his family, seemed 
 healthy. We then went to the sea-side, two miles to 
 the eastward, and found the waters of the bay smooth 
 and unrippled, like an extensive lake, the woods 
 coming down everywhere to its edge, and the live oaks 
 and long-leaved pines, with the buck-eye and several 
 other trees just beginning to put forth their young 
 leaves. As the most northern countries I had 
 visited in Europe Norway and Sweden were 
 characterised by fir trees mingled with birch, I was 
 surprised to find the most southern spot I had yet- 
 seen, a plain only a few feet above the level of 
 the sea, almost equally characterised by a predomi- 
 nance of pines. On the ground I observed a species 
 of cactus, about one foot high, and the marshy spots 
 were covered with the candleberry (Myrica caro- 
 linensis), resembling the species so common in the 
 North, in the scent of its aromatic leaves, but thrice 
 as high as I had seen it before. The most common 
 plant in flower was the English chickweed ( Cerastium 
 vulgare), a truly cosmopolite species. 
 
 A prodigious quantity of drift timber, of all sizes, 
 and in every stage of decomposition, lay stranded far 
 and wide along the shore. Many of the trunks had 
 been floated a thousand miles and more down the 
 
 F 4 
 
104 MARINE SHELLS. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 Mississippi and its tributaries, and, after escaping by 
 one of the many mouths of the great river, had 
 drifted one hundred and fifty miles eastward to this 
 spot. The fact of their long immersion in salt water 
 was sometimes proved by a dense coat of encrusting 
 barnacles, the only marine shells we could find here, 
 for the mollusks proper to this part of the bay are 
 such as belong to fresh or brackish water of the 
 genera Cyrena, Gnathodon, and Neritina. Just before 
 our visit, a north wind had been blowing and driving 
 back the sea water for some days, and the bay was 
 so freshened by the Alabama river pouring in at this 
 season a full stream, that I could detect no brackish 
 taste in the water. It is, in fact, so sweet here, that 
 ships often resort to the spot to take in water. Yet 
 there is a regular tide rising three feet every six 
 hours, and, when the wind blows from the south, the 
 waters are raised six or seven feet. 
 
 After walking over a large expanse of ripple- 
 marked sands, we came to banks of .rnud, inhabited 
 by the bivalve shell called Gnaihodon, some of 
 which we dug up alive from a depth of about two 
 inches from the surface. This part of the Bay of 
 Mobile is now the most northern locality of this re- 
 markable brackish- water genus, but dead shells of 
 the same species are traced many miles inland, form- 
 ing banks three or four feet thick. They are called 
 clams here in popular language, and, being thick and 
 strong, afford a good material for road-making. From 
 the same mud bank we dug out a species of Cyrena, 
 the only accompanying shell. In some places not 
 far off, a Neritina is also met with. As a geologist, 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] MIRING OF CATTLE. 105 
 
 I was much interested by observing the manner in 
 which these shells were living in the mud of the 
 delta of the Alabama river. The deposits formed 
 by the advance of this and other deltas along the 
 northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, will be here- 
 after characterised by such shells in a fossil state, just 
 as, in the Pampas, Mr. Darwin and M. A. D'Orbigny 
 found the brackish-water shell, called Azara labiata, 
 marking far inland the position of ancient estuaries. 
 And as, in South America, " the Pampean mud," de- 
 scribed by Mr. Darwin *, is filled with the skeletons 
 of the extinct Megatherium, Toxodon, and other 
 strange mammalia, so in the modern delta of the 
 Alabama, the quadrupeds now inhabiting the south- 
 ern shores of the United States will hereafter be 
 met with buried in the same assemblage of deposits 
 of mud and sand as the Gnathodon. I was told that 
 in a great morass which we saw near the lighthouse 
 some cattle had lately perished, and for many days 
 the turkey buzzards have been snatching parts of 
 the dead carcases out of the mud, watching their 
 opportunity the moment the dogs, which are also 
 preying on them, retire. Formerly the wolves used 
 to prowl about these swamps in search of similar 
 booty, tearing up portions of the mired cattle, and 
 in this manner we may expect that, while some 
 skeletons, which have sunk deep into the softer mud, 
 may be preserved entire, the bones of others will be 
 scattered about where the wolves have gnawed them, 
 or birds of prey have picked off the flesh. 
 
 * Geolog. Obs. on S. America (1846), p. 99. 
 
 F 5 
 
106 BANKS OF FOSSIL SHELLS. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 On our way back to the town, at places a mile 
 and a half from the sea, I examined some large banks 
 of fossil shells of the Gnathodon, lying as if they had 
 been washed up by the waves at a time when the 
 coast-line extended only thus far south. I also found 
 that the city of Mobile itself was built upon a similar 
 bed of shells, in which no specimens of the Neritina 
 occurred ; but I was told by Mr. Hale, that he has 
 met with them in banks much farther in the interior, 
 and, as he truly remarked, they refute the theory 
 which would refer such accumulations to the Indians, 
 who, it is well known, were accustomed to feed on 
 the Gnathodon. The distinct stratification seen in 
 some of the heaps of shells and sand at Mobile, also 
 satisfied me that they were thrown up by the action 
 of water. Mr. Hale gave me a map, in which he 
 had laid down the localities of these beds of fossil 
 Gnathodon, some of which he has traced as far as 
 twenty miles into the interior, the accumulations in- 
 creasing in thickness in the most elevated and inland 
 situations, and containing there an intermixture of 
 the NeritincK with the Cyrena, which last seems only 
 to occur in the recent banks of mud and sand. Mr. 
 Hale observes, " that the inland heaps of shells often 
 rise so far above the level of the highest tides, that 
 it seems difficult to account for their position simply 
 by the advance of the delta, and without supposing 
 that there has been a slight upheaval of the land." 
 
 In the gardens at Mobile, there were jonquils and 
 snowdrops in flower, and, for the first time, we saw 
 that beautiful evergreen, the yellow jessamine (Gel- 
 semium sempervirens), in full bloom, trailed along the 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] YELLOW FEVEK. 107 
 
 wall of Dr. Hamilton's house. Its fragrance is de- 
 licious, more like that of our bind-weed than any 
 other scent I could remember. It had not been in- 
 jured by the late frost, although the thermometer at 
 Mobile had been eight degrees below the freezing 
 point. 
 
 The citizens are beginning to natter themselves 
 that the yellow fever has worn itself out at Mobile, 
 because the hot season of 1845 was so healthy both 
 here and at New Orleans. Some medical men, in- 
 deed, confessed to me, that as the wind blew for 
 many weeks from the north, passing over the marshes 
 north of the city during the summer, without giving 
 rise to the usual epidemic, all their former theories 
 as to the origin of the pestilence have been refuted. 
 It may still hold true, that to induce the disease, 
 three causes must concur, namely, heat, a moist 
 ground, and a decaying vegetation ; but it seems clear 
 that all these may be present in their fullest intensity, 
 and yet prove quite inoccuous. The dangerous 
 months are July, August, and September, and great 
 is the anxiety of those who then remain in the city. 
 It is fearful to witness the struggle between the love 
 of gain, tempting the merchant to continue at his 
 post, and the terror of the plague, which causes him 
 to stand always prepared for sudden flight. In 1839, 
 such was the dismay, that only 3000 out of a popu- 
 lation of 16,000 tarried behind in the city. Dr. 
 Hamilton, one of those who staid, told me that he 
 knew not a single family, a member of which was 
 not attacked by the disease. Out of the 3000, 800 
 
 F 6 
 
108 FIRE AT MOBILE. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 died. All the clergy remained faithful to their 
 duties, and many of them perished. 
 
 The yellow fever is not the only scourge which 
 has frequently devastated Mobile. I found it slowly 
 recovering, like so many other American cities, from 
 the ravages of a great fire, which, in 1839, laid the 
 greater part of it in ashes. The fire broke out in so 
 many places at once, as to give too much reason to 
 suspect that it was the work of incendiaries seeking 
 plunder. 
 
 Feb. 23. The distance from Mobile to New Or- 
 leans is 175 miles by what is called the inland pas- 
 sage, or the channel between the islands and the 
 main land. We paid five dollars, or one guinea each, 
 for berths in the " James L. Day " steamer, which 
 made about nine miles an hour. Being on the low- 
 pressure principle, she was so free from noise and 
 vibration, that we could scarcely believe we were 
 not in a sailing vessel. The stunning sounds and 
 tremulous motions of the boats on the Southern 
 rivers are at first so distracting, that I often won- 
 dered we could sleep soundly in them. The " James 
 L. Day " is 1 85 feet long, drawing now 5^ feet 
 water, and only seven feet when fully freighted. We 
 sailed out of the beautiful Bay of Mobile in the 
 evening, in the coldest month of the year, yet the air 
 was warm, and there was a haze like that of a sum- 
 mer's evening in England. Many gulls followed our 
 ship, enticed by pieces of bread thrown out to them by 
 the passengers, some of whom were displaying their 
 skill in shooting the birds in mere wantonness. The 
 stars were brilliant as the night came on, and we 
 
HAP. XXVI.] MOVERS TO TEXAS. 109 
 
 passed between the islands and main land, where the 
 sea was as smooth as a lake. 
 
 On board were many " movers," going to Texas 
 with their slaves. One of them confessed to me, 
 that he had been eaten out of Alabama by his negroes. 
 He had no idea where he was going, but after set- 
 tling his family at Houston, he said he should look 
 out for a square league of good land to be had cheap. 
 Another passenger had, a few weeks before, returned 
 from Texas, much disappointed, and was holding 
 forth in disparagement of the country for its want of 
 wood and water, declaring that none could thrive 
 there unless they came from the prairies of Illinois, 
 and were inured to such privations. " Cotton," he 
 said, " could only be raised on a few narrow strips of 
 alluvial land near the rivers, and as these were not 
 navigable by steamers, the crop, when raised, could 
 not be carried to a market." He also comforted the 
 mover with the assurance, " that there were swarms 
 of buftalo flies to torment his horses, and sand flies to 
 sting him and his family." To this the undismayed 
 emigrant replied, " that when he first settled in 
 Alabama, before the long grass and canes had been 
 eaten down by his cattle, the insect pests were 
 as great as they could be in Texas." He was, I 
 found, one of those resolute pioneers of the wilder- 
 ness, who, after building a log-house, clearing the 
 forest, and improving some hundred acres of wild 
 ground by years of labour, sells the farm and mi- 
 grates again to another part of the uncleared forest, 
 repeating this operation three or four times in the 
 course of his life, and, though constantly growing 
 
110 LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. [CHAP XXVI. 
 
 richer, never disposed to take his ease. In pursuing 
 this singular vocation, they who go southwards from 
 Virginia to North and South Carolina, and thence to 
 Georgia and Alabama, follow, as if by instinct, the 
 corresponding zones of country. The inhabitants of 
 the red soil of the granitic region keep to their oak 
 and hiccory, the " crackers " of the tertiary pine- 
 barrens to their light-wood, and they of the newest 
 geological formations in the sea-islands to their fish 
 and oysters. On reaching Texas, they are all of 
 them at fault, which will surprise no geologist who 
 has read Ferdinand Roemer's account of the form 
 which the cretaceous strata assume in that country, 
 consisting of a hard, compact, siliceous limestone, 
 which defies the decomposing action of the atmosphere, 
 and forms table-lands of bare rock, so entirely un- 
 like the marls, clays, and sands of the same age in 
 Alabama. 
 
 On going down from the cabin to the lower deck, I 
 found a slave-dealer with sixteen negroes to sell, most 
 of them Virginians. I heard him decline an offer of 500 
 dollars for one of them, a price which he said he could 
 have got for the man before he left his own State. 
 
 Next morning at daylight, we found ourselves in 
 Louisiana. We had already entered the large la- 
 goon, called Lake Pontchartrain, by a narrow pas- 
 sage, and, having skirted its southern shore, had 
 reached a point six miles north of New Orleans. 
 Here we disembarked, and entered the cars of a rail- 
 way built on piles, which conveyed us in less than an 
 hour to the great city, passing over swamps in which 
 the tall cypress, hung with Spanish moss, was flou- 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] NEW ORLEANS. Ill 
 
 rishing, and below it numerous shrubs just burst- 
 ing into leaf. In many gardens of the suburbs, the 
 almond and peach trees were in full blossom. In 
 some places the blue-leaved palmetto, and the leaves 
 of a species of iris (Iris cupred), were very abundant. 
 We saw a tavern called the " Elysian Fields Coffee 
 House," and some others with French inscriptions. 
 There were also many houses with porte-cocheres, 
 high roofs, and volets, and many lamps suspended 
 from ropes attached to tall posts on each side of the 
 road, as in the French capital. We might indeed 
 have fancied that we were approaching Paris, but for 
 the negroes and mulattos, and the large verandahs 
 reminding us that the windows required protection 
 from the sun's heat. 
 
 It was a pleasure to hear the French language 
 spoken, and to have our thoughts recalled to the 
 most civilised parts of Europe by the aspect of a 
 city, forming so great a contrast to the innumerable 
 new towns we had lately beheld. The foreign ap- 
 pearance, moreover, of the inhabitants, made me feel 
 thankful that it was possible to roam freely and 
 without hindrance over so large a continent, no 
 bureaus for examining and signing of passports, no 
 fortifications, no draw-bridges, no closing of gates at 
 a fixed hour in the evening, no waiting till they are 
 opened in the morning, no custom-houses separating 
 one State from another, no overhauling of baggage 
 by gensdarmes for the octroi, and yet as perfect a 
 feeling of personal security as T ever felt in Ger- 
 many or France. 
 
 The largest of the hotels, the St. Charles, being 
 
112 ST. LOUIS HOTEL. [CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 full, we obtained agreeable apartments at the St. 
 Louis, in a part of the town where we heard French 
 constantly spoken. Our rooms were fitted up in the 
 French style, with muslin curtains and scarlet dra- 
 peries. There was a finely proportioned drawing- 
 room, furnished a la Louis Quatorze, opening into 
 a large dining-room with sliding doors, where the 
 boarders and the "transient visitors," as they are 
 called in the United States, met at meals. The 
 mistress of the hotel, a widow, presided at dinner, 
 and we talked French with her and some of the at- 
 tendants ; but most of the servants of the house were 
 Irish or German. There was a beautiful ball-room, 
 in which preparations were making for a grand 
 masked ball, to be given the night after our arrival. 
 
 It was the last day of the Carnival. From the 
 time we landed in New England to this hour, we 
 seemed to have been in a country where all, whether 
 rich or poor, were labouring from morning till night, 
 without ever indulging in a holiday. I had some- 
 times thought that the national motto should be 
 " All work and no play." It was quite a novelty 
 and a refreshing sight to see a whole population 
 giving up their minds for a short season to amuse- 
 ment. There was a grand procession parading the 
 streets, almost every one dressed in the most gro- 
 tesque attire, troops of them on horseback, some in 
 open carriages, with bands of music, and in a variety 
 of costumes, some as Indians, with feathers in 
 their heads, and one, a jolly fat man, as Mardi Gras 
 himself. All wore masks, and here and there in the 
 crowd, or stationed in a balcony above, we saw per- 
 
CHAP. XXVI.] THE CAENIVAL. 113 
 
 sons armed with bags of flour, which they showered 
 down copiously on any one who seemed particularly 
 proud of his attire. The strangeness of the scene 
 was not a little heightened by the blending of ne- 
 groes, quadroons, and mulattos in the crowd; and 
 we were amused by observing the ludicrous surprise, 
 mixed with contempt, of several unmasked, stiff, 
 grave Anglo-Americans from the North, who were 
 witnessing, for the first time, what seemed to them so 
 much mummery and torn-foolery. One waggoner, 
 coming out of a cross street, in his working-day dress, 
 drove his team of horses and vehicle heavily laden 
 with cotton bales right through the procession, caus- 
 ing a long interruption. The crowd seemed deter- 
 mined to allow nothing to disturb their good humour ; 
 but although many of the wealthy Protestant citizens 
 take part in the ceremony, this rude intrusion struck 
 me as a kind of foreshadowing of coming events, 
 emblematic of the violent shock which the invasion 
 of the Anglo-Americans is about to give to the old 
 regime of Louisiana. A gentleman told me, that 
 being last year at Rome, he had not seen so many 
 masks at the Carnival there ; and, in spite of the in- 
 crease of Protestants, he thought there had been 
 quite as much " flour and fun " this year as usual. 
 The proportion, however, of strict Romanists is not so 
 great as formerly, and to-morrow, they say, when 
 Lent begins, there will be an end of the trade in 
 masks ; yet the butchers will sell nearly as much 
 meat as ever. During the Carnival, the greater 
 part of the French population keep open house, espe- 
 cially in the country. 
 
114 CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Catholic Cathedral, New Orleans. French Opera. Creole 
 Ladies. Quadroons. Marriage of Whites with Quadroons. 
 
 St. Charles Theatre. English Pronunciation. Duellisfs 
 Grave. Ladies' Ordinary. Procession of Fire Companies- 
 
 Boasted Salubrity of New Orleans. Goods selling at 
 Northern Prices. Mr. Wilde. Roman Law. Shifting of 
 Capital to Baton Rouge. Debates in Houses of Legislature. 
 Convention and Revision of the Laws. Policy of Periodical 
 State Conventions. Judges cashiered. Limitation of their 
 Term of Office. 
 
 New Orleans, February, 1846. WALKING first over 
 the most ancient part of the city, called the First 
 Municipality, we entered the Place d'Armes, and 
 saw on one side of the square the old Spanish 
 Government House, and opposite to it the Cathedral, 
 or principal Catholic church, both in an antique style 
 of architecture, and therefore strikingly unlike any 
 thing we had seen for many months. Entering the 
 church, which is always open, we found persons on 
 their knees, as in Catholic countries, although it was 
 not Sunday, and an extremely handsome quadroon 
 woman coming out. 
 
 In the evening we went to the French Opera, and 
 were much pleased with the performance, the orchestra 
 being the best in America. The audience were very 
 quiet and orderly, which is said not to be always 
 
CHAP. XXVIL] CKEOLE LADIES. 115. 
 
 the case in some theatres here. The French Creole 
 ladies, many of them descended from Norman ances- 
 tors, and of pure unmixed blood, are very handsome. 
 They were attired in Parisian fashion, not over dressed, 
 usually not so thin as the generality of American 
 women ; their luxuriant hair tastefully arranged, 
 fastened with ornamental pins, and adorned simply 
 with a coloured riband or a single flower. My wife 
 learnt from one of them afterwards, that they usually 
 pay, by the month, a quadroon female hairdresser, a 
 refinement in which the richest ladies in Boston 
 would not think of indulging. The word Creole is 
 used in Louisiana to express a native-born 'Ame- 
 rican, whether black or white, descended from old 
 world parents, for they would not call the abo- 
 riginal Indians, Creoles. It never means persons of 
 mixed breed ; and the French or Spanish Creoles 
 here would shrink as much as a New Englander 
 from intermarriage with one tainted, in the slightest 
 degree, with African blood. The frequent alliances 
 of the Creoles, or Louisianians, of French extraction 
 with lawyers and merchants from the Northern States, 
 help to cement the ties which are every day binding 
 more firmly together the distant parts of the Union. 
 Both races may be improved by such connection, for 
 the manners of the Creole ladies are, for the most 
 part, more refined ; and many a Louisianian might 
 justly have felt indignant if he could have overheard 
 a conceited young bachelor from the North telling 
 me " how much they were preferred by the fair sex 
 to the hard-drinking, gambling, horse-racing, cock- 
 fighting, and tobacco-chewing Southerners." If the 
 
.116 QUADROONS. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Creoles have less depth of character, and are less 
 striving and ambitious than the New Englanders, it 
 must be no slight source of happiness to the former 
 to be so content with present advantages. They 
 seem to feel, far more than the Anglo-Saxons, that 
 if riches be worth the winning, they are also worth 
 enjoying. 
 
 The quadroons, or the offspring of the whites and 
 mulattos, sat in an upper tier of boxes appropriated 
 to them. When they are rich, they hold a peculiar 
 and very equivocal position in society. As children, 
 they have often been sent to Paris for their edu- 
 cation, and, being as capable of improvement as any 
 whites, .return with refined manners, and not unfre- 
 quently with more cultivated minds than the ma- 
 jority of those from whose society they are shut out. 
 By the tyranny of caste they are driven, therefore, 
 to form among themselves a select and exclusive set. 
 Among other stories illustrating their social relation 
 to the whites, we were told that a young man of the 
 dominant race fell in love with a beautiful quadroon 
 girl, who was so light-coloured as to be scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable from one of pure breed. He found 
 that, in order to render the marriage legal, he was 
 required to swear that he himself had negro blood 
 in his veins, and, that he might conscientiously take 
 the oath, he let some of the blood of his betrothed 
 into his veins with a lancet. The romance of this 
 tale was however greatly diminished, although I fear 
 that my inclination to believe in its truth was 
 equally enhanced, when the additional circumstance 
 was related, that the young lady was rich. 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] ST. CHARLES THEATRE. 117 
 
 Some part of the feeling prevailing in New 
 England, in regard to the immorality of New Or- 
 leans, may be set down to the fact of their theatres 
 being open every Sunday evening, which is no indi- 
 cation whatever of a disregard of religion on the 
 part of the Catholics. The latter might, with as 
 much reason, reflect on the Protestants for not keep- 
 ing the doors of their churches open on week-days. 
 But as a great number of the young mercantile men 
 who sojourn here are from the North, and separated 
 from their families, they are naturally tempted to 
 frequent the theatres on Sundays ; and if they do so 
 with a sense that they are violating propriety, or 
 acting against what in their consciences they think 
 right, the effect must be unfavourable to their moral 
 character. 
 
 During our stay here we passed a delightful even- 
 ing in the St. Charles theatre, seeing Mr. and Mrs. 
 Kean in the " Gamester" and " The Follies of a 
 Night." Her acting of Mrs. Beverley was perfec- 
 tion ; every tone and gesture full of feeling, and 
 always lady-like, never overwrought in the most 
 passionate parts. Charles Kean's acting, especially 
 in Richard, has been eminently successful during his 
 present tour in the United States. 
 
 While at New Orleans, Mrs. Kean told my wife 
 she had been complimented on speaking English so 
 well ; and some wonder had been expressed that she 
 never omitted or misplaced her h's. In like manner, 
 during our tour in New England, some of the 
 natives, on learning that we habitually resided in 
 London, exclaimed that they had never heard us 
 
118 ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 confound our v's and w's. " The Pickwick Papers " 
 have been so universally read in this country, that 
 it is natural the Americans should imagine Sam 
 Weller's pronunciation to be a type of that usually 
 spoken in the old country, at least in and about the 
 metropolis. In their turn, the English retaliate amply 
 on American travellers in the British Isles : " You 
 don't mean to say you are an American ? Is it pos- 
 sible ? I should never have discovered it, you speak 
 English so well ! " " Did you suppose that we had 
 adopted some one of the Indian languages ?" "I 
 really never thought about it ; but it is wonderful to 
 hear you talk like us ! " 
 
 Looking into the shop-windows in New Orleans, 
 we see much which reminds us of Paris, and abund- 
 ance of articles manufactured in the Northern States, 
 but very few things characteristic of Louisiana. 
 Among the latter I remarked, at a jeweller's, many 
 alligators' teeth polished and as white as ivory, and 
 set in silver for infants to wear round their necks to 
 rub against their gums when cutting their teeth, in 
 the same way as they use a coral in England. 
 
 The tombs in the cemeteries on the outskirts of 
 the town are raised from the ground, in order that 
 they may be above the swamps, and the coffins are 
 placed in bins like those of a cellar. The water is seen 
 standing on the soil at a lower level in many places ; 
 there are often flowers and shrubs round the tombs, 
 by the side of walks made of shells of the Gna- 
 thodon. Over the grave of one recently killed in a 
 duel was a tablet, with the inscription " Mort, 
 victime de 1'honneur ! " Should any one propose to 
 
CHAP, xxvii.] LADIES' ORDJNAKY. 119 
 
 set up a similar tribute to the memory of a duellist 
 at Mount Auburn, near Boston, a sensation would 
 be created which would manifest how widely dif- 
 ferent is the state of public opinion in New England 
 from that in the " First Municipality." 
 
 Among the signs of the tacit recognition of an 
 aristocracy in the large cities, is the manner in which 
 persons of the richer and more refined classes asso- 
 ciate together in the large hotels. There is one 
 public table frequented by bachelors, commercial tra- 
 vellers, and gentlemen not accompanied by their 
 wives and families, and a more expensive one, called 
 the Ladies' Ordinary, at which ladies, their husbands, 
 and gentlemen whom they invite, have their meals. 
 Some persons who occupy a marked position in so- 
 ciety, such as our friend the ex-senator, Mr. Wilde, 
 often obtain leave by favour to frequent this ordi- 
 nary ; but the keepers of the hotels grant or decline 
 the privilege, as they may think proper. 
 
 A few days after the Carnival we had another 
 opportunity of seeing a grand procession of the na- 
 tives, without masks. The corps of all the different 
 companies of firemen turned out in their uniform, 
 drawing their engines dressed up with flowers, ri- 
 bands, and flags, and I never saw a finer set of young 
 men. We could not help contrasting their healthy 
 looks with the pale, sickly countenances of "the 
 crackers," in the pine- woods of Georgia and Alabama, 
 where we had been spending so many weeks. These 
 men were almost all of them Creoles, and thoroughly 
 acclimatised ; and I soon found that if I wished to 
 ingratiate myself with natives or permanent settlers 
 
120 SALUBRITY OF NEW ORLEANS. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 in this city, the less surprise I expressed at the 
 robust aspect of these young Creoles the better. 
 The late Mr. Sydney Smith advised an English 
 friend who was going to reside some years in Edin- 
 burgh to praise the climate : ( f When you arrive 
 there it may rain, snow, or blow for many days, and 
 they will assure you they never knew such a season 
 before. If you would be popular, declare you think 
 it the most delightful climate in the world." When 
 I first heard New Orleans commended for its salu- 
 brity, I could scarcely believe that my companions 
 were in earnest, till a physician put into my hands 
 a statistical table, recently published in a medical 
 magazine, proving that in the year 1845 the mor- 
 tality in the metropolis of Louisiana was 1-850, 
 whereas that of Boston was 2-250, or, in other 
 words, while the capital of Massachusetts lost 1 
 out of 44 inhabitants, New Orleans lost only 1 in 54 ; 
 "yet the year 1845," said he, " was one of great heat, 
 and when a wider area than usual was flooded by 
 the river, and exposed to evaporation under a hot 
 sun." 
 
 It appears that when New Orleans is empty in the 
 summer in other words, when all the strangers, 
 about 40,000 in number, go into the country, and 
 many of them to the North, fearing the yellow fever, 
 the city still contains between 80,000 and 100,000 
 inhabitants, who never suffer from the dreaded dis- 
 ease, whether they be of European or African origin. 
 If, therefore, it be fair to measure the salubrity of 
 a district by its adaptation to the constitutions of 
 natives rather than foreigners, the claim set up for 
 
CHAP. XXVII.] GOODS AT NORTHERN PRICES. 121 
 
 superior healthiness may be less preposterous than at 
 first it sounded to my ears. I asked an Irishman if 
 the summer heat was intolerable. " You would have 
 something else to think of in the hot months," said 
 he, " for there is one set of musquitos who sting 
 you all day, and when they go in towards dusk, 
 another kind comes out and bites you all night." 
 
 The desertion of the city for five months by so 
 many of the richer residents, causes the hotels, and 
 the prices of almost every article in shops, to be very 
 dear during the remainder of the year. " Goods 
 selling at northern prices" is a common form of ad- 
 vertisement, showing how high is the usual cost of 
 all things in this city. The Irish servants in the 
 hotel assure us that they cannot save, in spite of their 
 high wages, for, whatever money they put by soon 
 goes to pay the doctor's bill, during attacks of chill 
 and fever. 
 
 Hearing that a Guide-book of New Orleans had 
 been published, we wished to purchase a copy, al- 
 though it was of somewhat ancient date for a city of 
 rapid growth. The bookseller said that we must 
 wait till he received some more copies from New 
 York, for it appears that the printing even of books 
 of local interest is done by presses 2000 miles distant. 
 Their law reports are not printed here, and there is 
 only one newspaper in the First Municipality, which 
 I was told as very characteristic of the French race ; 
 for, in the Second Municipality, although so much 
 newer, the Anglo-Americans have, during the last ten 
 years, started ten newspapers. 
 
 We were very fortunate in finding our old friend, 
 
 VOL. II. G 
 
122 ROMAN LAW. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Mr. Richard Henry Wilde, residing in the same 
 hotel, for he had lately established himself in New 
 Orleans, and was practising in the courts of civil 
 law with success. The Roman law, originally in- 
 troduced into the courts here by the first settlers, 
 was afterwards modified by the French, and assimi- 
 lated to the Code Napoleon, and finally, by modern 
 innovations, brought more and more into accordance 
 with the common law of England. Texas, in her 
 new constitution, and even some of the older States, 
 those of New England not excepted, have borrowed 
 several improvements from the Roman law. Among 
 these is the securing to married women rights in 
 property, real and personal, so as to protect them 
 from the debts of their husbands, and enable them 
 to dispose of their own property. 
 
 Mr. Wilde took me to the Houses of the Legisla- 
 ture, where a discussion was going on as to the pro- 
 priety of changing the seat of government from New 
 Orleans to some other place in Louisiana, for it had 
 been determined, though by a majority of one only, 
 in a convention appointed for that purpose, that they 
 should go somewhere else, to a place at least sixty 
 miles distant from the metropolis. I remarked, that 
 the accessibility of New Orleans was so great, and 
 so many must be drawn to it by business, that the 
 determination to seek out a new site for a capital, 
 seemed to me incomprehensible. " You will wonder 
 still more," he replied, " when I tell you, that when 
 the convention had been some time at Baton Rouge to 
 frame the new constitution, they thought it advisable 
 to adjourn to New Orleans, where they could consult 
 
CHAP. XXVIL] HOUSES OF LEGISLATURE. 123 
 
 with lawyers who were attending the courts, and with 
 the principal merchants, and where they might have 
 access to good libraries, and be in daily communica- 
 tion by steam with all parts of the State. In short, 
 they found that for the faithful discharge of their 
 task, they stood in need of a great variety of informa- 
 tion which they could obtain nowhere so readily as 
 in the metropolis. Yet it seems never to have struck 
 them that our future law-makers might, with equal 
 profit to the State, derive knowledge from the same 
 sources." 
 
 In the House of Eepresentatives, English is spoken 
 exclusively, but in the Senate many were addressing 
 the House in French, and when they sat down an 
 interpreter rose and repeated the whole speech over 
 again in English. An orator was on his legs, main- 
 taining that Baton Rouge had the best claims to be- 
 come the future capital, a proposition soon afterwards 
 adopted by the majority. Another contended that 
 Donaldsonville ought to be the place, as it would suit 
 the convenience of 26,000 white male citizens, whilst 
 Baton Rouge would only favour the interest of 12,000. 
 This line of argument seemed to me to contain in it 
 an implied censure on the abandonment of New 
 Orleans, but that was no longer an open question. 
 When I afterwards saw the insignificant village of 
 Donaldsonville, I could not help being diverted at 
 the recollection of the inflated terms in which its fu- 
 ture prospects had been dwelt upon. The speaker 
 said, " He liked to lift the veil off the face of futurity 
 and contemplate the gigantic strides to wealth, popu- 
 lation, and power, which that city was destined to 
 
 G 2 
 
124 CHANGING SITE OF CAPITAL. [CHAP, XX Ml. 
 
 make : he liked to behold it in imagination, as it will 
 be in reality, built up from the bank of the river to 
 the margin of the lake, sustaining and supporting a 
 happy, industrious, and enterprising population of 
 millions, and being at the same time the great em- 
 porium of the trade and commerce of the world." 
 
 Although I talked much with Louisianians of dif- 
 ferent classes in society, as to their reasons for 
 changing the site of the capital, I never could satisfy 
 myself that I had fathomed the truth, and suspect 
 that a spirit of envy and antagonism of country 
 against town lies more at the bottom of the measure 
 than they were willing to confess, aggravated, per- 
 haps, in this case, by the rivalry of two races. No 
 one pretended that they wished to retreat to a 
 village, from fear that the populace, or mob, of New 
 Orleans might control the free action of the repre- 
 sentative body. Some told me, that as their mem- 
 bers' received pay, they were desirous of taking away 
 from them all temptations to protract the session, 
 which the charms of a luxurious metropolis afforded. 
 They also affirmed that, by living in so dear a place, 
 their representatives acquired extravagant notions in 
 regard to the expenditure of public money, and that 
 they were exposed to the influence of rich merchants 
 and capitalists, who gave them good dinners, and 
 brought them round to their opinions. 
 
 I asked if a convention for remodelling the con- 
 stitution had been called for. My informants were 
 generally disposed to think that the time had arrived 
 when such a re-cast of the old system had become 
 unavoidable. The recurrence, they said, of such 
 
UTOLJ 
 
 
 
126 TERM OF OFFICE. [CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 tiring pensions, we hold, with your Jeremy Ben- 
 tham, that no man can acquire a vested right in a 
 public injury. Men are apt, when they have re- 
 tained possession of an office for a great part of their 
 lives, to think they own it." " But what is to be- 
 come of the judges," said I, " who are thus cast off 
 without pensions?" "Old Judge A ," he re- 
 plied, " owns a plantation, and will go and farm it. 
 
 Judge B will probably get a professor's chair in 
 
 the new Law University ; " and so he went on, pro- 
 viding for all of them. " In future," he continued, 
 " our judges are to be appointed by the Governor 
 and Senate, with good salaries, for eight years ; those 
 first named being for two, four, six, and eight years, 
 so that they may go out in rotation ; but members 
 of the Legislature cannot be raised to the bench, as in 
 Great Britain." I objected, that such a system 
 might render a judge who desired to be re-elected 
 subservient to the party in power, or at least open 
 to such an imputation. " No doubt," he rejoined ; 
 <f as in the case of your judges, who may be pro- 
 moted to higher posts on the bench. As to the 
 corrupting influence of their dependance on a legis- 
 lature chosen by a widely-extended suffrage, many 
 of your mayors and aldermen are elected for short 
 terms, and exercise judicial functions in England." 
 
CHAP. XXVIIL] YELLOW FEVER. 127 
 
 CHAP. XXVIIL 
 
 Negroes not Attacked by Yellow Fever. History of Mr. Wilde's 
 Poem. The Market, New Orleans. Motley Character of 
 Population. Levee and Steamers. First Sight of Mississippi 
 River. View from the Cupola of the St. Charles. Site of 
 New Orleans. Excursion to Lake Pontchartrain. Shell 
 Road. Heaps of Gnathodon. Excavation for Gas- Works. 
 Buried Upright Trees. Pere Antoine's Date-palm. 
 
 BEFOKE we left - New Orleans Mr. Wilde received a 
 message from his negroes, whom he had left behind 
 at Augusta, in Georgia, entreating him to send for 
 them. They had felt, it seems, somewhat hurt and 
 slighted at not having been sooner permitted to join 
 him. He told us that he was only waiting for a 
 favourable season to transplant them, for he feared 
 that men of colour, when they had been acclimatised 
 for several generations in so cool a country as the 
 upper parts of Alabama and Georgia, might run 
 great risk of the yellow fever, although the medical 
 men here assured him that a slight admixture of 
 negro blood sufficed to make them proof against this 
 scourge. 
 
 " No one," he said, " feels safe here, who has not 
 survived an attack of the fever, or escaped unharmed 
 while it has been raging." He mentioned the belief 
 of some theorists, that the complaint was caused by 
 invisible animalcules, a notion agreeing singularly 
 
 G 4 
 
128 MR. WILDE'S POEM. [CHAP, xxvill. 
 
 with that of many Komans in regard to the malaria 
 of Italy. 
 
 The year following this conversation, our excellent 
 friend was himself carried off by this fatal disease. 
 He is well known to the literary world as the author 
 of a work on the " Love and Madness of Tasso," 
 published in 1842, and perhaps still more generally 
 by some beautiful lines, beginning " My life is like 
 the summer rose," which are usually supposed to have 
 derived their tone of touching melancholy, from his 
 grief at the sudden death of a brother, and soon after 
 of a mother, who never recovered the shock of her 
 son's death. As there had been so much controversy 
 about this short poem, we asked Mr. Wilde to relate 
 to us its true history, which is curious. He had 
 been one of a party at Savannah, when the question 
 was raised whether a certain professor of the Univer- 
 sity of Georgia understood Greek ; on which one of 
 his companions undertook to translate Mr. Wilde's 
 verses, called " The Complaint of the Captive," into 
 Greek prose, so arranged as to appear like verse, and 
 then see if he could pass it off upon the Professor as 
 a fragment of Alcaeus. The trick succeeded, al- 
 though the Professor said that not having the works 
 of Alcaeus at hand, he could not feel sure that the poem 
 was really his. It was then sent, without the know- 
 ledge of Mr. Wilde and his friends, to a periodical at 
 New York, and published as a fragment from Alcseus, 
 and the Senator for Georgia was vehemently attacked 
 by his political opponents, for having passed off a 
 translation from the Greek as an original composition 
 of his own. 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] MR. WILDE'S POEM. 129 
 
 Soon after this affair, Captain Basil Hall men- 
 tioned in his " Schloss Hainfeld" (chap, x.), that the 
 Countess Purgstall had read the lines to him, and 
 would not tell him who was the author, but he had 
 little doubt that she had written them herself. The 
 verses had become so popular that they were set to 
 music, and the name of Tampa, a desolate sea-beach 
 on the coast of Florida, was changed into Tempe, 
 the loveliest of the wooded valleys of Greece, in the 
 concluding stanza : 
 
 " My life is like the prints which feet 
 
 Have left on Tampa's desert strand ; 
 Soon as the rising tide shall beat, 
 
 All trace will vanish from the sand. 
 Yet, as if grieving to efface 
 All vestige of the human race, 
 On that lone shore loud moans the sea, 
 But none, alas ! shall mourn for me ! " 
 
 In the Countess's version Zara had been substi- 
 tuted for Tampa. 
 
 During our stay in New Orleans, Mr. Wilde in- 
 troduced us to his friend Mr. Clay, the Whig candi- 
 date in the late presidential election, and I was glad 
 of the opportunity of conversing with this distin- 
 guished statesman. In the principal episcopal church 
 we were very fortunate in hearing Dr. Hawkes 
 preach, and thought the matter and manner of his 
 discourse deserving of his high reputation for pulpit 
 eloquence. 
 
 One morning we rose early to visit the market of 
 the First Municipality, and found the air on the 
 
 G 5 
 
130 THE MARKET, NEW ORLEANS. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 bank of the Mississippi filled with mist as dense as a 
 London fog, but of a pure white instead of yellow 
 colour. Through this atmosphere the innumerable 
 masts of the ships alongside the wharf, were dimly 
 seen. Among other fruits in the market we ob- 
 served abundance of bananas, and good pine -apples, 
 for 25 cents (or a shilling) each, from the West In- 
 dies. There were stalls where hot coffee was selling 
 in white china cups, reminding us of Paris. Among 
 other articles exposed for sale, were brooms made of 
 palmetto leaves, and waggon-loads of the dried Span- 
 ish moss, or Tillandsia. The quantity of this plant 
 hanging from the trees in the swamps surrounding 
 New Orleans, and everywhere in the delta of the 
 Mississippi, might suffice to stuff all the mattrasses 
 in the world. The Indians formerly used it for ano- 
 ther purpose to give porosity or lightness to their 
 building materials. When at Natchez, Dr. Dicke- 
 son showed me some bricks dug out of an old 
 Indian mound, in which the tough woody fibre of 
 the Tillandsia was still preserved. When passing 
 through the stalls, we were surrounded by a popu- 
 lation of negroes, mulattos, and quadroons, some 
 talking French, others a patois of Spanish and 
 French, others a mixture of French and English, or 
 English translated from French, and with the French 
 accent. They seemed very merry, especially those 
 who were jet black. Some of the Creoles also, both 
 of French and Spanish extraction, like many natives 
 of the south of Europe, were very dark. 
 
 Amidst this motley group, sprung from so many 
 races, we encountered a young man and woman, arm- 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] LEVEE AND STEAMERS. 131 
 
 in-arm, of fair complexion, evidently Anglo-Saxon, 
 and who looked as if they had recently come from the 
 North. The Indians, Spaniards, and French standing 
 round them, seemed as if placed there to remind us 
 of the successive races whose power in Louisiana had 
 passed away, while this fair couple were the repre- 
 sentatives of a people whose dominion carries the 
 imagination far into the future. However much 
 the moralist may satirise the spirit of conquest, or 
 the foreigner laugh at some vain-glorious boasting 
 about " our destiny," none can doubt that from this 
 stock is to spring the people who will supersede every 
 other in the northern, if not also in the southern 
 continent of America : 
 
 " Immota manebunt 
 
 Fata tibi ..... 
 Romanes rerum dominos." 
 
 Soon after our arrival we walked to the levee, or 
 raised bank of the Mississippi, and, ascending to the 
 top of the high roof of a large steamer, looked down 
 upon the yellow muddy stream, not much broader 
 than the Thames at London. At first I was disap- 
 pointed that the "Father of Waters" did not present 
 a more imposing aspect; but when I had studied 
 and contemplated the Mississippi for many weeks, it 
 left on my mind an impression of grandeur and vast- 
 ness far greater than I had conceived before seeing 
 it. We counted thirty-four large steam-ships lying 
 at the wharf, each with their double chimneys, and 
 some of truly magnificent dimensions. The vessel 
 we had chanced to enter, had her steam up and was 
 
 G 6 
 
132 VIEW OF CITY. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 bound for St. Louis, and we were informed that she 
 would convey us to that city, a distance of 1100 
 miles in five days, against the current, for eighteen 
 dollars, or 47., board included. 
 
 We next went, for the sake of obtaining a general 
 view of the city and its environs, to the top of the 
 cupola of the St. Charles Hotel, the most conspi- 
 cuous building in New Orleans, finished in 1836, 
 the lofty dome of which is of a beautiful form. 
 Within the memory of persons now living, there 
 were to be seen on the site of this massive edifice, 
 ducks and other water birds, swimming about in 
 pools of water, in a morass. The architect began 
 the foundation by placing horizontally on the mud 
 a layer of broad planks 21 inches thick, in spite of 
 which, the heavy building has sunk slightly in some 
 places, but apparently without sustaining material 
 injury. 
 
 If a traveller has expected, on first obtaining an 
 extensive view of the environs of this city, to see an 
 unsightly swamp, with scarcely any objects to relieve 
 the monotony of the flat plain save the winding river 
 and a few lakes, he will be agreeably disappointed. 
 He will admire many a villa and garden in the 
 suburbs, and in the uncultivated space beyond the 
 effect of uneven and undulating ground is produced 
 by the magnificent growth of cypress and other 
 swamp timber, which have converted what would 
 otherwise have formed the lowest points in the land- 
 scape into the appearance of wooded eminences. 
 From the gallery of the cupola we saw the well- 
 proportioned, massive square tower of St. Patrick's 
 
CHAP. XX VIII.] SITE OF NEW ORLEANS. 133 
 
 Church, recently built for the Irish Catholics, the 
 dome of the St. Louis Hotel, and immediately below 
 us that fine bend of the Mississippi, where we had 
 just counted the steamers at the wharf. Here, in a 
 convex curve of the bank, there has been a constant 
 gain of land, so that in the last twenty-five years no 
 less than three streets have been erected, one beyond 
 the other, and all within the line of several large 
 posts of cedar, to which boats were formerly at- 
 tached. New Orleans was called the Crescent City, 
 because the First Municipality was built along this 
 concave bend of the Mississippi. The river in this 
 part of its course varies in breadth from a mile to 
 three-quarters of a mile, and below the city sweeps 
 round a curve for eighteen miles, and then returns 
 again to a point within five or six miles of that from 
 which it had set out. Some engineers are of opinion 
 that as the isthmus thus formed is only occupied by 
 a low marsh, the current will in time cut through 
 it, in which case the First Municipality will be 
 deserted by the main channel. Even should this 
 happen, the prosperity of a city which extends con- 
 tinuously for more than six miles along the river 
 would not be materially affected, for its site has been 
 admirably chosen, although originally determined in 
 some degree by chance. The French began their 
 settlements on Lake Pontchartrain because they 
 found there an easy communication with the Gulf 
 of Mexico. But they fixed the site of their town 
 on that part of the great river which was nearest to 
 the lagoon, so as to command, by this means, the 
 navigation of the interior country. 
 
134 SHELL EOAD. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 March 5. 1846. From New Orleans I made a 
 short excursion with Dr. Carpenter and Dr. M'Cor- 
 mac to Lake Pontchartrain, six miles to the north- 
 ward. We went first along the " shell road " by the 
 Bayou St. John's, and then returned by the canal. 
 The shell road, so called from the materials used in 
 its construction, namely, the valves of the Gnathodon 
 cuneatus, before mentioned, is of a dazzling white 
 colour, and in the bright sunshine formed a strong 
 contrast with the vegetation of the adjoining swamps. 
 Yet the verdure of the tall cypresses is somewhat 
 dimmed by the sombre colour of the grey Spanish 
 moss hanging everywhere from its boughs like dra- 
 pery. The rich clusters of scarlet and purplish fruit 
 of the red maple (Acer Drummondii) were very con- 
 spicuous, and the willows have just unfolded their 
 apple-green leaves. The swamp palmetto (Chamce- 
 rops adansonia) raises its fan-shaped leaves, ten feet 
 high, although without any main trunk, like the sea- 
 island palmetto before described. Several of them 
 are surmounted by spikes bearing seeds. Among 
 the spring flowers we gathered violets ( Viola cucul- 
 lata\ the elegant Houstonia serpyllifolia, which we 
 had first seen at Claiborne, and a white bramble 
 (Rubus trivialis), the odour of which resembles that 
 of our primrose. The common white clover, also, 
 is most abundant here, as on the banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi, below New Orleans ; yet it is not a native of 
 Louisiana, and some botanists doubt whether any 
 of the European species now growing wild in this 
 State are indigenous. 
 
 Lake Pontchartrain is about fifteen feet below 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] HEAPS OF GNATHODON. 135 
 
 high water, and two feet below the lowest water of 
 the Mississippi. It is said to have become sensibly 
 shallower in the last forty years, its depth being now 
 fourteen or fifteen feet only, for it receives annual 
 supplies of mud from the Mississippi, poured into it 
 by one of its mouths, called the Iberville river. 
 
 The south-east wind sometimes drives the salt 
 water into the great lagoon, and raises its level from 
 five to ten feet. On a mud-bank near the shore 
 I observed the living Gnaihodon, accompanied by a 
 modiola (Dreissena ? ), and -there was a small bank 
 of dead shells on the southern borders of the lake, 
 which may have been thrown up by the waves in a 
 storm, the valves of most of them being separate. 
 I learnt that the road materials before spoken of 
 were procured from the east end, where there is an 
 enormous mound of dead shells, a mile long, fifteen 
 feet high, and from twenty to sixty yards broad. 
 Dr. Riddell, Director of the Mint at New Orleans, 
 estimates the height of some of these shell-banks 
 north of the lake, at twenty feet above its level ; yet 
 he thinks they may have been washed up by the 
 waves during storms. I suspect, however, that some 
 change in the relative level of land and sea has taken 
 place since their accumulation.' Dr. M'Cormac in- 
 formed me that he had observed heaps of these same 
 shells recently cast up along the margin of the bay 
 called the Sabine Lake, where the waters of the 
 delta are brackish. 
 
 Returning to the bayou, we passed a splendid 
 grove of live oaks on the Metairie ridge, supposed 
 by some to be an old bank of the Mississippi. These 
 
136 EXCAVATION FOE GAS-WORKS. [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 bayous, which traverse the delta and alluvial plain 
 of the Mississippi in every direction, are some of 
 them ancient arms of the great river, and others parts 
 of its main channel which have been deserted. They 
 are at a lower level than the present bed of the 
 river, and convey the surface-waters to the sea from 
 that part of the land which the Mississippi is inca- 
 pable of draining. The bayous are sometimes stag- 
 nant, and sometimes they flow in one direction when 
 they convey the surplus waters of the Mississippi 
 to the swamps, and in an opposite direction at seasons 
 when they drain the swamps. 
 
 When we reached the canal which connects Lake 
 Pontchartrain with New Orleans, we found its sur- 
 face enlivened with the sails of vessels laden with 
 merchandize. On the stern of one of these I read, 
 in large letters, a favourite name here " The 
 Democrat." Many features of the country re- 
 minded me of Holland. About a mile from the city 
 we passed a building where there is steam ma- 
 chinery for pumping up water and draining the low 
 lands. 
 
 It is not easy for a geologist who wishes to study 
 the modern deposits in the delta, to find any natural 
 sections. I was therefore glad to learn that, in 
 digging the foundations of the gas-works, an exca- 
 vation had been made more than fifteen feet deep, 
 and therefore considerably below the level of the 
 Gulf, for the land at New Orleans is elevated only 
 nine feet above the sea. The contractors had first 
 hired Irishmen, with spades, to dig this pit; but 
 finding that they had to cut through buried timber, 
 
CHAP. XXVIII.] BURIED UPKIGHT TKEE6. 137 
 
 instead of soil, they were compelled to engage, in- 
 stead, 150 well-practised axe-men from Kentucky. 
 I am informed that the superintendant of the gas- 
 works, Dr. Rogers, who is now absent in Cuba, 
 endeavoured to estimate the minimum of time re- 
 quired for the growth of the cypress and other trees, 
 superimposed one upon the other, in an upright 
 position, with their roots as they grew, and had 
 come to the opinion, that eighteen centuries must 
 have been required for the accumulation. At the 
 time of my* visit the section was too obscure to 
 enable me to verify or criticise these conclusions ; 
 but Mr. Bringier, the State surveyor, told me, that 
 when the great canal, before alluded to, was dug to 
 the depth of nine feet from Lake Pontchartrain, 
 they had cut through a cypress swamp which had 
 evidently filled up gradually, for there were three 
 tiers of the stumps of trees, some of them very old, 
 ranged one above the other ; and some of the trunks 
 must have rotted away to the level of the ground in 
 the swamp before the upper ones grew over them. 
 If it be true, as I suspect from these statements, 
 that the stools of trees which grew in fresh water 
 can be traced down to a level below the Gulf of 
 Mexico, we must conclude that the land has sunk 
 down vertically. Perhaps some part of this sub- 
 sidence might arise from the gradual decay or com- 
 pression of large masses of wood slowly changing into 
 lignite, for carbonated hydrogen is said to be con- 
 stantly given out from the soil here wherever such 
 masses of vegetable matter are decomposing ; and 
 during the excavation of these works much inflam- 
 

 138 
 
 DATE-PALM. 
 
 [CHAP. XXVIII. 
 
 mable gas was observed to escape. That such 
 upright buried trees are not everywhere to be met 
 with in this part of the delta, I ascertained from 
 Mr. Bringier. At his house, in the suburbs of 
 New Orleans, a well has been sunk to the depth of 
 twenty-seven feet, and the strata passed through 
 consisted of sandy clay, with only here and there 
 some buried timber and roots. 
 
 Walking through one of the streets of New 
 Orleans, near the river, immediately north of the 
 Catholic cathedral, I was surprised to see a fine date- 
 palm, thirty feet high, growing in the open air. (See 
 fig. 8.) 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Pdre Antoine's Date-palm (Phcenix daetyliferd). 
 
 Mr. Wilde told me, that in 1829, in the island of 
 
CHAP. XXVIIL] DATE-PALM. 139 
 
 Anastatic, opposite St. Augustine, in Florida, he 
 saw one still taller, probably brought there by the 
 Spaniards, who have introduced them into the south 
 of Spain from Africa. The tree is seventy or eighty 
 years old, for Pere Antoine, a Roman Catholic priest, 
 who died about twenty years ago, at the age of 
 eighty, told Mr. Bringier that he planted it himself, 
 when he was young. In his will he provided, that 
 they who succeeded to this lot of ground should 
 forfeit it if they cut down the palm. Wishing to 
 know something of Pere Antoine's history, I asked 
 a Catholic Creole, who had a great veneration for 
 him, when he died. He said it could never be 
 ascertained, because, after he became very emaciated, 
 he walked the streets like a mummy, and gradually 
 dried up, ceasing at last to move ; but his flesh 
 never decayed, or emitted any disagreeable odour. 
 
 If the people here wish to adorn their metropolis 
 with a striking ornament, such as the northern cities 
 can never emulate, let them plant in one of their 
 public squares an avenue of these date-palms. 
 
140 MOUTHS OF MISSISSIPPI. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Excursion from New Orleans to the Mouths of the River. 
 Steam-Boat Accidents. River Fogs. Successive Growths 
 of Willow on River Bank. Pilot-Station of the Balize. 
 Lighthouse destroyed by Hurricane. Reeds, Shells, and Birds 
 on Mud-Banks. Drift- Wood. Difficulty of estimating the 
 annual Increase of Delta. Action of Tides and Currents. 
 Tendency in the old Soundings to be restored. Changes of 
 Mouths in a Century inconsiderable. Return to New Orleans. 
 Battle- Ground. Sugar-Mill. Contrast of French and 
 Anglo-American Races. Causes of Difference. State and 
 Progress of Negroes in Louisiana. 
 
 Feb. 28. 1846. BEFOKE my arrival at New Or- 
 leans, I had resolved to visit the mouths of the Mis- 
 sissippi, and see the banks of sand, mud, and drift 
 timber, recently formed there during the annual 
 inundations. Dr. William Carpenter, although in 
 full practice as a physician, kindly offered to accom- 
 pany me, and his knowledge of botany and geology, 
 as well as his amiable manners, made him a most 
 useful and agreeable companion.* 
 
 I had heard much of the dangers of the Missis- 
 sippi, and even before I left New England, some of 
 my friends, partly in jest, and partly for the sake of 
 
 * This excellent naturalist, I regret to say, died soon after- 
 wards, in the prime of life, at New Orleans, in 1848. 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENTS. 141 
 
 inspiring me with due caution, in the choice of vessels 
 and captains, had told me endless stories of the risks 
 we should run. One of them presented to me a 
 newspaper, containing a formidable array of last 
 year's casualties. Fifty vessels had been snagged, 
 twenty-seven sunk, sixteen had burst their boilers, 
 fifteen had been run into by other vessels, thirteen 
 destroyed by fire, ten wrecked, and seven cut through 
 by ice. This enumeration was followed by an ac- 
 count of the number of persons drowned or injured. 
 Another friend called my attention to a form of ad- 
 vertisement, not uncommon in the St. Louis papers, 
 headed thus, " A fine opportunity of going below." 
 This, he explained, " does not mean going to the bottom, 
 as you might naturally conclude (although this is by 
 no means an improbable result of your voyage), but 
 it merely signifies * going down the river/ " Ano- 
 ther offered this piece of advice, " When you are 
 racing with an opposition steam-boat, or chasing her, 
 and the other passengers are cheering the captain, 
 who is sitting on the safety valve to keep it down 
 with his weight, go as far as you can from the engine, 
 and lose no time, especially if you hear the captain 
 exclaim, * Fire up boys, put on the resin ! ' Should 
 a servant call out, ' Those gentlemen who have not 
 paid their passage will please to go to the ladies' 
 cabin,' obey the summons without a moment's delay, 
 for then an explosion may be apprehended." " Why 
 to the ladies' cabin ? " said I. " Because it is the safe 
 end of the boat, and they are getting anxious for the 
 personal security of those who have not yet paid 
 their dollars, being, of course, indifferent about the 
 
142 STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENTS. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 rest. Therefore never pay in advance, for should 
 you fall overboard during a race, and the watch cries 
 out to the captain, ' A passenger overboard,' he will 
 ask, ' Has he paid his passage ? ' and if he receives 
 an answer in the affirmative, he will call out, ' Go 
 ahead!'" 
 
 I shall explain in the sequel why the danger of 
 accidents, in the present state of the navigation, is 
 by no means so great as statistical tables make it 
 appear at a distance ; but certainly my first day's 
 experience was not of a character to dispose me to 
 regard the warnings I had received as idle or un- 
 called for. After we had been seated for half an 
 hour on the deck of the " Wave" steamer, Dr. Carpen- 
 ter was recommended by a friend to go by preference 
 in a rival boat, just ready to start for the Balize, 
 which he said was safer. We accordingly went into 
 her, and she sailed first. Eight hours afterwards, 
 while we were waiting, as I thought, an unconscion- 
 able time, at a landing, while a Creole proprietor, who 
 was by no means inclined to be in a hurry, was embark- 
 ing himself and some black servants, we saw the rival 
 steamer come up very slowly. No sooner had she 
 joined us, than all her passengers poured into our 
 steamer, and told us they had been in the greatest 
 alarm, their steam-pipe having burst ; but, most pro- 
 videntially, they had all escaped without serious 
 injury. If I had not already sailed about 1500 
 miles in Southern steam-boats, since leaving South 
 Carolina, without a mischance, I might have looked 
 on this adventure as very ominous. 
 
 The greater part of New Orleans would be annually 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] RIVEE FOGS. 143 
 
 overflowed by the river, but for the "levee," an artificial 
 embankment, eight or nine feet high, which protects 
 the city. This levee became less and less elevated 
 as we descended the stream. We saw the buildings 
 of several sugar plantations just behind it, at a short 
 distance from the edge of the bank. When we had 
 gone about twenty miles, below the bend called the 
 English turn, I was struck with the resemblance of 
 the Mississippi to the Savannah, Alabama, and Alata- 
 maha rivers, where they flow through a broad allu- 
 vial plain, with no bluffs in sight. The swamps on 
 both sides, although several feet lower than the river- 
 banks, have the aspect, as before stated, of wooded 
 eminences. 
 
 The distance from New Orleans to the great pilot- 
 station at the mouth of the river, called the Balize, is 
 about 80 miles by land, and 110 by water. We had 
 been told we should reach our destination before 
 night ; but we were scarcely half way, when we cast 
 anchor in a dense fog, followed in the course of the 
 night, by much lightning and rain. We found the 
 temperature of the water to be 46 Fahrenheit, while 
 that of the air had varied, in the course of twenty- 
 four hours, from 50 to 75. This difference between 
 the temperature of the water and air, often amount- 
 ing to 30 Fahrenheit, gives rise to the fogs which 
 prevail at this season. The river flowing from the 
 north, where there is now much ice and snow, is 
 always much colder, and I am informed by pilots, 
 that as far as the Mississippi water can be traced, by 
 its colour, into the Gulf, it is commonly covered, in 
 the spring, with dense fog, while the atmosphere is 
 
144 RIVER FOGS. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 clear on each side. These fogs are generated in the 
 same manner as ordinary clouds, by the mixture of 
 two currents of air of different degrees of tempera- 
 ture. The river cools the air in contact with its 
 surface, and this colder layer of air mingling with the 
 warmer layer immediately over it, causes the fog to 
 begin to form close to the water. Hence it is fre- 
 quently confined to the bed of the river, not spread- 
 ing at all over the banks. The upper surface is often 
 as well defined as if it were a bed of liquid, instead 
 of vapour, and the cabin, roof, and funnels of a 
 steamer may be seen moving along perfectly unob- 
 scured, while the hull and lower parts are as com- 
 pletely hidden as if buried beneath the turbid water 
 on which it floats. The pilot, too, from the upper 
 deck, can often see the shore and landmarks with 
 perfect clearness, and steer his vessel with safety, 
 while the passengers on the cabin deck can see no- 
 thing beyond the sides of the boat. The fogs form 
 sometimes whatever be the quarter from which the 
 wind blows, but are more frequent when it is from 
 the south, as the air is then the warmest. Pieces of 
 ice are rarely floated down below Natchez, 350 miles 
 above the Balize ; but, in some seasons, they have 
 been known to reach the Gulf itself. 
 
 Next morning we weighed anchor, and passed Fort 
 Jackson, formerly Fort St. Philip, thirty -three miles 
 above the Balize. At several points, where we stopped 
 for passengers, Dr. Carpenter and I landed. The wood 
 consisted of live oaks bearing bunches of misletoe, 
 cypress hung with Spanish moss, elms, alders, and the 
 red maple ; also a species of myrica, twenty feet high, 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] PUMICE ON MISSISSIPPI. 145 
 
 and numerous wild vines, and other climbers, on the 
 trees. At Bayou Liere, there was a dense growth 
 of a fan-palm ( Chamcerops adansonia), from eight to 
 thirteen feet high, and a log-cabin thatched with its 
 leaves, affording good shelter from the heaviest rain. 
 On the ground were numerous land-crabs (Gelasi- 
 mus), called here fiddlers, which ran into their holes 
 as we approached, and a few small lizards, and a frog 
 (Rana pipicus), which, in the night, had so shrill and 
 clear a note, that we heard it two miles off. The 
 spring is so backward that few flowers are in bloom, 
 and we congratulated ourselves on escaping all an- 
 noyance from musquitos. At the water's edge I 
 picked up several nuts of the Gary a aquatica, and 
 many pieces of pumice as large as apples, which 
 must have come from the Rocky Mountains, and are 
 interesting, as reminding one of the fact, that vol- 
 canic regions are drained by the western tributaries 
 of the Mississippi. But I could not find a single 
 empty land-shell, or helix, such as the Rhine and 
 many other rivers bring down, and am told that none 
 are met with buried in the recent deposits of the 
 delta. 
 
 The storm of the preceding night had driven many 
 sea-gulls up the river, which now followed our 
 steamer, darting down to the water to snatch up 
 pieces of apple or meat, or whatever we threw to 
 them. After passing Fort Jackson, all trees disap- 
 peared, except a few low willows. We then entered 
 that long promontory, or tongue of land, if such it can 
 be called, which consists simply of the broad river, 
 flowing between narrow banks, protruded for so many 
 
 VOL. II. H 
 
146 WILLOWS ON EIVER BANK. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Each bank, includ- 
 ing the swamps behind it, are about 200 or 300 yards 
 wide, covered with dead reeds, among which we saw 
 many tall, white cranes feeding, as in a flooded mea- 
 dow, and as conspicuous as sheep. The landscape on 
 either side was precisely similar, and most singular, 
 consisting of blue sky, below which were the dark- 
 green waters of the Gulf, lighted up by a brilliant 
 sun ; then the narrow band of swamp, covered with 
 dead reeds, and, in the foreground, a row of pale-green 
 willows, scarcely reflected in the yellow turbid water 
 of the river. Occasionally large merchant vessels, 
 some three-masted, were towed up by steam- tugs, 
 through the slack water, near the bank. How the 
 river can thus go to sea as it were, and yet continue 
 for centuries to preserve the same channel, in spite 
 of storms and hurricanes, which have more than once 
 in the last hundred years caused the waters of the 
 Gulf to break over its banks, seems, at first, incom- 
 prehensible, till we remember that we have here a 
 powerful body of fresh water flowing in a valley 
 more than a hundred feet deep, with vast mounds of 
 mud and sand on each side, and that the sea imme- 
 diately adjoining is comparatively shallow. 
 
 The growth of willows on that side of the stream 
 where the land is gaining on the water, is often so 
 formal and regular, that they look like an artificial 
 plantation. In the front row are young saplings just 
 rising out of the ground, which is formed of silt, 
 thrown down within the last two or three years. 
 Behind them is an older growth from four to eight feet 
 high. Still farther back is seen a third row twenty- 
 five feet high, and sometimes in this manner five 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] THE BALIZE. 147 
 
 tiers, each overtopping the other, showing the gradual 
 formation of the bank, which inclines upwards, be- 
 cause the soil first deposited has been continually 
 raised during annual floods. While a gain of land is 
 thus taking place on one side, the river is "cutting into 
 and undermining the opposite bank, often at the rate 
 of ten feet or more in a year. The most common 
 willow is Salix niyra, but Dr. Carpenter tells me 
 there is a rarer species (Salix longifolia) intermixed. 
 I inquired how it happened that none of these trees 
 were old, although some part of the banks on which 
 they grew are known to be of considerable antiquity. 
 My companion said, " that in marshy places the Salix 
 nigra is not a long-lived tree, rarely lasting more 
 than twenty-five or thirty years." 
 
 At length, as we approached the Balize, even these 
 willows ceased to adorn the margin of the river, 
 which was then simply bounded by mounds of bare 
 sand. Balize means beacon in Spanish. It ap- 
 pears, that in 1744, the main passage or entrance of 
 the river was at three small islands, which then ex- 
 isted where this pilot station now stands. It con- 
 tinued to be the principal mouth of the Mississippi 
 for about a quarter of a century later. The present 
 village, called the Balize, has a population of more 
 than 450 souls, among whom there are fifty regularly 
 appointed pilots, and many more who are aspirants 
 to that office. The houses are built on piles driven 
 into the mud-banks, and the greater part of them 
 moored, like ships, to strong anchors, whenever a 
 hurricane is apprehended. They have no fear of the 
 river, which scarcely rises six inches during its 
 
 n 2 
 
148 LIGHTHOUSE. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 greatest floods ; but some winds make the Gulf rise 
 six feet, as in the year 1812, and so fast has been 
 the increase of the population of late, that there are 
 scarcely boats enough, as one of the pilots confessed 
 to me, to save the people, should the waters rise 
 again to that elevation. They might, however, es- 
 cape on drift timber, which abounds here, provided 
 they had time to choose the more buoyant trees ; for 
 we observed many large rafts of wood so water-logged 
 that it could scarcely swim, and the slightest weight 
 would sink it. 
 
 Although the chimney of our steamer was not 
 lofty, it stood higher than the houses ; but in order to 
 obtain a wider prospect, I went up into the look-out, 
 a wooden frame-work with a platform, where the 
 pilots were watching for vessels, with their tele- 
 scopes. From this elevation we saw, far to the south, 
 the lighthouse, situated at what is now the principal 
 entrance of the river. The pilots told us, that the 
 old lighthouse, of solid brickwork, eighty-seven feet 
 high, erected on "the south point," was destroyed 
 by a hurricane in the winter of 1839. The keeper 
 was saved, although he was in the building for forty- 
 eight hours before it fell, and, during the whole time, 
 it vibrated frightfully to and fro. Much of the low 
 banks, then bounding the river, were swept away, 
 but have since been restored. 
 
 To the eastward all was sea ; turning to the north, 
 or towards New Orleans and the delta, I could dis- 
 cover no more signs of the existence of a continent 
 than when looking southwards, or towards the light- 
 house. In the west, Bird Island, covered with trees, 
 was more conspicuous. An old pilot told us it 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] HOUSES ON PILES. 149 
 
 was inhabited by large deer, and was " very high 
 land." " How high above the sea?" said I. " Three 
 or four feet," he replied ; and as if so startling an as- 
 sertion required the confirmation of several witnesses, 
 he appealed to the by-standers, who assented, saying, 
 " It is all that, for it was only just covered during 
 the great hurricane." And well may such an ele- 
 vation command respect in a town where all the 
 foundations of the houses are under water, and where 
 the value of each site is measured by the number of 
 inches or feet within which a shoal rises to the sur- 
 face of the sea. 
 
 It was a curious sight to behold seventy or more 
 dwellings, erected on piles, among reeds half as high 
 as the houses, and which often grew close to them, 
 most of the buildings communicating with an out- 
 house by a wooden bridge thrown over a swamp or 
 pool of water, sometimes fresh and sometimes brack- 
 ish. On one side of the main channel, which our 
 steamer had entered, was built a long wooden plat- 
 form, made of planks, resting on piles, which served 
 for a promenade. There we saw the pilots' wives 
 and daughters, and among them the belles of the 
 place, well dressed, and accompanied by their pet 
 dogs, taking their evening walk. 
 
 March 1. Having engaged a boat, Dr. Car- 
 penter and I set out on an excursion to examine the 
 bayous or channels between the mud banks. The 
 first stroke of the oars carried us into the midst of 
 a dense crop of tall reeds. This plant (Arundo 
 phraginitis), is an annual, and inhabits fresh-water 
 swamps, yet we found many dead barnacles attached 
 
 H 3 
 
150 REEDS, SHELLS, AND BIRDS. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 to them, showing that in the course of the year, 
 when the river is low, the salt water prevails here, so 
 that these marine cirripeda have time to be developed 
 from the embryo state, and to flourish for some 
 months, till they are killed by the returning fresh 
 water. We could only detect one shell inhabiting 
 these mud banks, a species of Neritina. But I am 
 told that the Gnathodon is found in the brackish 
 water, a short distance beyond. It was also stated, 
 that about eighteen miles beyond the south-west and 
 north-west passes, or extreme mouths of the river, 
 there are banks of sea-shells of various species. 
 With the arundo was intermixed a tall rush or reed- 
 mace (Typha), somewhat resembling the bulrush. 
 We got out and walked on these banks, on which 
 fresh water was standing, so cold and benumbing to 
 the hands, that we had no fear of musquitos. At 
 almost any other season these insects would have 
 swarmed here, and tormented us greatly. Even the 
 alligators were invisible, though some of them had 
 been out a few days before. Many paths, recently 
 trodden by racoons, were seen to traverse the reeds, 
 and there were foot-prints of the civet or mink, and 
 of wild cats and water-rats in abundance. We put 
 up several white herons, and many snipes and curlews, 
 and the boat-tailed grackle ( Quisqualus). 
 
 At length returning to the boat, we soon reached a 
 channel blocked up with drift wood in every stage of 
 decay, some fresh and sound, but most of it rotten 
 and water-logged. We walked for hundreds of yards 
 over natural rafts of this timber, the quantity of 
 which, they say, has sensibly diminished since the 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] CHARLEVOIX'S MAPS. 151 
 
 steamers began to consume so much fuel, for it is now 
 intercepted in large quantities before it gets to New- 
 Orleans, and cut into logs for the steamers. 
 
 We were desirous of obtaining accurate informa- 
 tion from the pilots respecting the recent advance of 
 land on the Gulf, hoping from such data to calculate 
 the time when the mouths of the river were at New 
 Orleans. But I soon found that materials for such 
 a calculation are not to be procured. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter had brought with him Charlevoix's 
 maps of the river mouths or " passes," published 112 
 years ago, and referring to the state of things about 
 130 years ago. We were surprised to find how 
 accurately this survey represents, for the most part, 
 the number, shape, and form of the mud-banks and 
 bayous, or channels, as they now exist around the 
 Balize. The pilots, to whom we showed the charts, 
 admitted that one might imagine them to have been 
 constructed last year, were it not that bars had been 
 thrown across the mouths of every bayou, because 
 they are no longer scoured out as they used to be 
 when the principal discharge of the Mississippi was 
 at this point. We then went within a mile of the 
 old Spanish building, called the Magazine, correctly 
 laid down in Charlevoix's map, and now 600 yards 
 nearer the sea than formerly, showing that the mud- 
 banks have given way, or that the salt water has 
 encroached in times when a smaller body of fresh 
 water has been bringing down its sediment to this 
 point. 
 
 The south-west pass is now the principal entrance 
 of the Mississippi, and till lately there was eighteen 
 
152 DIFFICULTY OF ESTIMATING [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 feet water in it, but the channel has grown shallower 
 by two feet. When it is considered that a fleet of 
 the largest men-of-war could sail for a thousand 
 miles into the interior, were it not for the bars thrown 
 across the entrance of each of the mouths or passes, 
 one cannot wonder that efforts should have been 
 made to deepen the main channel artificially. But 
 no human undertaking seems more hopeless ; for, after 
 a great expenditure of money in 1838 and 1839, and 
 the excavation by means of powerful steam dredges 
 of a deep passage, the river filled up the entire cavity 
 with mud during a single flood. 
 
 One of the chief pilots told us, that since 1839, or 
 in six years, he had seen an advance of the prominent 
 mouths of the river of more than a mile. But Linton, 
 the oldest and most experienced of them, admitted 
 that the three passes called the north-east, south-east, 
 and south-west, had in the last twenty-four years 
 only advanced one mile each. Even this fact would 
 furnish no ground for estimating the general rate at 
 which the delta advances, for on each of these narrow 
 strips of land, or river-banks, the sea would make ex- 
 tensive inroads whenever the main channel of dis- 
 charge is altered and there is a local relaxation of the 
 river's power. Every year, as soon as the flood 
 season is over, the tide enters far up each channel, 
 scouring out mud and sand, and sweeping away 
 many a bar, formed during the period of inundation. 
 Bringier, an experienced surveyor of New Orleans, 
 told me, that on revisiting the mouths of the Missis- 
 sippi after an interval of forty years, he was sur- 
 prised to observe how stationary their leading features 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] ANNUAL INCREASE OF DELTA. 153 
 
 had remained. Mr. Dunbar, also an engineer in 
 great practice in Louisiana, assured me that on com- 
 paring the soundings lately made by him with those 
 laid down in the French maps of Sieur Diron, pub- 
 lished in 1740, he found the changes to be quite incon- 
 siderable. On questioning the pilots on the subject, 
 they stated that the changes from year to year are 
 great, but are no measure whatever of those worked 
 out in a long period, for there seems to be a tendency 
 in the action of the tides and river to restore the old 
 soundings. 
 
 Captain Graharne, also a government surveyor, on 
 comparing the north-east pass with the charts made 
 a century before, found it had not advanced more 
 than a quarter of a mile, and that in the same interval 
 the principal variations at the pass a Loutre had 
 consisted in the filling up of some bayous. Even if 
 we could assume that the progress of the whole delta 
 in twenty-five years was as great as that assigned by 
 Linton to one or two narrow channels and banks, 
 it would have taken several thousand years for the 
 river to advance from New Orleans to the Balize ; 
 but when we take into our account the whole breadth 
 of the delta, or that part of it which has advanced 
 beyond the general coast-line, above 100 miles across, 
 we must allow an enormous period of time for its 
 accumulation. 
 
 The popular belief in New Orleans, that the pro- 
 gress of the banks near the mouths of the river has 
 been very rapid, arises partly from the nature of the 
 evidence given by witnesses in the law courts, in 
 cases of insurance. When a ship is lost, the usual 
 
 H 5 
 
154 TIDES AND CUEEENTS. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 line of defence on the part of the pilots, whether for 
 themselves or their friends, is to show that new sand- 
 bars are forming, and shoals shifting their places so 
 fast, that no blame attaches to any one for running a 
 vessel aground. To exaggerate, rather than under- 
 rate, the quantity of sediment newly deposited by 
 the river, is the bias of each witness, although their 
 statements may in the main be correct ; for in the 
 contest annually carried on between the river and the 
 sea, there is unquestionably a vast amount of de- 
 struction and renovation of mud-banks and sand-bars. 
 In these changes the action of the tide, and the 
 power of the breakers during storms, and a strong 
 marine current, all play their part. There seem to 
 be well-authenticated accounts of anchors cast up 
 from a depth of several fathoms near the mouths of 
 the river, and heavy stones sunk sixteen feet deep, 
 and found afterwards high and dry on shoals. The 
 ballast also of several wrecked vessels, the submer- 
 gence of which, in two or three fathoms water, had 
 been ascertained, have in like manner been thrown 
 up, above high water mark, on newly formed islands. 
 All the pilots agree, that when the Mississippi is 
 at its height, it pours several streams of fresh water, 
 tinged with yellow sediment, twelve or more miles 
 into the Gulf, beyond its mouths. These streams 
 floating over the heavier salt water, spread out into 
 broad superficial sheets or layers, which the keels of 
 vessels plough through, turning up a furrow of clear 
 blue water, forming a dark streak in the middle of 
 the ship's wake. I infer, therefore, that both in the 
 summer, when the swollen river is turbid and depo- 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] RETURN TO NEW ORLEANS. 155 
 
 siting mud, and in the winter, when the sea is 
 making reprisals on the delta, there is a large amount 
 of fine sediment dispersed far and wide, and carried 
 by currents to the deeper and more distant parts of 
 the Gulf. To this dispersing power I shall recall the 
 reader's attention in a future chapter, when discussing 
 the probable antiquity of the delta. 
 
 March 2. We returned to New Orleans in the 
 same steamer. It is remarkable that for more than 150 
 miles above the Balize, there is only one of those great 
 bends in the course of the Mississippi, which are so 
 general a character of its channel north of New Or- 
 leans. The exception is the great sweep called the 
 English Turn. Mr. Forshey imputes this difference 
 in the shape of the bed of the river to the distinct cir- 
 cumstances under which a stream is placed when it 
 shapes out its course through a deposit raised above 
 the level of the sea, or when it is forming its bed, as 
 to the south of New Orleans, below the sea-level. 
 
 Above the English Turn, and within a few miles of 
 the metropolis, I landed on the famous battle-ground, 
 where the English, in 1815, were defeated, and saw 
 the swamp through which the weary soldiers were re- 
 quired to drag their boats, on emerging from which, 
 they were fired upon by the enemy, advantageously 
 placed on the higher ground, or river-bank. The 
 blunder of the British commander is sufficiently ob- 
 vious even to one unskilled in military affairs. They 
 are now strengthening the levee at this point, for the 
 Mississippi is threatening to pour its resistless current 
 through this battle-ground, as, in the delta of the 
 
 H 6 
 
156 SUGAR-MILL. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 Ganges, the Hoogly is fast sweeping away the cele- 
 brated field of Plassy. 
 
 At one of the landings on the left bank of the river, 
 Dr, Carpenter went with me to see a large sugar-mill, 
 in the management of which an Anglo-American 
 proprietor had introduced all the latest improvements. 
 There was machinery, worked by steam, for pressing 
 the juice out of the sugar-canes, and large boilers and 
 coolers, with ducts for the juice to flow down into 
 enormous vats. 
 
 We heard much of the injury done to the sugar 
 plantations and gardens by the cocoa, or nut grass 
 ( Cyperus hydra), which I had seen springing up even 
 in the streets of New Orleans, between the pavement 
 stones. It increases by suckers as well as by seed ; 
 but it is only of late years that it has ravaged 
 Louisiana. If horses be brought from an estate 
 where this plant is known to exist, their hoofs are 
 carefully cleaned, lest the soil adhering to them should 
 introduce some fibres or tubers of this scourge. 
 
 Although impatient to return to the city, we could 
 not help being amused when we learnt that our boat 
 and all its passengers were to be detained till some 
 hogsheads of sugar were put on board, some of the 
 hoops of which had got loose. A cooper had been 
 sent for, who was to hammer them on. " You may 
 therefore go over the sugar-mill at your leisure." I 
 observed that all whose native tongue was English, 
 were indignant at the small value which the captain 
 seemed to set on their time ; but the Creole majority, 
 who spoke French, were in excellent humour. A 
 party of them was always playing whist in the cabin, 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] FRENCH AND ANGLO-AMERICANS. 157 
 
 and the rest looking on. When summoned to dis- 
 embark at their respective landings, they were in no 
 haste to leave us, wishing rather to finish the rubber. 
 The contrast of the two races was truly diverting, 
 just what I had seen in Canada. Whenever we were 
 signalled by a negro, and told to halt "till Master 
 was ready," I was sure to hear some anecdote from 
 an Anglo-Saxon passenger in disparagement of the 
 Creoles. " North of New Orleans," said one of my 
 companions, " the American captains are beginning 
 to discipline the French proprietors into more punctual 
 habits. Last summer, a senator of Louisiana having 
 forgotten his great-coat, sent back his black servant 
 to bring it from his villa, expecting a first-rate 
 steamer, with several hundred people on board, to 
 wait ten or fifteen minutes for him. When, to his 
 surprise, the boat started, he took the captain to task 
 in great wrath, threatening never to enter his vessel 
 again." 
 
 My attention was next called to the old-fashioned 
 make of the French ploughs. " On this river, as on the 
 St. Lawrence," said an American, " the French had 
 a fair start of us by more than a century. They ob- 
 tained possession of all the richest lands, yet are now 
 fairly distanced in the race. When they get into 
 debt, and sell a farm on the highest land next the 
 levee, they do not migrate to a new region farther 
 west, but fall back somewhere into the low grounds 
 near the swamp. There they retain all their an- 
 tiquated usages, seeming to hate innovation. To 
 this day they remain rooted in those parts of Louis- 
 iana where the mother country first planted her 
 
158 FRENCH AND ANGLO-AMERICANS. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 two colonies two centuries ago, and they have never 
 swarmed off, or founded a single new settlement. 
 They never set up a steam-engine for their sugar- 
 mills, have taken no part in the improvement of steam 
 navigation, and when a railway was proposed in 
 Opelousas, they opposed it, because they feared it 
 would ' let the Yankees in upon them.' When a rich 
 proprietor was asked why he did not send his boy to 
 college, he replied, e Because it would cost me 450 
 dollars a year, and I shall be able to leave my son 
 three more negroes when I die, by not incurring that 
 expense.' " Dr. Carpenter informed me, that the 
 Legislature of Louisiana granted, in 1834, a charter 
 for a medical college in the Second Municipality, 
 which now, in the year 1846, numbers one hundred 
 students, and is about to become the medical depart- 
 ment of a new university. The Creoles were so far 
 stimulated by this example, as to apply also for a 
 charter for a French College in the First Munici- 
 pality. It was granted in the same year, but has 
 remained a dead letter to this day. 
 
 One of the passengers had been complaining to 
 me, that a Creole always voted for a Creole candidate 
 at an election, however much he differed from him 
 in political opinions, rather than support an Anglo- 
 Saxon of his own party. I could not help saying 
 that I should be tempted to do the same, if I were 
 of French origin, and heard my race as much run 
 down as I had done since I left the Balize. 
 
 A large portion of the first French settlers in 
 Louisiana came from Canada, and I have no doubt 
 Gayarre is right in affirming that they have remained 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] FRENCH AND ANGLO-AMEKICANS. 159 
 
 comparatively stationary, because they carried out 
 with them, from the mother country, despotic maxims 
 of government, coupled with extreme intolerance in 
 their religious opinions. The bigotry which checked 
 the growth of the infant colony was signally dis- 
 played, when Louis XIY. refused to permit 400 
 Huguenot families, who .had fled to South Carolina, 
 after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, to be 
 incorporated among the new settlers on the Missis- 
 sippi. * 
 
 Notwithstanding the marked inclination of the 
 Anglo-Saxons to seek no other cause than that of 
 race to account for the alleged stationary condition 
 of the Creoles, I was glad to find that one of the 
 most intelligent citizens of New Orleans took a more 
 hopeful and less fatalist view of the matter. " I ob- 
 serve," he said, "that those French emigrants who 
 have come out to us lately, especially the Parisians, 
 are pushing their way in the world with as much 
 energy as any of our race ; so I conclude that the 
 first settlers in Canada and Louisiana quitted Eu- 
 rope too soon, before the great revolution of 1792 
 had turned the Frenchman into a progressive being." 
 
 Among the Creoles with whom I came in contact, 
 I saw many whose manners were most polite and 
 agreeable, and I felt as I had done towards the 
 Canadian es habitants," that I should have had more 
 pleasure in associating with them than with a large 
 portion of their Anglo-American rivals, who, from 
 a greater readiness to welcome new ideas, are more 
 
 * Gayarre, Histoire de la Louisiane, torn. i. p. 69. 
 
160 NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 likely to improve, and will probably outstrip them in 
 knowledge and power. 
 
 When we sat down to dinner in the cabin, one 
 of the Creoles, of very genteel "appearance, was so 
 dark that I afterwards asked an American, out of 
 curiosity, whether he thought my neighbour at table 
 had a dash of negro blood in his veins. He said he 
 had been thinking so, and it had made him feel very 
 uncomfortable during dinner. I was so unprepared 
 for this manifestation of anti-negro feeling, that I 
 had difficulty in keeping my countenance. The same 
 messmate then told me that the slaves had lately 
 risen on an estate we were just passing, on the right 
 bank of the river, below New Orleans, but had been 
 quickly put down. He said that the treatment of 
 them had greatly improved within the last eight 
 years, keeping pace steadily with the improved 
 civilisation of the whites. The Creoles, he said, fed 
 their negroes well, but usually gave them no beds, 
 but blankets only to lie down upon. They were 
 kind in their feelings towards them ; but, owing to 
 their improvident habits, they secured no regular 
 medical attendance, and lost more black children 
 than the American planters. 
 
 I afterwards remarked that the growth of New 
 Orleans seemed to show that a large city may in- 
 crease and flourish in a Slave State ; but Dr. Car- 
 penter and Mr. Wilde both observed, that the white 
 race has been superseding the negroes. Ten years 
 ago, say they, all the draymen of New Orleans, a 
 numerous class, and the cabmen, were coloured. Now, 
 they are nearly all white. The servants at the great 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. 161 
 
 hotels were formerly of the African, now they are of 
 the European race. Nowhere is the jealousy felt by 
 the Irish towards the negroes more apparent. Ac- 
 cording to some estimates,, in a permanently resident 
 population not much exceeding 80,000, there are 
 only 22,000 coloured persons, and a large proportion 
 of these are free. 
 
 Over a door in the principal street of New Orleans 
 we read the inscription, " Negroes on sale here." It 
 is natural that Southerners should not be aware how 
 much a foreigner is shocked at this public mode of 
 treating a large part of the population as mere 
 chattels. 
 
 The following is an advertisement copied verbatim 
 from a Natchez paper : 
 
 "NINETY NEGROES TOR SALE. 
 
 " I have about ninety Negroes, just arrived from 
 Richmond, Virginia, consisting of field hands, house 
 servants, carriage drivers, two sempstresses, several 
 very fine cooks (females), and one very fine neat 
 cook (male), one blacksmith, one carpenter, and some 
 excellent Mules and excellent Waggons and Harness, 
 and one very fine Riding Horse all of which I will 
 sell at the most reasonable prices. I have made ar- 
 rangements in Richmond, Ya., to have regular ship- 
 ments every month, and intend to keep a good stock 
 on hand of every description of servants during the 
 season. 
 
 " Natchez, October 16-tf JOHN D. JAMES." 
 
 In a St. Louis paper, I read, in the narrative of a 
 
162 NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 steam-boat collision, the following passage : - " We 
 learn that the passengers, with few exceptions, lost 
 all their effects ; one gentleman in particular lost 
 nine negroes (who were on deck) and fourteen 
 horses." 
 
 Among the laws recently enacted in Louisiana, I 
 was glad to see one to prevent persons of colour 
 exiled from other States, or transported for some 
 offence, from becoming citizens. In spite of such 
 statutes the negro-exporting portions of the Union 
 will always make the newer States play in some de- 
 gree the part of penal settlements. 
 
 Free blacks are allowed to be witnesses in the 
 courts here, in cases where white men are concerned, 
 a privilege they do not enjoy in some free States, as 
 in Indiana; but they do not allow free blacks to 
 come and settle here, and say they have been com- 
 pelled to adopt this precaution by the Abolitionists. 
 
 An intelligent Louisianian said to me, " Were we 
 to emancipate our negroes as suddenly as your Go- 
 vernment did the West Indians, they would be a 
 doomed race ; but there can be no doubt that white 
 labour is more profitable even in this climate." 
 et Then, why do you not encourage it?" I asked. 
 " It must be the work of time," he replied ; " the 
 prejudices of owners have to be overcome, and the 
 sugar and cotton crop is easily lost, if not taken in 
 at once when ripe ; the canes being damaged by a 
 slight frost, and the cotton requiring to be picked 
 dry as soon as mature, and being ruined by rain. 
 Very lately a planter, five miles below New Orleans, 
 having resolved to dispense with slave labour, hired 
 
CHAP. XXIX.] NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. 163 
 
 one hundred Irish and German emigrants at very high 
 wages. In the middle of the harvest they all struck 
 for double pay. No others were to be had, and it 
 was impossible to purchase slaves in a few days. , In 
 that short time he lost produce to the value of ten 
 thousand dollars." 
 
 A rich merchant of Pennsylvania, who was boarding 
 at the St. Louis Hotel, showed me a letter he had 
 just received from Philadelphia, in which his corre- 
 spondent expressed a hope that his feelings had not 
 often been shocked by the sufferings of the slaves. 
 " Doubtless," said the writer, " you must often wit- 
 ness great horrors." The Philadelphian then told 
 me, that after residing here several years, and 
 having a strong feeling of the evils as well as im- 
 policy of slavery, he had never been forced to see 
 nor hear of any castigation of a slave in any esta- 
 blishment with which he had intercourse. <( Once," he 
 added, " in New Jersey (a free State) he remembered 
 having seen a free negro child whipped by its master." 
 The tale of suffering to which his Pennsylvanian cor- 
 respondent particularly alluded, was not authentic, or, 
 at least, grossly exaggerated. It had been copied 
 from the Abolitionist papers of the North into the 
 Southern papers, sometimes with and sometimes with- 
 out comment ; for such libels are hailed with pleasure 
 by the Perpetualists as irritating the feeling of that 
 class of slave-owners who are most anxious to advance 
 the welfare and education of the negroes. 
 
 We ascertained that Miss Martineau's story of 
 Madame Lalaurie's cruelty to her slaves was per- 
 fectly correct. Instances of such savage conduct are 
 
164 NEGROES IN LOUISIANA. [CHAP. XXIX. 
 
 rare, as was indeed sufficiently proved by the indig- 
 nation which it excited in the whole city. A New 
 England lady settled here told me, she had promised 
 to set free her two female coloured servants at her 
 death. I asked if she had no fear of their poisoning 
 her. " On the contrary," she replied, " they would 
 be in despair were I to die." 
 
 One of the families which we visited at New Or- 
 leans was plunged in grief by the death of a little 
 negro girl, suddenly carried off by a brain fever, in 
 the house. She was the daughter of a domestic 
 servant, and the sorrow for her loss was such as 
 might have been felt for a relation. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] NEW ORLEANS TO PORT HUDSON. 165 
 
 CHAP. XXX. 
 
 Voyage from New Orleans to Port Hudson. The Coast, Villas 
 and Gardens. Cotton Steamers. Flat Boats. Crevasses 
 and Inundations. Decrease of Steam-Boat Accidents. 
 Snag-Boat. Musquitos. Natural Rafts. Bartram on 
 buried Trees at Port Hudson. Dr. Carpenter's Observations. 
 Landslip described. Ancient Subsidence in the Delta fol- 
 lowed by an upward Movement, deducible from the buried 
 Forest at Port Hudson. 
 
 March 10. 1846. ON leaving New Orleans, I 
 made arrangements for stopping to examine the bluff 
 at Port Hudson, 160 miles up the river, where I was 
 to land in the night, from the Rainbow steamer, 
 while my wife started in another boat, the Magnolia, 
 to go direct to the more distant port of Natchez. If a 
 lady is recommended to the captain of one of these 
 vessels she feels herself under good protection, and 
 needs no other escort ; but Mr. Wilde introduced my 
 
 wife to Judge , who kindly undertook to take 
 
 charge of her, and see her to the hotel at Natchez. 
 The Rainbow ascended the river at the rate of eleven 
 miles an hour, keeping near the bank, where the 
 force of the current was broken by eddies, or where 
 the backwater was sometimes running in our favour. 
 Occasionally her speed was suddenly checked, when 
 it became necessary to cross the stream on reaching 
 a point where the current was setting with its full 
 
166 THE COAST. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 force against the bank along which we had been 
 sailing. In spite of such delays, the rate of going up 
 is only one-third less than going down the stream. 
 The recent introduction of separate engines to work 
 each of the wheels greatly economises the time spent 
 in the landing of passengers. The boat may be turned 
 round or kept stationary with more facility, when 
 each wheel can be moved in an opposite direction. 
 In this part of the Mississippi, and at this season, 
 the points where passengers can be set ashore are very 
 numerous, the water being often forty feet deep close 
 to the banks. But there are certain regular places of 
 disembarkation, the approach to which is announced 
 by ringing a large bell. 
 
 A great proportion of the trees are still leafless, 
 the willows, cypresses, and red maples being no more 
 advanced than I had seen them at Mobile in the third 
 week of February. The gardens continue to be gay 
 with the blossoms of the peach and plum-trees. As 
 our vessel wound its way round one great bend after 
 another, we often saw directly before us the dome 
 of the St. Charles and the tower of St. Patrick's, 
 and were sailing towards them after I thought we 
 had already taken a last look at them far astern. In 
 the first seven hours we made sixty miles, including 
 stoppages. We were passing along what is called 
 "the coast," or that part of the Mississippi which 
 is protected by a levee above the metropolis. A great 
 many handsome country-houses, belonging to the pro- 
 prietors of sugar plantations, give a cultivated aspect 
 to this region, and the scenery is enlivened by a pro- 
 digious number of schooners and large steamers sail- 
 
CHAP. XXX.] FLAT BOATS. 167 
 
 ing down from the Ohio and Red Kivers, heavily laden 
 with cotton. This cotton has already been much 
 compressed when made up into bales ; but it under- 
 goes, at New Orleans, still greater pressure, by steam 
 power, to diminish its bulk before embarkation for 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The captain calculated, that within the first seven 
 hours after we left the wharf, in the Second Munici- 
 pality, we had passed no less than ten thousand bales 
 going down the river, each bale worth thirty-five 
 dollars at present prices, and the value of the 
 whole, therefore, amounting to 350,000 dollars, or 
 73,500Z. sterling. All this merchandise would reach 
 the great emporium within twenty hours of the time 
 of our passing it. Before we lost sight of the city, 
 we saw a large flat boat drifting down in the middle 
 of the current, steered by means of a large oar at the 
 stern. It was laden with farm produce, and had come 
 about two thousand miles, from near Pitts burg, on 
 the Ohio. I had first observed this kind of craft on 
 my way to the Balize, meeting near Fort Jackson a 
 boat without a single inmate, thirty-five feet long, 
 and built of stout planks, with a good roof. It was 
 drifting along on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, the 
 owner having abandoned it after selling his corn and 
 other stores at the great city. He himself had pro- 
 bably returned to the North in a steamer ; having 
 found the substantial floating mansion, in which he 
 had lived for several weeks or months, quite un- 
 saleable, although containing so much good timber 
 shaped into planks. It is the duty of the wharfinger 
 at New Orleans to see that the river is not blocked 
 
168 FLAT BOATS. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 up with such incumbrances, and to set them adrift. 
 After wandering for several hundred miles in the 
 Gulf, they are sometimes cast ashore at Pensacola. 
 
 Soon after wards, when we were taking in wood at 
 a landing, I entered another of these flat boats, just 
 arrived there, and discovered that it was a shop, con- 
 taining all kinds of grocery and other provisions, tea, 
 sugar, lard, cheese, flour, beef, and whiskey. It was 
 furnished with a chimney, and I was surprised to see 
 a large family of inmates in two spacious cabins, for 
 no one would suspect these boats to be so roomy below 
 water, as they are usually sunk deep in the river by 
 a heavy freight. They had a fiddle on board, and 
 were preparing to get up a dance for the negroes. A 
 fellow-traveller told me that these pedlars are com- 
 monly called chicken-thieves, and, the day after they 
 move off, the planters not unfrequently miss many of 
 their fowls. 
 
 Pointing 'to an old levee with a higher embank- 
 ment newly made behind it, the captain told me, 
 that a breach had been made there in 1844, through 
 which the Mississippi burst, inundating the low cul- 
 tivated lands between the highest part of the bank 
 and the swamp. In this manner, thousands of valu- 
 able acres were injured. He had seen the water rush 
 through the opening at the rate of ten miles an hour, 
 sucking in several flat boats, and carrying them over 
 a watery waste into a dense swamp forest. Here the 
 voyagers might remain entangled among the trees 
 unheard of and unheeded till they were starved, if 
 canoes were not sent to traverse the swamps in every 
 direction in the hope of rescuing such wanderers 
 
CHAP. XXX.] CREVASSES AND INUNDATIONS. 169 
 
 from destruction. When we consider how many 
 hair-breadth escapes these flat boats have experi- 
 enced, how often they have been nearly run down 
 in the night, or even in the day, during dense fogs, 
 and sent to the bottom by collision with a huge 
 steamer, it is strange to reflect, that at length, when 
 their owners have caught sight of the towers of 
 New Orleans in the distance, they should be hurried 
 into a wilderness, and perish there. 
 
 I was shown the entrance of what is called the 
 Carthage crevasse, formed in May, 1840, and open 
 for eight weeks, during which time, it attained a 
 breadth of eighty feet. Its waters were discharged 
 into Lake Pontchartrain, when nothing was visible 
 between that great lagoon and the Mississippi but 
 the tops of tall cypress trees growing in the morass, 
 and a long, narrow, black stripe of earth, being the 
 top of the levee, which marked the course of the 
 river. 
 
 The reader may naturally ask why the Mississippi, 
 when it has once burst through its bank, and taken 
 this shorter cut to the sea, does not continue in 
 the same course, reaching the salt water in a few 
 miles instead of flowing two hundred miles before it 
 empties itself into the Gulf. I may remark in re- 
 ply, that the great river does not run, as might be 
 inferred from the description of some of the old 
 geographers, on the top of a ridge in a level plain, 
 but in a valley from one hundred to two hundred 
 and fifty feet deep. 
 
 Thus a b c may represent the cavity in which the 
 river flows, the artificial levees at the top of the banks 
 
 VOL. II. I 
 
170 ARTIFICIAL LEVEES. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 being seen at a and b. The banks are higher than 
 
 the bottom of the swamps, f g and d e ; because, 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 Section of channel, bank, levees (a and b), and swamps of Mississippi 
 
 River. 
 
 when the river overflows, the coarser part of the sedi- 
 ment is deposited at a and b, where the speed of the 
 current is first checked. It usually runs there with 
 a gentle current among herbage, reeds, and shrubs ; 
 and is nearly filtered of its earthy ingredients before 
 it arrives at the swamps. It is probable that the 
 Mississippi flows to the nearest point of the Gulf, 
 where there is a sufficient depth or capacity in the 
 bed of the sea to receive its vast burden of water and 
 mud ; and if it went to Lake Pontchartraija, it would 
 have to excavate a new valley like a b c, many times 
 deeper than the bottom of that lagoon. 
 
 The levee raised to protect the low grounds from 
 inundation, was at first, when we left New Orleans, 
 only four feet high, so as not to impede our view of 
 the country from the deck ; but as we ascended, both 
 the natural bank and the levee became higher and 
 higher, and by the time we had sailed up sixty-five 
 miles, I could only just see the tops of tall trees in 
 the swamps. Even these were only discernible from 
 the roof of the cabin, or what is called the hurricane 
 deck, when we had gone 100 miles from New 
 Orleans. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] SNAG-BOATS. 171 
 
 The large waves raised by the rapid movement of 
 several hundred steamers, causes the undermining 
 and waste of the banks to proceed at a more rapid 
 rate than formerly. The roots also of trees growing 
 at the edge of the stream, were very effective for- 
 merly in holding the soil together, before so much 
 timber had been cleared away. Now the banks 
 offer less resistance to the wasting action of the 
 stream. 
 
 The quantity of drift wood floated down the current 
 has not diminished sensibly within the last twenty 
 years, but nearly all of it is now intercepted in the 
 last forty miles above New Orleans, and split up 
 into logs by the proprietors to supply the furnaces 
 of steam-boats, which are thus freeing the river 
 of the heavy masses against which they used formerly 
 to bump in the night, or round which they were 
 forced to steer in the day. There has also been 
 a marked decrease, of late years, in the number of 
 snags. The trunks of uprooted trees, so called, get 
 fixed in the mud, having sunk with their heavier 
 end to the bottom, and remain slanting down the 
 stream, so as to pierce through the bows of vessels 
 sailing up. A government report just published, 
 shows that two snag-boats, each having a crew of 
 twenty men, one of them drawing four feet, and the 
 other two feet water, have extracted 700 snags in 
 four weeks out of the Missouri, and others have been 
 at work on the Mississippi. When it is remem- 
 bered that some of the most dangerous of these snags 
 have been known to continue planted for twenty years 
 in the same spot (so slowly does wood decay under 
 
 I 2 
 
172 DECREASE OF [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 water), it may readily be conceived how much this 
 formidable source of danger has lessened in the last 
 few years. At the season when the river is lowest, 
 grappling irons are firmly fixed to these snags, and 
 the whole force of the engines in the snag-boat is 
 exerted to draw them out of the mud ; they are 
 then cut into several pieces, and left to float down 
 the stream, but part of them being water-logged, sink 
 at once to the bottom. 
 
 Several travellers assure me, that serious accidents 
 are not more common now on the Mississippi and its 
 tributaries, when there are 800 steamers afloat, than 
 twenty years ago, when the number of steamers was 
 less than fifty. The increased security arises, chiefly, 
 from the greater skill and sobriety of the captains and 
 engineers, who rarely run races as formerly, and who 
 usually cast anchor during fogs and in dark nights. 
 Such precautions have, no doubt, become more and 
 more imperative, in proportion as the steamers have 
 multiplied. On the wide Atlantic, the chances of 
 collision in a fog may be slight, but to sail in so 
 narrow a channel as that of a river, at the rate of ten 
 miles an hour, unable to see a ship's length a-head, 
 with the risk of meeting, every moment, other 
 steamers coming down at the rate of fifteen miles 
 an hour, implies such recklessness, that one cannot 
 wonder that navigators on the western waters have 
 earned the character of setting small value on their 
 own and other's lives. Formerly, the most frequent 
 cause of explosions was a deficiency of water in the 
 boiler ; one of the great improvements adopted, within 
 the last five years, for preventing this mischief, is the 
 
CHAP. XXX.] STEAM-BOAT ACCIDENTS. 173 
 
 addition of a separate steam apparatus for pumping 
 up water and securing a regular supply by machinery, 
 instead of trusting to the constant watchfulness of 
 the engineers. On the whole, it seems to be more 
 dangerous to travel by land, in a new country, than 
 by river steamers, and some who have survived re- 
 peated journeyings in stage-coaches, show us many 
 scars. The judge who escorted my wife to Natchez, 
 informed her that he had been upset no less than 
 thirteen times. 
 
 On the left bank, about sixty miles above New 
 Orleans, stands Jefferson College; a schoolmaster 
 from the North, speaking to me of its history, im- 
 puted its want of success to the insubordination of 
 the youths, the inability of Southern planters to 
 govern their children themselves, and their unwil- 
 lingness to delegate the necessary authority to the 
 masters of universities or schools. " But they are 
 growing wiser," he said, " and vigorous efforts are 
 making to improve the discipline in the university 
 of Charlottesville, in Virginia, which has hitherto 
 been too lax." 
 
 We soon afterwards passed a convent on the same 
 bank, and I heard praise bestowed on the " Sisters 
 of Charity," for their management of a hospital. 
 
 At St. Thomas's Point, about seventy-five miles 
 above New Orleans, we passed a fine plantation, 
 which formerly belonged to Mr. Preston, of South 
 Carolina, a distinguished member of Congress, whose 
 acquaintance I made in 1842. There are, I am 
 told, nearly 1000 negroes here, and I am astonished 
 at the large proportion of the coloured race settled 
 
 I 3 
 
174 THUNDER-SHOWEK. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 everywhere on the land bordering the river. The 
 relative value of coloured and white labour was here, 
 as elsewhere, a favourite theme of conversation, when 
 there happened to be passengers on board from the 
 Northern States. The task of three negroes, they 
 say, in Louisiana, is to cut and bind up two cords of 
 wood in a day, whereas, a single white man in the 
 State of New York, prepares three cords daily. In 
 packing cotton, the negroes are expected to perform 
 a third less work than a white labourer. 
 
 In the afternoon we were overtaken by a heavy 
 thunder-shower, the water pouring off the eaves of 
 our cabin roof, in copious streams, into the river, 
 through numerous spouts or tin pipes. When the 
 rain abated, I saw a fog slowly stealing over parts of 
 the stream, for the water was much colder than the 
 air. For some hours we were unable to proceed, and 
 the captain informed me, that we should remain 
 prisoners until the temperature of the Mississippi and 
 that of the atmosphere were more nearly equalised. 
 This, he hoped, would happen in one of two ways, 
 either by a renewal of rain, which would warm the 
 river, or by the wind veering round from south to 
 west, which would cool the air. The latter change 
 soon occurred, and we were instantly released. 
 
 I was congratulated by some Northerners at 
 having escaped the musquitos. The captain said, 
 u that they who are acclimatised, suffer no longer 
 from the bites, or scarcely at all, and even the young 
 children of Creoles are proof against them, although 
 the face and neck of a new settler, whether young or 
 old, swell up frightfully. Yet the wild cattle and 
 
CHAP. XXX.] MUSQUITOS. 175 
 
 deer have not acquired any hereditary immunity 
 from this torment, and, to escape it, are seen standing 
 in the lakes with their heads only above water." 
 Some passengers assured me, " that when people have 
 recovered from the yellow fever, the skin, although 
 in other respects as sensitive as ever, is no longer 
 affected by a musquito bite, or, if at all, in a very 
 slight degree ;" and they added, " that last year, 
 1845, both the yellow fever and the musquitos were 
 in abeyance, although the heat of the season was 
 intense." 
 
 After we had sailed up the river eighty miles, I 
 was amused by the sight of the insignificant village 
 of Donaldsonville, the future glories of which I 
 had heard so eloquently depicted.* Its position, 
 however, is doubtless important ; for here the right 
 bank is intersected by that arm of the Mississippi, 
 called Bayou La Fourche. This arm has much the ap- 
 pearance of a canal, and by it, I am told, our steamer, 
 although it draws no less than ten feet water, might sail 
 into the Gulf of Mexico, oiMra verse a large part of that 
 wonderful inland navigation in the delta which contri- 
 butes so largely to the wealth of Louisiana. A curious 
 description was given me, by one of my fellow tra- 
 vellers, of that same low country, especially the region 
 called Attakapas. It contains, he said, wide " quaking 
 prairies," where cattle are pastured, and where you 
 may fancy yourself far inland. Yet, if vou pierce 
 anywhere through the turf to the depth of two feet, 
 you find sea-fish swimming about, which make their 
 
 * Ante, p. 123. 
 i 4 
 
176 NATURAL RAFTS. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 way in search of food under the superficial sward, 
 from the Gulf of Mexico, through subterranean watery 
 channels. 
 
 Notwithstanding the quantity of sediment in the 
 Mississippi,, they tell me that its waters are inhabited 
 by abundance of shad and herring, and in several 
 places, when I asked the fishermen what they were 
 catching, they answered, " Sardines." 
 
 In the course of the first day we saw the Bayou 
 Plaquemine on the right, and the Iberville river on the 
 left bank of the Mississippi, the two arms next above 
 that of La Fourche. One of those natural rafts of 
 floating trees which occasionally bridge over the 
 Western rivers for many years in succession, be- 
 coming covered over with soil, shrubs, and trees, 
 blocked up till lately the Bayou Plaquemine. The 
 obstacle was at length removed at the expense of the 
 State, and the rush of water through the newly 
 cleared channel was so tremendous, that several en- 
 gineers entertained apprehensions, lest the whole of 
 the Mississippi should take its course by this channel 
 to the sea, deserting New Orleans. Mr. Forshey 
 assured me there was no real ground for such fears, 
 because the Mississippi, as before hinted*, takes at 
 present the shortest cut to that part of the Gulf 
 where it can find a basin deep and capacious enough 
 to receive it. 
 
 During the night we passed Baton Rouge, the 
 
 first point above New Orleans where any land higher 
 
 and older than the alluvial plain comes up to the 
 
 bank to constitute what is termed a bluff. The cliff 
 
 * Ante, p. 170. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] BURIED TREES, PORT HUDSON. 177 
 
 there is only a few feet high. The next bluff is at 
 Port Hudson, 25 miles higher up the river, and 165 
 miles above New Orleans. I had been urged by 
 Dr. Carpenter to examine the geology of this bluff, 
 which I had also wished to do, because Bartram, in 
 his travels in 1777, discovered there the existence of 
 a fossil forest at the base of the tall cliff, and had 
 commented with his usual sagacity on the magnitude 
 of the geographical changes implied by its structure. 
 The following are his words, which deserve the more 
 attention, because the particular portion of the cliff 
 described by him, has long ago been undermined and 
 swept away by the Mississippi. " Next morning," 
 says Bartram, " we set off again on our return home, 
 and called by the way at the cliffs, which is a per- 
 pendicular bank or bluff, rising up out of the river 
 near one hundred feet above the present surface of 
 the water, whose active current sweeps along by it. 
 From eight or nine feet below the loamy vegetative 
 mould at top, to within four or five feet of the water, 
 these cliffs present to view strata of clay, marl, and 
 chalk of all colours, as brown, red, yellow, white, 
 blue, and purple ; there are separate strata of these 
 various colours, as well as mixed or parti-coloured : 
 the lowest stratum next the water is exactly of the 
 same black mud, or rich soil, as the adjacent low 
 cypress swamps above and below the bluff; and here, 
 in the cliffs, we see vast stumps of cypress and other 
 trees which, at this day, grow in these low, wet 
 swamps, and which range on a level with them. 
 These stumps are sound, stand upright, and seem to 
 be rotted off about two or three feet above the spread 
 
 I 5 
 
178 BURIED TREES. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 of their roots ; their trunks, limbs, &c. lie in all 
 directions about them. But when these swampy 
 forests were growing, and by what cause they were 
 cut off and overwhelmed by the various strata of 
 earth, which now rise near one hundred feet above, 
 at the brink of the cliffs, and two or three times that 
 height, but a few hundred yards back, are inquiries 
 perhaps not easily answered. The swelling heights, 
 rising gradually over and beyond this precipice, are 
 now adorned with high forests of stately Magnolia, 
 Liquidambar, Fagus, Quercus, Laurus, Morus, Ju- 
 glans, Tilia, Halesia, j^Esculus, Callicarpa, Lirio- 
 dendron" &c.* 
 
 Dr. Carpenter, in 1838, or sixty-one years after 
 Bartram, made a careful investigation of this same 
 bluff, having ascertained that in the interval the river 
 had been continually wearing it away at such a rate 
 as to expose to view a section several hundred feet 
 to the eastward of that seen by his predecessor. 
 I shall first give a brief abstract of Dr. Carpenter's 
 observations, published in Silliman's Journal, f 
 
 " About the level of low water, at the bottom of 
 the bluff, a bed of vegetable matter is exposed, con- 
 sisting of sticks, leaves, and fruits, arranged in thin 
 horizontal lamina, with very thin layers of clay in- 
 terposed. Among the fruits were observed the nuts 
 of the swamp hickory (Juglans aquatica) very abun- 
 dant, the burr-like pericarp of the sweet gum (Li- 
 quidambar styraciflua), and walnuts, the fruit of 
 
 * Bartram, " Travels in North America," p. 433. 
 f Yol.xxxvi. p. 118. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] BLUFFS OF PORT HUDSON. 179 
 
 * 
 
 Juylans nigra. The logs lying horizontally are those 
 of the cypress ( Cupressus thyoides\ swamp hickory, 
 a species of cotton wood (Populus), and other trees 
 peculiar to the low swamps of Louisiana. Besides 
 these there were a great number of erect stumps of 
 the large deciduous cypress (Taxodium distichum) 
 sending their roots deep into the clay beneath. This 
 buried forest is covered by a bed of clay, twelve feet 
 thick, and is followed by another superimposed bed of 
 vegetable matter, four feet thick, containing logs and 
 branches, half turned into lignite, and erect stumps, 
 among which there are none of the large cypresses, 
 as in the lower bed. Among the logs, the water- 
 oak ( Quercus aquatica) was recognisable, and a pine 
 with a great deal of bark, and the strobiles of the 
 Pinus Tceda. 
 
 " This upper forest points to the former existence, 
 on the spot, of one of those swamps, occurring at 
 higher levels, in which the Cupressus disticha ( Tax- 
 odium) does not grow. Above the upper layer of 
 erect stumps are various beds of clay, in all more 
 than fifty feet thick, with two thin layers of vege- 
 table matter intercalated ; and above the whole more 
 than twenty feet of sand, the lower part of which 
 included siliceous pebbles derived from some ancient 
 rocks, and containing the marks of encrinites and 
 corals {Favosites)" &c. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter, when he published this account in 
 1838, thought he had detected the distinct marks of 
 the axe* on some of the logs accompanying the 
 
 * Silliman, ibid. p. 119. 
 i 6 
 
180 BURIED TREES. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 -9. 
 
 buried stumps; but he informed me, in 1846, that he 
 was mistaken, and that the apparent notches were 
 caused by the gaping open of the bituminised wood, 
 probably after shrinking and drying, of the truth of 
 which I was myself convinced, after seeing the speci- 
 mens. That the lowest bed had originally been a 
 real cypress swamp, was proved beyond all doubt by 
 the stumps being surrounded by those peculiar knobs 
 or excrescences called cypress knees, which this tree 
 throws out from its base, when it grows in a sub- 
 merged soil. These knees sometimes rise up through 
 the water from a depth of six or. eight feet, and are 
 supposed to supply the roots with air, as they are 
 never formed when the cypress grows on dry ground. 
 At the time of my visit, the river was unfortu- 
 nately too high to enable me to see the lowest de- 
 posit containing the memorials of this ancient forest, 
 the geological interest of which is much enhanced by 
 its having been seen by Bartram, and again by Car- 
 penter, extending horizontally over a considerable 
 area. I learnt from several residents at Port Hud- 
 son, and from Captain Sellick, who commanded the 
 Rainbow, that last season, when the water was low, 
 the stumps of the buried trees were as conspicuous 
 as ever at the base of the cliff, which has been much 
 undermined by the river since the year 1838, when 
 Dr. Carpenter explored it. The fossil forest was 
 12 feet under water when I landed, but at higher 
 levels I saw the trunks of two trees buried in a ver- 
 tical position at different levels, each of them about 
 2J- feet high. I estimated the height of the entire 
 cliff to be about 75 feet, consisting in part of stiff 
 
CHAP. XXX.] BLUFFS OF PORT HUDSON. 181 
 
 unctuous clay, and partly of loam, but with no chalk, 
 as stated by Bartram. A small streamlet, artificially 
 led to the top of the bluff, had, within the last four 
 years, cut out a ravine no less than sixty feet deep 
 through the upper loamy beds. In the sections thus 
 laid open, I saw precisely such deposits as a river 
 would form in its bed, or in the swamps which it had 
 occasionally flooded. Near the bottom was a layer 
 of leaves, resembling those of the bay, with numerous 
 roots of trees and wood in a fresher state than I ever 
 saw them in any tertiary formation. Taking a canoe, I 
 afterwards proceeded to examine that part of the 
 cliff which extends about a mile down the river's left 
 bank, immediately below Port Hudson, where it is 
 between seventy and eighty feet high. The deposits 
 laid open to view were divisible into three groups, the 
 topmost consisting of brown clay, the middle of 
 whitish siliceous sand, and the lower of green clay. 
 I found some men digging the middle or sandy stratum 
 for making bricks, and they had just come upon a 
 prostrate buried tree, black and carbonized, but not 
 turned into lignite. I counted in it 220 rings of 
 annual growth. Near it I found two other smaller 
 fossil trunks, all lying as if they had been drift wood 
 carried down by a river and buried in sand. One 
 of the men pointed out to me that the structure of 
 the wood showed distinctly that they belonged to 
 three different species, one being oak, another hickory, 
 and the third sassafras. Their texture seemed cer- 
 tainly that of distinct genera of trees, but for the 
 accuracy of my informant's determination I cannot 
 vouch. At this point they told me the bluff has, in 
 
182 LANDSLIP. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 the course of the last eight years, lost ground no less 
 than 200 feet by the encroachment of the river. 
 
 To prove that the present site of the buried forest 
 before alluded to, must be far from the point where 
 Bartram or even Carpenter saw it, an account was 
 given me by the residents here, of several recent land- 
 slips near Port Hudson; one in particular, a few years 
 ago, when by the caving in of the bank, three acres 
 of ground, fifty or sixty feet high, composed of clay 
 and sand, and covered by a forest, sank down bodily 
 into the river, and were then gradually washed away. 
 One of the eye-witnesses related to me that the trees 
 were at first seen to tremble, then large rents began 
 to open in the soil deeper and deeper, after which 
 the movement was such that the boughs of the trees 
 lashed each other, and acorns and beech nuts were 
 showered down like hail. A herd of pigs was so 
 intent in devouring these, that they allowed them- 
 selves to be carried down vertically fifty feet, the 
 subsidence occupying about five minutes. The outer 
 edge of the bluff, with some of the swine, fell into the 
 river, but these swam to the sunk part of the bluff, 
 and joined their companions. The owners watched 
 them anxiously till dusk, unable to go to their rescue ; 
 but at length, to their surprise, they saw a leader, 
 followed by all the rest, wind his way along narrow 
 ledges on the face of the precipice, from which the 
 fallen mass had been detached, and climb up to the 
 top. Next morning, to their no less astonishment, 
 they found the herd feeding again on the same peri- 
 lous ground, and saw them again return by the same 
 path at night. 
 
CHAP. XXX.] ANCIENT SUBSIDENCE OF DELTA. 183 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on the geological 
 phenomena disclosed in the interesting sections of 
 these bluffs, because I agree with Bartram and Car- 
 penter, that they display a series of deposits similar 
 to the modern formations of the alluvial plain and 
 delta of the Mississippi. They lead us, therefore, to 
 the important conclusion, that there have been changes 
 in the relative level of land and sea since the esta- 
 blishment, in this part of the continent, of a geogra- 
 phical state of things approximating to that now 
 prevailing. Then, as now, there were swamps in 
 which the deciduous cypress and other trees grew, 
 and became buried in mud, without any intermixture 
 of sand or pebbles. At that remote period, also, 
 drift wood was brought down from the upper country, 
 and enclosed in sandy strata. Although I could not 
 ascertain the exact height above the level of the sea, 
 of the fossil cypress swamp at Port Hudson, I pre- 
 sume it is less than thirty feet ; and in order to 
 explain the superposition of 150 feet of freshwater 
 sediment, we must imagine the gradual subsidence of 
 fluviatile strata to a depth far below the level of 
 the sea, followed by an upward movement to as 
 great an amount. The depression must have taken 
 place so slowly as to allow the river to raise the 
 surface by sedimentary deposition continually, and 
 never permit the sea to encroach and cover the 
 area. It is quite conceivable, for example, that 
 the present delta and alluvial plain should sink 150 
 feet without the salt water coming up even to 
 New Orleans, provided the land went down only a 
 few feet or inches in a century, and provided the 
 
184 ANCIENT SUBSIDENCE OF DELTA. [CHAP. XXX. 
 
 ground was raised vertically to the same amount by 
 fluviatile mud, sand, or vegetable matter. But if the 
 land should go down even ten or twelve feet at 
 once, the whole delta would be submerged beneath 
 the sea. Were the downward movement here sup- 
 posed to be followed by an upheaval to the extent of 
 about 150 feet, and should the river then cut a chan- 
 nel through the upraised mass, we might expect to 
 see the modern formation exhibit appearances similar 
 to those of high antiquity above described at Port 
 Hudson. 
 
 I shall endeavour, in the sequel, to show that oscil- 
 lations of level, like those here assumed to account 
 for the phenomena at Port Hudson, will explain 
 other appearances, observable, not only in cliffs 
 bounding the valley of the Mississippi, but in ancient 
 alluvial terraces bordering the Ohio, and other tribu- 
 taries of the great river. 
 
CHAP. XXXL] FONTANIA. 185 
 
 CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 Fontania near Port Hudson. Lake Solitude. Floating Island. 
 Bony Pike. Story of the Devil's Swamp. Embarking by 
 Night in Steam-Boat. Literary Clerk. Old Levees under- 
 mined. Succession of upright buried Trees in Bank. Rac- 
 courci cut off. Bar at Mouth of Red River. Shelly Fresh- 
 water Loam of Natchez. Recent Ravines in Table-Land. 
 Bones of extinct Quadrupeds. Human Fossil Bone. Ques- 
 tion of supposed co-existence of Man with extinct Mammalia 
 discussed. Tornado at Natchez. Society, Country-Houses 
 and Gardens. Landslips. Indian Antiquities. 
 
 AFTER I had examined the bluff below Port Hud- 
 son, I went down the river in my boat to Fontania, 
 a few miles to the south, to pay a visit to Mr. 
 Faulkner, a proprietor to whom Dr. Carpenter had 
 given me a letter of introduction. He received me 
 with great politeness, and, at my request, accom- 
 panied me at once to see a crescent-shaped sheet of 
 water on his estate, called Lake Solitude, evidently 
 an ancient bed of the Mississippi now deserted. It 
 is one of the few examples of old channels which 
 occur to the east of the great river, the general ten- 
 dency of which is always to move from west to east. 
 Of this eastward movement there is a striking monu- 
 ment on the other side of the Mississippi immediately 
 opposite Port Hudson, called Fausse Riviere, a sheet 
 of water of the usual horse-shoe form. One of my 
 
186 LAKE SOLITUDE. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 fellow passengers in the Rainbow had urged me to 
 visit Lake Solitude, " because," said he, " there is a 
 floating island in it, well wooded, on which a friend 
 of mine once landed from a canoe, when, to his sur- 
 prise, it began to sink with his weight. In great 
 alarm he climbed a cypress tree, which also began 
 immediately to go down with him as fast as he as- 
 cended. He mounted higher and higher into its 
 boughs, until at length it ceased to subside, and, 
 looking round, he saw in every direction, for a dis- 
 tance of fifty yards, the whole wood in motion." I 
 wished much to know what foundation there could 
 be for so marvellous a tale. It appears that there 
 is always a bayou or channel, connecting, during 
 floods, each deserted bend or lake with the main 
 river, through which large floating logs may pass. 
 These often form rafts, and become covered with 
 soil supporting shrubs and trees. At first such 
 green islands are blown from one part of the lake to 
 another by the winds, but the deciduous cypress, if it 
 springs up in such a soil, sends down strong roots, 
 many feet or yards long, so as to cast anchor in the 
 muddy bottom, rendering the island stationary. 
 
 Lake Solitude, situated in lat. 31 N. is two miles 
 and a half in circuit, and is most appropriately named, 
 being a retired sheet of water, its borders overhung 
 by the swamp willow, now just coming into leaf, and 
 skirted by the tall cypress, from which long streamers 
 of Spanish moss are hanging. On the east it is bounded 
 by high ground, a prolongation of the bluff at Port 
 Hudson, on which the hickory, the oak, and many 
 splendid magnolias, with the beech, walnut, tulip 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] BONY PIKE. 187 
 
 tree, and holly, and a variety of beautiful shrubs are 
 seen. The surface of the lake (except near the shore, 
 where it is covered with the water lily) faithfully re- 
 flects the trees and sky, presenting, in this respect, 
 a marked contrast to the yellow waters of the Mis- 
 sissippi. It is inhabited by hundreds of alligators and 
 countless fish, and so many birds were swimming on 
 it, or flying over it, that it seemed as if all the wild 
 creatures which the steamers had scared away from 
 the main river had taken refuge here. Several alli- 
 gators were lying motionless, with their noses just 
 above the surface of the water, resembling black logs. 
 About fourteen years ago, some of them were not 
 unfrequently seen here measuring fifteen feet in 
 length, but they now rarely exceed eight feet. I 
 observed a large gar-fish, or bony pike, called the 
 alligator gar (Lepidosteus), leap nearly out of the 
 water in pursuit of its prey. Its hard shining scales 
 are so strong and difficult to pierce, that it can 
 scarcely be shot. It can live longer out of water than 
 any other fish of this country, having a large cellular 
 swimming bladder, which is said almost to serve the 
 purpose of a real lung. One of them has been known 
 to seize the nostrils of a mule who was drinking, and 
 only to be shaken off on dry ground, when its whole 
 body had been dragged into the air. 
 
 On the boughs of the willows were perched seve- 
 ral white cranes, while herons, cormorants, and water- 
 rails were swimming on the lake, their various notes 
 adding to the wildness of the scene. Shriller than 
 all, as the evening came on, we heard the voice of 
 the large bull-frog. 
 
188 THE DEVIL'S SWAMP. [CHAP. xxxi. 
 
 As we went back to the house, over the high 
 ground, we saw three kinds of squirrels and many 
 birds. So skilful was my companion with his rifle, 
 that he brought down every bird which came within 
 shot owls, rice-birds, woodpeckers, and jays that 
 I might examine their plumage. I admired a beauti- 
 ful cluster of the flowers and fruit of the red maple, 
 about twenty feet above our heads. He offered to 
 pick them for me, and, without delay, took aim so 
 dexterously, as to sever the stem from the bough 
 just below the blossom, without seeming to have in- 
 jured the flower by a single shot. In the course of 
 our walk, I observed several shrubs, almost hidden 
 by the luxuriant growth of that most elegant of 
 climbers, the yellow jessamine ( Gelsemium nitidum), 
 with its fragrant blossoms. 
 
 From these heights south of Port Hudson, we had 
 a grand view of the great plain of the Mississippi, 
 far to the south and west, an endless labyrinth of 
 uninhabited swamps, covered with a variety of tim- 
 ber, and threaded with bayous, one resembling ano- 
 ther so exactly, that many a stranger, who has 
 entered them in a canoe, has wandered for days 
 without being able to extricate himself from their 
 woody mazes. Among these morasses, one called 
 the Devil's Swamp was in sight, and I found a 
 curious account of the origin of its name in a MS. 
 dated 1776, of Caleb Carpenter, a relation of my 
 New Orleans friend. 
 
 A German emigrant having settled near the bank 
 of the Mississippi, in 1776, felled, with great labour, 
 some lofty cypresses ; but, happening one day to make 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] THE DEVIL'S SWAMP. 189 
 
 a false turn in his canoe, entered, by mistake, a 
 neighbouring bayou. Every feature was so exactly 
 like the scene where he had been toiling for weeks, 
 that he could not question the identity of the spot. 
 He saw all the same bends, both in the larger and 
 smaller channels. He made out distinctly the same 
 trees, among others the very individual cypresses 
 which he had cut down. There they stood, erect 
 and entire, without retaining one mark of his axe. 
 He concluded that some evil spirit had, in a single 
 night, undone all the labour of many weeks ; and, 
 seized with superstitious terror, he fled from the 
 enchanted wood, never to return. 
 
 In order that I might not spend an indefinite 
 time on the Mississippi, I determined to be prepared 
 for a start in the first chance steamer which might be 
 bound for Natchez, 140 miles distant, whenever an 
 opportunity should offer, whether by day or night. 
 I was told by my host that a trusty black ser- 
 vant had been already appointed to look out for a 
 steamer, which was to convey some farm produce to 
 a proprietor far off on the Red River. He proposed, 
 therefore, to give orders to this negro to wake me if 
 any boat bound for Natchez should appear in sight 
 before morning. Accordingly, about an hour after 
 midnight, I was roused from my slumbers, and went 
 down over a sloping lawn to the steam -boat landing 
 on the river's bank. The sky was clear, and it was 
 bright moonlight, and the distant cries of the owls, 
 and other night-birds around Lake Solitude, were 
 distinctly heard, mingled with the chirping of myriads 
 of frogs. On the low bank my watchman had 
 
190 LITERARY CLERK. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 lighted a signal fire, and I heard the puffing of a 
 steamer in the distance ascending the stream. She 
 soon neared us, and, on being hailed, answered, " La 
 Belle Creole, bound for Bayou Sara." This port was 
 far short of my destination, and when we shouted 
 " Natchez," the captain first asked if we had any wood 
 to sell, and on learning there was none, sailed away. 
 I returned to the house, and took another nap of 
 several hours, when I received a second summons from 
 my faithful sentinel. The scene was entirely changed ; 
 it was nearly day-break, and the fogs rising from the 
 marshes had begun to cover the river. I was in 
 despair, fearing that our signal fire would not be dis- 
 cerned through the mist. Soon, however, we heard 
 the loud gasping of the two steam-pipes sounding 
 nearer and nearer, and a large steamer coming sud- 
 denly close to the landing, was announced as "the 
 Talma of Cincinnati." In a few minutes I was cross- 
 ing the narrow plank which led from the steep bank to 
 the vessel, which was actually in motion as I walked 
 over it, so that I was glad to find myself safe on 
 deck. They told me I must register my name at the 
 office. The clerk asked me if I was the author of a 
 work on geology, and being answered in the affirma- 
 tive, wished to know if I was acquainted with 
 Mr. Macaulay. On my saying yes, he took out a 
 late number of the Edinburgh Review, and begged 
 me to tell him whether the article on Addison was 
 written by my friend, for he had been discussing this 
 matter with a passenger that evening. When I had 
 confirmed this opinion he thanked me, expressing 
 much regret that he should not see me again, since I 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] OLD LEVEES. 191 
 
 was to land next day at Natchez before he should be 
 up. This conversation lasted but a few minutes, and 
 in as many more I was in a good berth under a 
 musquito net, listening to a huge bell tolling in the 
 fog, to warn every flat-boat to get out of the way, on 
 peril of being sent instantly to the bottom. In spite 
 of this din, and that of the steam funnels and ma- 
 chinery, I soon fell asleep for the third time. 
 
 When I came on deck next day, all hands were at 
 work, taking in wood at a landing below Bayou 
 Sara, where I saw on the top of the river bank, now 
 sixteen feet high, several striking memorials of the 
 ravages of former inundations. Besides the newest 
 levee, there was one which had given way previously 
 to the great flood of 1844, and a still older one, which, 
 although once parallel, was now cut off abruptly, and 
 at right angles to the present course of the river. 
 They reminded me of the remnant of an oval en- 
 trenchment at the edge of the cliff near Newhaven 
 in Sussex, and of those paths leading directly to the 
 brink of precipices overhanging the sea in many 
 maritime counties in England. Farther on, at 
 another wooding station, in Adams county, Missis- 
 sippi, I observed a bank eighteen feet in perpendicu- 
 lar height, and said to be forty-five feet high when 
 the water is at its lowest. It was composed of sand, 
 or sandy loam, indicating a comparatively rapid de- 
 position. In such loam, no erect stumps and trunks 
 of trees are met with, the sediment having accumu- 
 lated on the margin of the river in a few years too 
 fast to allow large trees to grow there. But in 
 other places, where the bank consisted of fine, stiff clay, 
 
192 UPRIGHT BUKIED TKEES. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 I saw here and there the buried stools of cypresses, 
 and other trees, in an upright position, with their 
 roots attached, sometimes repeated at several different 
 levels in the face of the same bank. I first remarked 
 one of these at a point forty-five miles above New 
 Orleans, and they increased in number as we as- 
 cended. When first told of this phenomenon, before 
 visiting the Mississippi, it appeared to me very diffi- 
 cult of explanation. I soon, however, discovered 
 that the great river, in its windings, often intersects 
 the swamps or cypress basins which had been pre- 
 viously filled up with fine mud or vegetable matter, 
 at various distances from the former river-channel. 
 
 Suppose an ancient bed of the Mississippi, or some 
 low part of the plain, to become fit for the growth of 
 cypress, yet to be occasionally flooded, so that the 
 soil is slowly raised by fine mud, drift wood, or 
 vegetable matter like peat. As the cypress ( Taxodium 
 distichum) often attains to the age of three or four 
 centuries, and, according to many accounts, occasion- 
 ally in Louisiana to that of two thousand years, it is 
 clear that the bottoms of the oldest trees will often 
 be enveloped in soil several feet deep, before they 
 die, and rot down to the point where they have been 
 covered up with mud. In the mean time other trees 
 will have begun to grow on adjoining spots, at dif- 
 ferent and considerably higher levels, and eventually 
 some of these will take root in soil deposited directly 
 over the stump or decayed trunk of some of the first 
 or oldest series of cypresses. They who have studied 
 the delta affirm that such successive growths of trees 
 are repeated through a perpendicular height of twenty- 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] RACCOURCI CUT-OFF. 193 
 
 five feet without any change occurring in the level of 
 the land.* 
 
 Proceeding up the river, we soon passed Bayou 
 Sara on our right hand, and came to the isthmus 
 called the Raccourci cut-off, across which a trench 
 nine feet deep has been dug, in the hope that the 
 Mississippi would sweep out a deep channel. This 
 " cut-off," should it ever become the main channel, 
 would enable a steamer to reach, in one mile, a point, 
 to gain which costs now a circuit of twenty -six miles, 
 and two and a half hours. Unfortunately, when 
 they cleared the forest in this spot, the soil of the 
 new canal was found to consist of a stiff blue clay, 
 strengthened by innumerable roots of trees, and, in 
 the flood of 1845, the surplus waters of the Missis- 
 sippi poured through the cut with great velocity, yet 
 failed to deepen it materially. By shortening the 
 channel twenty-five miles, the fall of the river would 
 be augmented, and the engineer flattered himself 
 that the effect might extend as far up as the mouth 
 of the Red River. By accelerating the current there 
 it was hoped that a deeper passage might be kept 
 open in the sand-bar, which now blocks up the navi- 
 gation of that important tributary for the greater 
 part of the year. 
 
 Some experienced pilots assured me, that the sup- 
 posed shortening of the channel of the Mississippi, 
 between its junction with the Ohio and New Orleans, 
 was, in a great degree, a delusion. Instead of the 
 
 * See Dickeson and Brown, Silliman's Journal, Second 
 Series, vol. v. p. 17. Jan. 1848. 
 VOL. II. K 
 
194 FRESHWATER LOAM [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 boasted gain of fifty miles, they say that not a third 
 of this distance has been realised. Immediately after 
 the completion of a new cut-off, the Mississippi 
 begins to restore the natural curvature of its channel 
 by eating away one bank and throwing out a sand- 
 bar on the opposite side. 
 
 Another fifty miles brought us to the mouth of 
 the Red River, where I saw the formidable bar, 
 before alluded to, covered, for the most part, by a 
 growth of young willows and cotton- wood (Populus 
 angulata). After leaving the mouth of Red River, 
 we passed two bluffs on the left or eastern bank, one 
 that of Fort Adams, a very picturesque line of pre- 
 cipices, the other called Ellis's Cliffs. In both I 
 observed a predominance of white sand, similar to 
 that seen in part of the bluff at Port Hudson. 
 
 At Natchez (where I rejoined my wife), there is 
 a fine range of bluffs, several miles long, and more 
 than 200 feet in perpendicular height, the base of 
 which is washed by the river. The lower strata, 
 laid open to view, consist of gravel and sand, desti- 
 tute of organic remains, except some woo/1 and silici- 
 fied corals, and other fossils, which have been derived 
 from older rocks ; while the upper sixty feet are com- 
 posed of yellow loam, presenting, as it wastes away, 
 a vertical face towards the river. From the surface 
 of this clayey precipice are seen, projecting in relief, 
 the whitened and perfect shells of land-snails, of the 
 genera Helix, Helicina, Pupa, Cyclostoma, Achatina, 
 and Succinea. These shells, of which we collected 
 twenty species, are all specifically identical with 
 those now inhabiting the valley of the Mississippi. 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] OF NATCHEZ. , 195 
 
 The resemblance of this loam to that fluviatile 
 silt of the valley of the Rhine, between Cologne and 
 Basle, which is generally called "loess" and " lehm" 
 in Alsace, is most perfect. In both countries the 
 genera of shells are the same, and as, in the ancient 
 alluvium of the Rhine, the loam sometimes passes 
 into a lacustrine deposit containing shells of the 
 genera Lymnea, Planorbis, and Cyclas, so I found 
 at Washington, about seven miles inland, or east- 
 ward from Natchez, a similar passage of the Ame- 
 rican loam into a deposit evidently formed in a pond 
 or lake. It consisted of marl containing shells of 
 Lymnea., Planorbis, Paludina, Physa, and Cyclas, 
 specifically agreeing with testacea now inhabiting 
 the United States. With the land-shells before 
 mentioned are found, at different depths in the 
 loam, the remains of the mastodon ; and in clay, im- 
 mediately under the loam, and above the sand and 
 gravel, entire skeletons have been met with of the 
 megalonyx, associated with the bones of the horse, 
 bear, stag, ox, and other quadrupeds, for the most 
 part, if not all, of extinct species. This great loamy 
 formation, with terrestrial and fresh-water shells, 
 extends horizontally for about twelve miles inland, 
 or eastward from the river, forming a platform about 
 200 feet high above the great plain of the Mississippi. 
 In consequence, however, of the incoherent and de- 
 structible nature of the sandy clay, every streamlet 
 flowing over what must originally have been a level 
 table -land, has cut out for itself, in its way to the 
 Mississippi, a deep gully or ravine. This excavating 
 process has, of late years, proceeded with accelerated 
 
 K 2 
 
196 KAVINES IN TABLE-LAND. [CHAP. XXXL 
 
 speed, especially in the course of the last thirty or 
 thirty-five years. Some attribute the increased 
 erosive action to partial clearings of the native forest, 
 a cause of which the power has been remarkably 
 displayed, as before stated, within the last twenty 
 years, in Georgia.* Others refer the change mainly 
 to the effects of the great earthquake of New Madrid, 
 in 1811 12, by which this region was much fis- 
 sured, ponds being dried up and many landslips 
 caused. 
 
 In company with Dr. Dickeson and Colonel Wailes, 
 I visited a narrow valley, hollowed out through the 
 shelly loam recently named " the Mammoth ravine," 
 from the fossils found there. Colonel Wiley, a pro- 
 prietor of that part of the State of Mississippi, who 
 knew the country well before the year 1812, assured 
 me that this ravine, although now seven miles long, 
 and in some parts sixty feet deep, with its numerous 
 ramifications, has been entirely formed since the earth- 
 quake. He himself had ploughed some of the land 
 exactly over one spot which the gully now traverses. 
 
 A considerable sensation was recently caused in 
 the public mind, both in America and Europe, by 
 the announcement of the discovery of a fossil human 
 bone, so associated with the remains of extinct qua- 
 drupeds, in " the Mammoth ravine," as to prove that 
 man must have co-existed with the megalonyx and 
 its contemporaries. Dr. Dickeson showed me the 
 bone in question, admitted by all anatomists to be 
 part of a human pelvis, and being a fragment of 
 
 * See ante, p. 25. 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] FOSSIL HUMAN BONE. 197 
 
 the os innominatum. He felt persuaded that it had 
 been taken out of the clay underlying the loam, 
 in the ravine above alluded to, about six miles from 
 Natchez. I examined the perpendicular cliffs, which 
 bound a part of this water-course, where the loam, 
 unsolidified as it is, retains its vertically, and found 
 land-shells in great numbers at the depth of about 
 thirty feet from the top. I was informed that the 
 fossil remains of the mammoth (a name commonly 
 applied in the United States to the mastodon) had 
 been obtained, together with the bones of some 
 other extinct mammalia, from below these shells 
 in the undermined cliff. I could not ascertain, 
 however, that the human pelvis had been actually 
 dug out in the presence of a geologist, or any prac- 
 tised observer, and its position unequivocally ascer- 
 tained. Like most of the other fossils, it was, I 
 believe, picked up in the bed of the stream, which 
 would simply imply that it had been washed out of 
 the cliffs. But the evidence of the antiquity of the 
 bone depends entirely on the part of the precipice 
 from which it was derived. It was stained black, as 
 if buried in a peaty or vegetable soil, and may have 
 been dislodged from some old Indian grave near the 
 top, in which case it may only have been five, ten, or 
 twenty centuries old ; whereas, if it was really found 
 in situ at the base of the precipice, its age would 
 more probably exceed 100,000 years, as I shall en- 
 deavour to show in a subsequent chapter. Such a 
 position, in fact, if well authenticated, would prove 
 that man had lived in North America before the 
 last great revolution in the physical geography of 
 
 K3 
 
198 TORNADO AT NATCHEZ. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 this continent had been accomplished ; in other words, 
 that our race was more ancient than the modern 
 valley, alluvial plain, and delta of the Mississippi, 
 nay, what is more, was antecedent to the bluffs of 
 Port Hudson and Natchez, already described. Now 
 that elevated freshwater formation, as I shall by and 
 by endeavour to show, is the remnant of a river- 
 plain and delta of extremely high antiquity ; and it 
 would follow, if the human race was equally ancient, 
 that it co-existed with one group of terrestrial mam- 
 malia, and, having survived its extinction, had seen 
 another group of quadrupeds succeed and replace it. 
 
 In our excursion through the forest, from Wash- 
 ington to the Mammoth ravine, I crossed the path 
 of the last tornado, which occurred May 17. 1840, 
 one of three which have devastated this region since 
 the year 1809. They all came from Texas, moving 
 along from south-west to north-east, and laid waste 
 a long strip of country, about a mile wide. The 
 courses of each of the three whirlwinds were within a 
 few miles of the other, and the last threw down many 
 houses at Natchez, unroofed others, and levelled to 
 the ground a railway terminus, causing the abandon- 
 ment of a scheme for a rapid communication between 
 Natchez, Vicksburg, and the State of Tennessee. 
 On each side of the path of the tornado the land 
 was finely timbered ; but where its force had been 
 expended, old trees lay uprooted, and a growth of 
 young wood was rising. Many large trunks had 
 been broken off ten or twelve feet above the ground, 
 and portions of the solid wood, torn and twisted into 
 shreds, were still waving in the air. 
 
CHAP. XXXL] COUNTRY-HOUSES. 199 
 
 This tornado checked the progress of Natchez, as 
 did the removal of the seat of Legislature to Jack- 
 son ; but it has suffered still more, since steam navi- 
 gation has been so much improved, by the all- 
 absorbing importance acquired by New Orleans as 
 the great emporium of the whole trade of the Missis- 
 sippi. There are, however, so few bluffs on the 
 great river, so few places where the channel will 
 remain constant for ages to the same spot, that I 
 cannot doubt that this city must, in time, become 
 large and prosperous. 
 
 It augurs favourably of the future prospects of 
 civilisation in America, that here, as elsewhere, we 
 found the society most agreeable in places which 
 have been the longest settled. If the political 
 opinions and notions of honour cherished by the 
 majority of the citizens at Natchez, had had their 
 due weight in the legislation of the State, the fair 
 fame of Mississippi, and her credit, would have stood 
 as high as that of any other Southern State. Many 
 of the country-houses in the neighbourhood are ele- 
 gant, and some of the gardens belonging to them laid 
 out in the English, others in the French style, In the 
 latter are seen terraces, with statues and cut ever- 
 greens, straight walks with borders of flowers, termi- 
 nated by views into the wild forest, the charms of 
 both being heightened by contrast. Some of the 
 hedges are made of that beautiful North American 
 plant, the Gardenia, miscalled in England the Cape 
 jessamine, others of the Cherokee rose, with its 
 bright and shining leaves. It had already put forth 
 
 K 4 
 
200 LANDSLIPS. [CHAP. XXXI. 
 
 some of its white flowers, which a month later would 
 be in full blow. The woods here, when all the trees 
 are in full foliage, and the tall magnolias in blossom, 
 must be truly beautiful. But so intense is the heat, 
 and such the danger of ague and the torment of 
 musquitos, that, at that season, they who can afford 
 to move, fly to some higher or more northern retreat. 
 
 On the steep slope of the bluffs at Natchez, below 
 the vertical face of shelly loam, the Judas-tree, or 
 red- bud (Cercis canadeiisis\ was now in full flower, 
 displaying a blaze of pink blossoms before it has put 
 forth any leaves. I saw four landslips on these 
 bluffs which have occurred within the last ten years, 
 for the springs which burst from the sand undermine 
 the clayey loam. They are instructive, as showing 
 how the bluffs give way as the Mississippi gradually 
 extends its course eastwards. There is one hollow of 
 ancient date, caused by a similar undermining, called 
 the Devil's Punch-bowl, a picturesque, crater-shaped 
 basin, of about 300 yards diameter at the top, and 
 100 yards at the bottom, where cypresses and gum- 
 trees are growing. At the top are seen the cotton- 
 wood, the maple, and the magnolia, mixed with pines. 
 
 The name of Natchez has been derived from an In- 
 dian tribe, and on the highest part of the bluff, on an 
 eminence called St. Rosalie, are some Indian mounds, 
 from which Dr. Dickeson has obtained some curious 
 remains of pottery, showing that some of the abori- 
 ginal inhabitants of the great valley had made much 
 greater progress in the arts than their descendants 
 whom the Europeans drove out. One morning, close 
 
CHAP. XXXI.] INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 201 
 
 to the spot where these antiquities were dug up, we 
 saw a wild-looking group of Indians, whose aspect 
 gave no token that their contact with Europeans had 
 tended to revive the spirit of improvement which 
 must once have animated some of their predecessors 
 in this region. 
 
 K 5 
 
202 NATCHEZ TO VIDALIA. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 Natchez. Vidalia and Lake Concordia. Hybernation of 
 Alligator. Bonfire on Floating Raft Grand Gulf. 
 Magnolia Steamer. Vicksburg to Jackson (Mississippi) by 
 Railway. Fossils on Pearl River. Ordinary at Jackson. 
 Story of 'Transfer of 'State-House from Natchez. Vote by Bal- 
 lot. Popular Election of Judges. Voyage from Vicksburg 
 to Memphis. Monotony of River Scenery. Squall of Wind. 
 Actors on Board. Negro mistaken for White. Man- 
 ners in the Backwoods. Inquisitiveness. Spoilt Children. 
 Equality and Levelling. Silence of English Newspapers on 
 Oregon Question. 
 
 March 15. 1846. FROM Natchez we crossed the 
 river, by the ferry, to Vidalia, situated on the low 
 river plain, on a level with the base of the bluffs be- 
 fore described. We were accompanied by Mr. Davis, 
 a large proprietor, who took us to see his negro- 
 houses, all neatly built and well whitewashed. Even 
 in this cursory view we could perceive how much the 
 comfort and bodily wants of the slaves had been 
 attended to. We had now left the country where 
 sugar and cotton are the staple products, and had 
 just entered the region where cotton and Indian corn 
 are cultivated together. Here, as in Louisiana, the 
 negroes constitute half, and sometimes more than half, 
 the population on the borders of the Mississippi. 
 At Vidalia we were joined by Mr. Forshey, the 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] LAKE CONCORDIA. 203 
 
 engineer, who went with us to Lake Concordia, a 
 fine example of an old bend of the Mississippi, re- 
 cently detached and converted into a crescent-shaped 
 lake, surrounded by wood. It is a fine sheet of water, 
 fifteen miles long, if measured by a curved line drawn 
 through the middle. The old levee, or embankment, 
 is still seen ; but it is no longer necessary to keep it 
 in repair, for, a few years ago, the channel which once 
 connected this bend with the main river was silted 
 up. Opposite Natchez the depth of the Mississippi 
 varies from 100 feet to 150 feet, but Lake Con- 
 cordia has nowhere a greater depth than 40 feet. 
 There are thirteen similar lakes between the 
 mouth of the Arkansas and Baton Rouge, all near 
 the Mississippi, and produced by cut-offs ; and so 
 numerous are the channels which communicate from 
 one to the other, that a canoe may pass, during the 
 flood season, from Lake Concordia, and reach the Gulf 
 of Mexico without once entering the Mississippi. 
 We were shown a cypress tree on the borders of this 
 deserted river bend, from under the roots of which, 
 a few days before the time of our visit, a she alligator 
 had come out on a warm day, the place of her hybern- 
 ation appearing to be half in the mud and half in 
 the water. She brought out with her two broods, 
 one born in the preceding summer, which were six 
 inches long, and the others, an older set, about a foot 
 long. When Mr. Forshey approached them, the 
 young ones yelped like puppies, and the old one 
 hissed. On the shore of the lake we caught a tortoise, 
 called here the snapping-turtle, and found that all its 
 feet had been bitten off, devoured, our companions 
 
 K 6 
 
204 LAKE CONCORDIA. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 supposed, by predaceous fish. The freshwater shells, 
 of which we obtained specimens from the lake, belong 
 to the genera Lymnea, Planorbis, Paludina, Ancliy- 
 lotus, Physa, Cyclas 9 and Unio. We put up flights of 
 water-fowl of various species, chiefly wild ducks, 
 which were swimming about. On the top of a pole, 
 driven into the mud near the margin of the lake, was 
 perched a kingfisher, and two cormorants were wheel- 
 ing round it, one with a fish in its mouth, which the 
 other was trying to snatch away. The water, al- 
 though much clearer than the Mississippi, was not 
 transparent, for it had communicated, during the late 
 inundations, with the great river. In this manner 
 sediment is annually introduced into such basins, and 
 in the course of ages Lake Concordia may become so 
 shallow as to support a forest of swamp timber. 
 Some modern concretions of clay and lime, and of 
 clay containing iron, which I picked up from the 
 mud of the Mississippi bordering this lake, were so 
 like those associated with the ancient buried forest 
 at Port Hudson, and the shelly loam of Natchez, as 
 to confirm me in the opinion before expressed, that 
 the cliffs there, although of very high antiquity, cor- 
 respond in origin with the recent fluviatile formations 
 of the alluvial plain. 
 
 March 17. We established ourselves in the wharf- 
 boat at Natchez, prepared for a start in the first 
 steamer which would take us to Grand Gulf, fifty 
 miles higher up. We amused ourselves by watching 
 a party of young negro boys, who collected the drift 
 wood which bordered the river, and, having tied it 
 together into a raft, heaped some dead branches of 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] BONFIKE ON FLOATING KAFT. 205 
 
 trees upon it, placing a layer of shavings under the 
 pile. Having set it on fire, they pushed it off from 
 the shore, and exulted as they saw the floating bon- 
 fire, in the dusk of the evening, throwing a glaring 
 light on the bluffs, town, and shipping. The raft 
 was carried round and round in the great eddies near 
 the bank, and the urchins shouted when their love of 
 mischief was gratified by seeing the alarm of the 
 boatmen, each of whom was observing the wandering 
 fire with some anxiety, lest it should come too near 
 his own craft. In the cabin of the wharf-boat we 
 found no furniture, but were supplied with two chairs, 
 which, like the walls and ceiling, were of unpainted 
 wood. As it grew dark, they brought in a table and 
 a single candle. We were not sorry when the 
 Peytona was announced, and we were ushered into 
 a splendid saloon, 150 feet long, lighted by two 
 large chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, and 
 supplied with brilliant gas manufactured on board. 
 The mattrasses of our beds were elastic, made of 
 India rubber, no unmeaning luxury, for we were 
 awakened before morning by the bumping of the 
 boat against one floating log after another, and, in 
 spite of the frequent stoppage of the engine, no small 
 damage was done to the paddle-wheels, which got 
 entangled with the drift timber. We reached Grand 
 Gulf when morning had scarcely dawned, and found 
 the floor of the saloon covered with the sleeping 
 coloured servants, over whom we had to step. The 
 river had risen twenty-five feet in two days, and 
 was more turbid than we had yet seen it. 
 
 The bluff at Grand Gulf is about 180 feet high, 
 
206 GRAND GULF. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 the uppermost 60 feet, composed, as at Natchez, of 
 yellow loam or loess, beneath which was white 
 quartzose sand, partially concreted into solid sand- 
 stone, which is quarried here for building. From 
 the summit the river-plain to the westward seemed 
 as level, blue, and boundless as the ocean. As we 
 had now travelled two degrees of latitude northward, 
 the spring was not more advanced than when we left 
 New Orleans, but the woods crowning the bluffs are 
 beautiful from the variety of trees, many of them 
 evergreens, and we were charmed with the melody of 
 the mocking-birds, and the warm sun brought out 
 many large and brilliantly coloured butterflies, and 
 more insects of other kinds than I had yet seen in the 
 south. Among these were a beetle (Phaneus carni* 
 fex\ with green and gold wing-cases, and a horn on 
 the thorax. The name of bug is given to all beetles 
 (Coleoptera) here, and does not seem to awaken the 
 same unpleasant associations as it suggests to English 
 ears. Even the elegant fire-fly is called a lightning- 
 bug, and ladies who have diamond beetles set in 
 brooches, ask you to admire their beautiful bugs. 
 The Londoners, by way of compensation, miscall the 
 cockroach a black beetle. 
 
 From Grand Gulf, we embarked in the Magnolia, 
 which had brought my wife to Natchez, and, having 
 since made a trip to St. Louis and New Orleans, 
 was on its return up the river. It is a new boat, 
 and, among other improvements, has a separate sleep- 
 ing cabin for the coloured servants. The furniture 
 in the principal saloon is of fine Utrecht velvet, 
 and the hanging lustres for gas very brilliant : the 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] MAGNOLIA STEAMER. 207 
 
 beds excellent; but the powerful vibration caused by 
 the machinery far from agreeable. Our state room 
 contained a chest of drawers, and cupboards for 
 hanging up ladies' dresses. Ample time was al- 
 lowed for dinner, and we thought the fare only too 
 sumptuous. The repast began with turtle soup, and 
 two kinds of fish; then followed a variety of made 
 dishes, admirably cooked, and then a course of cocoa- 
 nut pies, jellies, preserved bananas, oranges, grapes, 
 and ice-creams, concluding with coffee. The claret 
 was excellent, and it may seem strange, at first, that 
 they who indulge in such luxuries, can drink freely 
 of the opaque, unfiltered water of the Mississippi. 
 But this fluid has, at least, the merit of being cool 
 on a hot day, and is believed to be very wholesome. 
 We found it pleasant to the taste, however untempt- 
 ing to the sight. Few of the praises bestowed by 
 Denham on the Thames can be lavished on the 
 Mississippi ; for, though deep, it is not clear, nor is it 
 " without o'erflowing, full." Yet, in spite of the oc- 
 casional undermining of forests on its banks, it may 
 be truly characterised as " strong, without rage ;" 
 absorbing, as it does, in its course, one great tri- 
 butary after another, several of them scarcely inferior 
 in width to itself, without widening its channel, and 
 in this manner carrying down noiselessly to the sea 
 its vast column of water and solid matter, while 
 the greater part of its alluvial plain is left undis- 
 turbed. 
 
 A settler at Natchez told us he had lived on the 
 great river long enough to admire it, for the ease 
 with which it performs its mighty work ; and to fear 
 
208 VICKSBURG TO JACKSON. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 it, so often had he witnessed the wreck of vessels 
 and the loss of lives. " If you fall overboard," he 
 said, "in the middle of the Atlantic, you may rise 
 again and be saved ; but here you are sucked down 
 by an eddy, and the waters, closing over you, are so 
 turbid, that you are never seen again." 
 
 March 19. At Vicksburg, where we next landed, 
 I found the bluffs, forming the eastern boundary 
 of the great plain, similar, in their upper part, to 
 those of Natchez ; but beneath the freshwater loam 
 and sand were seen, at the base of the cliffs, a marine 
 tertiary deposit, of the Eocene period, in which we col- 
 lected many shells and corals. (See fig. 10. p. 257 ; 
 and 3. fig. 11. p. 262.) 
 
 Leaving my wife to rest at the hotel, I made 
 a rapid trip by railway, fifty-five miles eastward, 
 to Jackson, the capital of the State of Missis- 
 sippi. For the first ten miles, the cars traversed 
 a table-land, corresponding in height with the sum- 
 mit of the bluff at Vicksburg, and preserving an 
 even surface, except where gullies had been hollowed 
 out in the soft shelly loam or loess. These are nu- 
 merous, and it had be^n necessary to throw bridges 
 over many of them so as to preserve the level of the 
 road. It was curious to observe, in the cuttings 
 made through the loam, that each precipitous face 
 retained its perpendicularity, as in natural sections, 
 although composed of materials wholly unconsoli- 
 dated. Farther to the east, the Eocene strata, be- 
 longing to the same series, which are seen at the 
 bottom of the bluffs at Vicksburg, rise up to the 
 surface from beneath the freshwater loam, which 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] FOSSILS ON PEARL RIVER. 209 
 
 attains an elevation of about 250 feet above the sea, 
 and then gives place to older rocks. 
 
 We passed through large forests of oaks and 
 beeches,, just coming into leaf, in which were some 
 green hollies. The red-bud, in blossom, was conspi- 
 cuous in some of the woods. In the wet grounds 
 were cane-brakes, willows, and magnolias. I ob- 
 served, in a large clearing, three ploughs following 
 each other, one guided by a man, and the others 
 each by a negro woman. When we reached the Big 
 Black river, twelve miles from Vicksburg, we passed 
 over a long wooden bridge and viaduct, built on piles, 
 nearly a mile in length. In about four hours, we 
 arrived at the town of Jackson. I was wholly with- 
 out letters of introduction, having suddenly deter- 
 mined on this excursion, and knew not the name of a 
 single individual ; which I regretted the more, as I 
 had only a few hours of daylight at my disposal, and 
 was to return by the cars at noon the day following. 
 I inquired, as I had often done in France on similar 
 occasions, for the nearest pharmacien, or chemist, and, 
 being shown to a shop, asked if they knew any one 
 who was interested in geology. The chemist in- 
 formed me that Dr. Gist, a physician, lodged in the 
 floor above, and might assist me. Fortunately, this 
 gentleman was at home, and, telling me he had read 
 my work on Geology, he presented me with some 
 fossil shells and corals collected by him in the neigh- 
 bourhood; and, within ten minutes of my "landing" 
 from the cars, we were on our way together to ex- 
 plore the dried-up channel of a small tributary of 
 the Pearl Kiver, where I found a rich harvest of 
 
210 ORDINARY AT JACKSON. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 fossil marine shells and zoophytes. When we parted, 
 my excellent guide agreed to accompany me, early 
 the next morning, many miles in another direction. 
 
 On entering my hotel, after dark, I was informed 
 that supper was ready, and was conducted to a large 
 ordinary, crowded chiefly by lawyers, who were at- 
 tending the courts here. The landlord, General 
 
 A , formerly of the Tennessee militia, played 
 
 the part of master of the ceremonies, much to my 
 amusement. He first obtained silence by exclaiming, 
 with the loud voice of a herald, " Gentlemen, we are 
 a great people," and then called out the names of all 
 the viands on his long table and sideboard, beginning 
 with " Beef-steak, with or without onions, roast 
 'turkey, pork, hominy, fish, eggs," &c., and ending 
 with a list of various drinkables, the last of which 
 was " tea, foreign and domestic." Curiosity led me 
 to order the last-mentioned beverage ; but I soon 
 repented, finding it to be a liquid of a pink colour, 
 made of the root of the sassafras tree, and having a 
 very medicinal taste. I was told that many here 
 drink it for their health ; but the General, seeing 
 that I did not relish it, supplied me with some good 
 " foreign " tea. My host then introduced me to 
 several of the lawyers who sat near me, which gave 
 me an opportunity of asking whether there was any 
 truth in the story told me by some of the Whigs at 
 New Orleans, of the manner in which the seat of 
 Legislature had been transferred from Natchez to 
 Jackson. I related the story, which was as follows : 
 -"Natchez was the metropolis of the State, and 
 the chief town of Adams county, which was so 
 
CHAP. XXXIL] TRANSFER OF STATE-HOUSE. 211 
 
 wealthy as to pay a third of all the taxes in Missis- 
 sippi. It was a city to which the richest and best- 
 informed citizens resorted, representing both the 
 landed and monied interests of the State. It was, 
 moreover, a centre of communication, because it 
 commanded the navigation of the great river. That 
 the Houses of Legislature should meet here, was so 
 natural and convenient, so fitted to promote good 
 government, that the democratic party could not be 
 expected to put up, for many years, with an arrange- 
 ment of affairs so reasonable and advantageous. 
 They accordingly decided, by a majority, that some 
 change must be made, and gave orders to a surveyor 
 to discover the exact geographical centre of the 
 State. He found it in a wilderness, about fifty miles 
 in a straight line east of Natchez, and pointed out 
 an old cypress tree, in the middle of a swamp, acces- 
 sible only by a canoe, as the spot they were in search 
 of. This was welcome news ; all might now be placed 
 on a footing of equality, the spot being equally in- 
 accessible and inconvenient for all. When the archi- 
 tect, however, came to build the Capitol, he took the 
 liberty, instead of erecting the edifice on piles in the 
 centre of the swamp, to place it on an adjoining 
 rising ground, from which they had cleared away the 
 native wood, a serious abandonment of principle, as 
 it was several hundred yards from the true geo- 
 graphical centre." 
 
 When my auditors had done laughing at this Lou- 
 isiana version of a passage in their history, they 
 said, the tale, after all, was not so exaggerated as it 
 might have been, considering the vexation under 
 which the New Orleans Whigs were smarting, in 
 
212 VOTE BY BALLOT. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 having to go to Baton Rouge. They could show 
 me, they said, the swamp on the Pearl River, which 
 must have been alluded to. That river, though 
 now only boatable, might, they declared, be made 
 navigable to steam-boats, when the rafts of drift 
 timber were cleared away, and they might then 
 have a direct commercial intercourse with the Gulf 
 of Mexico. The soil, also, surrounding Jackson, 
 had proved to be very fertile, and the railway had 
 brought the place within three or four hours of 
 Natchez, now their port. In short, their town 
 was flourishing, by aid of natural advantages, and 
 the patronage of the Legislature and Law Courts. 
 Next day, after a geological excursion, I was taken 
 to see the State House and Governor's mansion, both 
 handsome and commodious, and built in a good style 
 of architecture, but at great expense, at a time when 
 the price of labour happened to be unusually high. 
 I heard much regret expressed at the debts they had 
 incurred, and at the refusal to acknowledge them in 
 1841. One lawyer, a member of the Legislature, 
 declared his conviction that the repudiation of the 
 State debt would not have been carried in his 
 county, but for the facility afforded by secret voting. 
 The same individuals, he said, who openly professed 
 a more honourable line of conduct, must, out of self- 
 ishness, have taken advantage of the ballot-box to 
 evade an increase of taxation, otherwise there could 
 not have been a majority in favour of disowning their 
 liabilities. This was one of the few instances in 
 which I heard the ballot condemned in the United 
 States ; yet the position of the labouring and middle 
 classes is, comparatively, so independent here, in 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] ELECTION OF JUDGES. 213 
 
 relation to their rich employers, that the chief argu- 
 ments relied upon in England in favour of secret 
 voting, would seem to be inapplicable. 
 
 The dependence of the judges, for their election, on 
 the popular suffrage, appears to have been carried 
 farther in Mississippi than in any other State. I was 
 told that rival candidates for the bench and chan- 
 cellorship, have been known to canvass for votes in 
 taverns, and have been asked what construction they 
 put on certain statutes relating to banks chartered 
 by the State, just as, in an ordinary election for re- 
 presentatives, men are asked what are their opinions, 
 and how they would vote on certain questions. I 
 met with more men of property in Mississippi who 
 spoke as if they belonged to an oppressed class, go- 
 verned by a rude, ignorant, and coarse democracy, 
 than in any other part of my tour. " Many of our 
 poorest citizens, they said, would freely admit, that 
 nothing is so difficult, for the individual, as self- 
 government, and yet hold that nothing is so easy and 
 safe as self-government for the million, even where 
 education has been carried no farther than here, 
 where there are still seven counties without a single 
 school-house, and large districts where the inhabit- 
 ants have but recently been converted to Christianity 
 by itinerant Methodists. They forget that even 
 honourable and enlightened men will sometimes do, 
 in their corporate capacity, w r hat each individual 
 would be ashamed to do if he acted singly. " When 
 I heard these remarks, and reflected that even in 
 those parts of the State where the whites are most 
 advanced, as in Adams county, more than half the 
 
214 VICKSBUEG TO MEMPHIS. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 population are slaves, I felt more surprise that 
 English capitalists had lent so much money to Mis- 
 sissippi, than that they had repented of it. At the 
 same time there is more hope for the future, for edu- 
 cation must come. 
 
 The town of Yicksburg is beautifully situated on 
 the slope of a wooded bluff, about 180 feet high, and 
 walks might be made, commanding the river, which 
 would be delightful. At present no one can roam 
 along the paths in the suburbs, as they are disgrace- 
 fully filthy.* 
 
 We took our passage in the Andrew Jackson 
 steamer, from Vicksburg to Memphis, a distance of 
 390 miles, and paid only six dollars each (25 shil- 
 lings), board and lodging included. The monotony 
 of the scenery on the great river for several hun- 
 dred miles together, is such as to grow wearisome. 
 Scarcely any vessels with sails are seen, all the old 
 schooners and smaller craft having been superseded by 
 the great steam -ships. The traveller becomes tired 
 of always seeing a caving bank on one side, and an 
 advancing sand-bar, covered with willows and pop- 
 lars, on the other ; the successive growths of young 
 trees rising to greater heights, one tier above another, 
 as before described, below New Orleans. The water, 
 at this season, is too turbid to reflect the sky or the 
 trees on its bank. The aspect of things, day after day, 
 is so exactly similar, that it might seem as necessary 
 
 * For observations on the Geology of Jackson and Vicks- 
 burg, see a paper by the Author, Journ. of Geol. Soc. London 
 vol. iv. p. 15. 1847, and Silliman's Journal, Second Series, vol. 
 iv. p. 186. Sept. 1847. 
 
CHAP. XXXIL] MONOTONY OF SCENERY. 215 
 
 to take astronomical observations, in order to discover 
 what progress one has made, as if the voyage were in 
 mid- Atlantic. That our course is northward, is 
 indicated by the willows on the banks growing less 
 green, and a diminishing quantity of grey moss hang- 
 ing from the trees. The red maple has also disap- 
 peared. When I landed at wooding stations, I saw, 
 on the damp ground beneath the trees, abundance of 
 mosses, with scarcely a blade of grass, while the only 
 wild flowers were a few violets and a white bramble. 
 The young leaves of the poplars are most fragrant in 
 the night air. We were now in latitude 34 north, 
 passing the mouths of the Arkansas and White 
 rivers. 
 
 The village of Napoleon, 212 miles above Vicks- 
 burg, at the mouth of the Arkansas, had suffered 
 much by the floods of 1844. Its red, muddy waters 
 are hardly mixed up thoroughly with the Mississippi 
 till they reach Vicksburg. They often bring down 
 much ice into the Mississippi. The White river is 
 said to be navigable for about six hundred miles 
 above its mouth. 
 
 Our steamer, the Andrew Jackson, bound for Cin- 
 cinnati, carrying a heavy cargo of molasses, was eight 
 feet deep in the water. To avoid the drift wood, 
 which impeded her progress, the captain, on arriving 
 at Island Eighty-four ( for they are all numbered, 
 beginning from the mouth of the Ohio), determined 
 to take a short cut between that island and the left 
 river bank. The lead was heaved, and the decreas- 
 ing depth, from ten feet to eight and a half, was 
 called out ; our vessel then grazed the bottom for a 
 
216 ACTORS ON BOARD. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 moment, but fortunately got off again. There was 
 so much sameness in the navigation, that such an inci- 
 dent was quite a relief. Soon afterwards, March 
 23d, some variety was afforded by a squall of wind, 
 accompanied by lightning. I never expected to see 
 waves of such magnitude, and was surprised to learn, 
 that in some reaches, where the water extends ten 
 miles in a straight line, a strong wind blowing against 
 the current will cause large steamers to pitch so as 
 to make many passengers sea-sick ; but this rarely 
 happens. In the night we had often to draw up to 
 the bank, wherever a signal-fire was lighted, finding 
 sometimes a single passenger waiting to be taken on 
 board. 
 
 There were many actors on board, and, among 
 others, a pleasing young woman, who turned out to 
 be the manager's wife, returning with her family of 
 young children and sick husband from Vicksburg, 
 where she complained that the drama was at a low 
 ebb, and where, as in many other cities in the South, 
 the drunken habits of the inferior actors made the 
 profession by no means a pleasant one for a woman. 
 She was longing for an engagement in some " Eastern 
 theatre," where, she told my wife, she would willingly 
 take less pay, and would not object to undertake 
 the part of "first old woman" for eighteen dollars 
 a week, as most of the actresses, being desirous of 
 looking young and pretty, compete eagerly for the 
 character of " first juvenile." She liked much to 
 act chambermaid, as then she was not expected tc 
 learn her part so accurately. She had a real feeling 
 of enthusiasm for her art, and great admiration for 
 
CHAP. XXXIL] NEGRO MISTAKEN FOR WHITE. 217 
 
 Mrs. Kean, and spoke with satisfaction of having 
 once acted second to her when she was Miss Ellen 
 Tree. During her husband's illness at Vicksburg, 
 she had been obliged to take the management of the 
 theatre herself, and had good reason to lament that 
 the temperance movement had not reached so far 
 west. The physician, after attending his patient for 
 many weeks in a fever, remitted to them a bill of 
 fifty dollars, one only of many similar acts of gene- 
 rosity in the members of this profession which came 
 to my knowledge in the course of my tour. This 
 actress had with her a young maid, fairer than many 
 an English brunette, but who, though a free woman, 
 did not happen to belong to the white aristocracy. 
 The stewardess came into the cabin and summoned 
 her to dinner, and she, doing as she was bid, sat down 
 at the second table, where the officers of the ship and 
 the white children were dining. When her repast 
 was half finished, her master and mistress suddenly 
 discovered the prodigious breach of decorum which 
 their attendant was perpetrating, and, calling her 
 away from the table, began explaining to one lady 
 after another, especially those with whose children 
 she had been sitting, that she was really a good girl, 
 who knew no better. The stewardess also, knowing 
 she should incur blame, came and apologised for her 
 mistake, observing that the girl was quite undis- 
 tinguishable by her complexion from a white. There 
 was a quadroon lady on board, of very respectable 
 appearance and manners, who was taking all her 
 meals in her own state-room, thus avoiding the 
 risk of meeting with similar indignities. It is not 
 
 VOL. II L 
 
218 MANNEKS IN THE BACKWOODS. [CHAP. XXXII, 
 
 surprising, in such a state of society, that they who 
 belong to the degraded race, should make every effort 
 to conceal the fact ; or, if that be impossible, to as- 
 similate themselves, as far as they can, to individuals 
 of the dominant race. In proportion to the mixture 
 of white blood, the woolly, short hair of the negro 
 lengthens and straightens, and the ambition of the 
 black women is to contend with nature in torturing 
 their hair, by combing and plaiting, till it resembles, 
 as near as possible, the flowing locks of the whites. 
 
 At one of the wooding stations, a countryman 
 came on board with his wife, a half-bred Indian. 
 She had straight black hair, and a soft mild eye. 
 She sat at table with us, taking her place on terms 
 of perfect equality, no distinction of caste being made 
 in this case. 
 
 As I was pacing the deck, one passenger after 
 another eyed my short-sight glass, suspended by a 
 riband round my neck, with much curiosity. Some 
 of them asked me to read for them the name in- 
 scribed on the stern of a steamer so far off that I 
 doubted whether a good telescope would have en- 
 abled me to do more than discern the exact place 
 where the name was written. Others, abruptly 
 seizing the glass, without leave or apology, brought 
 their heads into close contact with mine, and, looking 
 through it, exclaimed, in a disappointed and half 
 reproachful tone, that they could see nothing. Mean- 
 while, the wives and daughters of passengers of the 
 same class, were sitting idle in the ladies' cabin, 
 occasionally taking my wife's embroidery out of her 
 hand, without asking leave, and examining it, with 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] MANNERS IN THE BACKWOODS. 219 
 
 many comments, usually, however, in a complimentary 
 strain. To one who is studying the geology of the 
 valley of the Mississippi, the society of such com- 
 panions may be endurable for a few weeks. He 
 ought to recollect that they form the great majority 
 of those who support these noble steamers, without 
 which such researches could not be pursued except 
 by an indefinite sacrifice of time. But we sometimes 
 doubted how far an English party, travelling for 
 mere amusement, would enjoy themselves. If they 
 venture on the experiment, they had better not take 
 with them an English maid-servant, unless they are 
 prepared for her being transformed into an equal. 
 It would be safer to engage some one of that too 
 numerous class, commonly called " humble com- 
 panions," who might occasionally enter into society 
 with them. Ladies who can dispense with such as- 
 sistance, will find the maids in the inns, whether 
 white or coloured, most attentive. 
 
 We were not asked more questions in regard to 
 our private affairs than we had often been accustomed 
 to submit to when travelling in France and Scot- 
 land. Nor had I any reason to complain ; for when 
 I had satisfied the curious as to my age, the number 
 of my children, how we liked the country, and many 
 other particulars, often asked very abruptly by one 
 just come on board, I had no ceremony in retaliating 
 on him, and putting to him as many queries in my 
 turn. Every one must admit that the answers you 
 commonly receive are most intelligent. Americans 
 of the higher classes seemed more put out than we 
 were, when thus catechized. 
 
 L 2 
 
220 INQUISITIVENESS. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 One of them, before we left Boston, as if deter- 
 mined that nothing should surprise us, related many 
 diverting anecdotes to illustrate the inquisitive turn 
 of his countrymen. Among other stories he gave a 
 lively description of a New Englander who was 
 seated by a reserved companion in a railway car, and 
 who, by way of beginning a conversation, said, " Are 
 you a bachelor?" To which the other replied, dryly, 
 " No, I'm not." "You area married man?" continued 
 he.- "No, I'm not." "Then you must be a wi- 
 dower ?" " No, I'm not." Here there was a short 
 pause ; but the undaunted querist returned to the 
 charge, observing, " If you are neither a bachelor, nor 
 a married man, nor a widower, what in the world can 
 you be?" "If you must know," said the other, 
 " I'm a divorced man ! " 
 
 Another story, told me by the same friend, was 
 that a gentleman being asked, in a stage coach, how 
 he had lost his leg, made his fellow travellers pro- 
 mise that if he told them they would put no more 
 questions on the subject. He then said, " It was 
 bitten off." To have thus precluded them for the rest 
 of a long journey from asking how it was bitten off, 
 was a truly ingenious method of putting impertinent 
 curiosity on the rack. 
 
 When my wife first entered the ladies' cabin, she 
 found every one of the numerous rocking-chairs 
 filled with a mother suckling an infant. As none of 
 them had nurses or servants, all their other children 
 were at large, and might have been a great resource 
 to passengers suffering from ennui, had they been 
 under tolerable control. As it was, they were 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] SPOILT- CHILDREN. 221 
 
 so riotous and undisciplined, as to be the torment 
 of all who approached them. " How fortunate you 
 are," said one of the mothers to my wife, " to be 
 without children ; they are so ungovernable, and, if 
 you switch them, they sulk, or go into hysterics." 
 The threat of " I'll switch you," is for ever vocifer- 
 ated in an angry tone, but never carried into execu- 
 tion. One genteel and pleasing young lady sat down 
 by my wife, and began conversation by saying, " You 
 hate children, don't you ? " intimating that such were 
 her own feelings. A medical man, in large practice, in 
 one of the Southern States, told us he often lost 
 young patients in fevers, and other cases where ex- 
 citement of the nerves was dangerous, by the habitual 
 inability of the parents to exert the least command 
 over their children. We saw an instance where a 
 young girl, in considerable danger, threw the medi- 
 cine into the physician's face, and heaped most 
 abusive epithets upon him. 
 
 The Director of the State Penitentiary, in Georgia, 
 told me, that he had been at some pains to trace out 
 the history of the most desperate characters under his 
 charge, and found that they had been invariably 
 spoilt children ; and, he added, if young Americans 
 were not called upon to act for themselves at so 
 early an age, and undergo the rubs and discipline of 
 the world, they would be more vicious and immoral 
 than the people of any other nation. Yet there 
 is no country where children ought to be so great 
 a blessing, or where they can be so easily pro- 
 vided for. Parents have not the excuse of Mrs. 
 Mac Clarty, in the " Cottagers of Glenburnie," when 
 
 L 3 
 
222 SPOILT CHILDREN. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 she exclaims, " If I don't give the boy his own way, 
 what else have I to give him ? " but it is probably 
 because so many of these Western settlers have risen 
 recently from Mrs. Mac Clarty's grade in society, that 
 they have retained her maxims for the management 
 of their children ; for the young people in the families 
 of the best class of society in the United States, are 
 often kept in as good order, and are as engaging in 
 their manners, as they are in any part of Europe. 
 
 Many young Americans have been sent to school 
 in Switzerland, and I have heard their teachers, who 
 found them less manageable than English or Swiss 
 boys, maintain that they must all of them have some 
 dash of wild Indian blood in their veins. English- 
 men, on the other hand, sometimes attribute the same 
 character to republican institutions; but, in fact, 
 they are spoilt long before they are old enough to 
 know that they are not born under an absolute 
 monarchy. 
 
 Some officers of the army, who had been educated 
 at Westpoint, a lieutenant in the navy, and a judge, 
 with his family, from a Southern State, were agree- 
 able companions on this voyage, and differed as much 
 in manners from the majority of our messmates, as 
 persons of the same rank in Europe would have done. 
 There seemed, to us, to be a great want, in such 
 steamers, of a second cabin, at a price intermediate 
 between that of the first cabin and the deck. A 
 poor emigrant, who was roughing it in the latter 
 place, remarked to me truly, that they were treated 
 there like dogs, and had nothing but a plank to sleep 
 upon. He was paying highly for his wife and family, 
 
CHAP. XXXII.] EQUALITY AND LEVELLING. 223 
 
 who had places in the first cabin. Among all who 
 have paid for these, a recognition of perfect equality 
 is scrupulously exacted. Not only would a man of 
 rank or ancient family, but one of the most refined 
 manners, and superior knowledge and education, find 
 himself treated as entitled to no more deference or 
 respect than the rudest traveller. Plato's definition 
 of a man, " bipes implume," " a featherless biped," 
 would be most appropriate to one who was journey- 
 ing in such company. To a certain extent, however, 
 the manners of the ruder members of this society 
 are improved by such intercourse, and there is some 
 levelling up as well as levelling down. The European 
 traveller must also bear in mind, that it would be no 
 discredit to those who are settling in this wilderness 
 especially when Europe pours into it, annually, 
 her hundreds of thousands of ignorant and disap- 
 pointed emigrants if the accommodation was of 
 the rudest kind ; if there were no steamers in whose 
 machinery the latest improvements had been adopted, 
 many of them invented in the United States ; and if 
 the cabin was not provided with good libraries, or 
 the table covered with newspapers, literary magazines, 
 and reviews. It is precisely because there is so much 
 civilisation in the Western States, that foreigners 
 criticise them unfairly, contrasting their condition 
 with the highest standard of older countries. 
 
 The authority of the captain is absolute, and he 
 does not hesitate, if any unruly spirit is refractory, 
 and refuses to conform to the regulations of the ship, 
 to put him ashore at the nearest place on the bank 
 
 L 4 
 
224 ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS. [CHAP. XXXII. 
 
 where he can be landed ; but I never happened to see 
 so strong a measure resorted to. 
 
 The newspapers on the cabin table of the Andrew 
 Jackson had a column headed in capitals, " Five 
 Weeks later from Europe." The mail packet had 
 been detained by adverse winds longer than usual, 
 and the uneasiness respecting the chances of a war 
 with England, still the subject of debate in Congress, 
 had risen to a great height. Many lovers of peace 
 had misgivings lest the English democracy, growing 
 at last impatient, should express themselves with 
 violence, and excite the war party here. The first 
 glance at the news relieved them from anxiety, 
 for the English were entirely absorbed with Free 
 Trade, Cheap Bread, and the admission of foreign 
 grain without duty. The Cabinet were too well 
 satisfied that the people's attention was drawn 
 off from foreign affairs to obtrude the American 
 question unnecessarily on their attention. One of 
 the politicians on board, who had been reading an 
 account of the proceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law 
 League, and the parliamentary debates on the Corn 
 Duties, confessed to me, that the omission of all 
 allusion to America the English being so entirely 
 occupied with their domestic affairs wounded his 
 feelings. "Here we have been talking," he said, 
 "for three months about nothing else but Oregon, 
 imagining that the whole world was looking on, 
 in suspense, at this momentous debate, and even in 
 Great Britain it has been forgotten for five entire 
 weeks ! What an absurd figure we are cutting ! " 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] BLUFFS AT MEMPHIS. 225 
 
 CHAR XXXIII. 
 
 Bluffs at Memphis. New Madrid. No Inn. Undermining of 
 River Bank. Examination of Country shaken by Earthquake 
 of 181 1-12. Effects of Passage of Waves through Alluvial 
 Soil. Circular Cavities or Sand-Bursts. Open Fissures, 
 Lake Eulalie drained by Shocks. Borders of Sunk Country , 
 West of New Madrid. Dead Trees standing erect. A 
 slight Shock felt. Trade in Peltries increased by Earth- 
 quake. Trees erect in new-formed Lakes. Indian Tra- 
 dition of Shocks. Dreary Forest Scene. Rough Quarters. 
 Slavery in Missouri. 
 
 March 24. 1846. AT length we reached Memphis, 
 in the State of Tennessee. The town on which this 
 ancient and venerable name is conferred appears the 
 newest of the large places we have yet seen on the 
 Mississippi. It is growing with great rapidity, stand- 
 ing on a bluff now fifty-two feet above the level of 
 the water when the river is high. The cliff is the 
 abrupt termination of deposits similar to those of 
 freshwater origin, which I have before alluded to at 
 Natchez and Vicksburg. A mass of yellow loam, 
 forty- feet thick, reposes on sand with quartz pebbles, 
 which rests on clay, not visible at the time of my 
 visit. Such a site for a town, in spite of the slow 
 undermining of the cliffs, is permanent, by comparison 
 with the ordinary banks of the river for hundreds of 
 miles continuously ; for, as a general rule, the stream 
 
226 NEW MADKID. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 in the alluvial plain is either encroaching a foot or 
 more annually, so as to wash away buildings, if there 
 be any on the bank, or is retreating, so that a port 
 soon becomes an inland town. The people of Mem- 
 phis are ambitious that their city should be a great 
 naval arsenal, and there are considerable naval stores 
 here ; but as frigates require from eighteen to twenty- 
 three feet water, and men-of-war thirty feet, while 
 the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi affords at 
 present no more than sixteen feet water, their 
 hopes cannot be realised till a ship canal is made 
 from some point on the Mississippi to the Gulf of 
 Mexico. 
 
 After we left Memphis, we were shown, on the 
 Tennessee bank of the river, a log cabin, where they 
 said General Jackson began his career ; one of his 
 claims to popularity with the democratic party con- 
 sisting in his having risen from a very humble origin. 
 The advantages of a more liberal education, which a 
 rival might have possessed who had begun life in 
 easier circumstances, would not have countervailed, in 
 the present stage of progress of the Union, the prestige 
 which attaches to the idea of a man's having made his 
 way by his own merits. 
 
 March 25. From Memphis we sailed in a smaller 
 steamer for 170 miles, first between the States of Ten- 
 nessee and Arkansas, and then between Tennessee 
 and Missouri, and arrived very late at night at New 
 Madrid, a small village on the western bank of the 
 river, where I intended to stay and make geolo- 
 gical observations on the region shaken by the great 
 earthquake of 1811-12. So many of our American 
 
CHAP. XXXIII. ] NEW MADRID. 227 
 
 friends had tried to dissuade us from sojourning in 
 so rude a place, that we were prepared for the worst. 
 In the wharf-boat, at least, I expected to find a bed 
 for the first night, and proposed to seek accommo- 
 dation elsewhere the next day ; but, to my dismay, 
 the keeper of this floating tavern told me, when I 
 landed, that he had just come there, had nothing as 
 yet " fixed," and could not receive us. I also learnt 
 that the only inn in New Madrid had been given up 
 for want of custom. Leaving, therefore, my wife 
 sitting by the stove in the wharf-boat, and taking a 
 negro as my guide, I began to pace the dark and 
 silent streets. First I applied in vain for admittance 
 at the old tavern, then to a store-keeper in the neigh- 
 bourhood, who informed me that a German baker, 
 near the river, sometimes took in lodgers. I next 
 roused this man and his wife from their slumbers ; 
 their only spare room was occupied, but they asked 
 their lodger if he would give it up to us. No sum of 
 money would have bribed him to comply, as I was 
 satisfied when I knew him better, but his good na- 
 ture led him at once to assent cheerfully. We were 
 soon shown into the apartment, a kind of scullery, 
 with a mattrass on the floor, on which we slept, and 
 did not make our appearance next morning till half 
 past eight o'clock. We then apologised, fearing we 
 had kept them waiting for breakfast. They said, 
 good humouredly, they had indeed waited from six 
 o'clock, and it was now near their dinner time ! The 
 young German, originally from near Strasburg, a man 
 of simple manners, regarded himself as belonging to 
 a different station in society, and would have acted 
 
 L 6 
 
228 HUMBLE FARE. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 as waiter till we had finished our repast, had not his 
 wife, a native-born American from the State of In- 
 diana, insisted on his sitting down to table. They 
 were so poor, that they had no servants, not even a 
 negro boy or girl, and two children to look after. 
 The fare was of the humblest kind, bread of Indian 
 corn, bacon, and thick coffee. Some of the indis- 
 pensable articles of the breakfast table equipage 
 had been purchased, as we afterwards discovered, 
 expressly for our use that morning. The lodger, 
 " Uncle John," was an old bachelor in easy circum- 
 stances, fond of fishing, who had come here to in- 
 dulge in that sport. He was an old pilot, who had 
 visited half the ports in the Mediterranean, as well 
 as Great Britain, and was quite a character. He 
 could tell many a good story of his adventures, and, 
 like many natives of Louisiana, could bear to be con- 
 tradicted on any point rather than hear the healthi- 
 ness of New Orleans called in question. His man- 
 ners, and those of our host and hostess towards each 
 other and to us, were very polite, and never ap- 
 proached undue familiarity. Uncle John assured 
 me that the Mississippi is now flowing where 
 New Madrid stood in 1811, and that the old grave- 
 yard has travelled over from the State of Missouri 
 into Kentucky. How this had happened, it was 
 easy for me to divine when I went out after break- 
 fast to look at the place by daylight. 
 
 The river bank is now about twenty-five feet high, 
 and would be forty-five feet at the lowest water 
 level. It is giving way rapidly, three houses having 
 fallen in during the last week, and some proprietors 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] UNDERMINING OF RIVER-BANK. 229 
 
 are in the act of shifting their quarters half a mile 
 inland. At the bottom of the wasting bank, there 
 is a semi-fluid quick-sand, which greatly accelerates 
 the process of destruction. Yesterday, the ruins of 
 a house, with the wooden fence of a garden, were 
 precipitated into the river, and some of the wreck 
 has formed a talus, up which I saw some hogs, after 
 several unsuccessful attempts, clamber at last into a 
 garden, where they began to uproot the flowers. 
 The steam-boats, which are now sailing close to the 
 bank, will, in a few years, pass freely over the site of 
 the humble mansion where we had been sleeping ; 
 and the geographer, in constructing a map half a cen- 
 tury hence, may have to transfer to the State of 
 Kentucky, the spot where I saw a garden flourish. 
 
 I examined the perpendicular face of the bank 
 with some interest, as exemplifying the kind of de- 
 posits which the Mississippi throws down near its 
 margin. They differ in no way from accumulations 
 of sand and loam of high antiquity with which the 
 geologist is familiar ; some beds are made up of hori- 
 zontal layers, in others they are all slanting, or in 
 what is called cross-stratification. Some are white, 
 others yellow, and here and there a seam of black 
 carbonaceous matter, derived apparently from the de- 
 struction of older strata, is conspicuous. 
 
 I next set out on an excursion to examine those 
 districts, where I heard that some superficial effects 
 of the great earthquake of 1811 were still visible. 
 The reader should be reminded that this convulsion 
 occurred contemporaneously with one of the most 
 fatal earthquakes of South America, when the towns 
 
230 EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 of Guayra and Caraccas were laid in ruins. The 
 shocks were also felt in South Carolina. Humboldt 
 has remarked that the shocks of New Madrid are 
 the only examples on record, of the ground having 
 quaked almost incessantly for three months, at a 
 point so far remote from any active volcano. The 
 shocks were most violent in part of the region called 
 the Little Prairie, to the southward of New Madrid, 
 and they extended as far south as the river St. Francis, 
 and, northwards, as far as the mouth of the Ohio. 
 Although the country was thinly settled, and most 
 of the houses built of logs, the loss of life was con- 
 siderable. From accounts published at the time, it 
 appears that the grave-yard of New Madrid was pre- 
 cipitated into the Mississippi, the banks of which 
 gave way in many places, and the ground swelled up 
 so that the current of the river flowed backwards for 
 a time, carrying several flat boats northwards, against 
 the stream. In various parts of the region above 
 alluded to as having been convulsed, lakes twenty 
 miles and upwards in extent were formed, while 
 others which pre-existed were drained.* Hundreds 
 of chasms opened, and new islands appeared in the 
 Mississippi and its tributaries. Flint, the geographer, 
 who visited the country seven years after the event, 
 says that, at the time of his visit, a district west of 
 New Madrid still remained covered with water, and 
 that the neighbouring forest presented a scene of 
 great confusion, many trees standing inclined in 
 every direction, and others having their trunks and 
 
 * Silliman's Journ., vol. xv. 1829. 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-12. 231 
 
 branches broken. He also saw hundreds of deep 
 chasms remaining in the alluvial soil, which were 
 produced, according to the inhabitants, by the burst- 
 ing of the earth, which rose in great undulations, and 
 discharged vast volumes of water, sand, and coaly 
 matter, thrown up as high as the tops of the trees. 
 As the shocks lasted throughout a period of three 
 months, the country people remarked that, in given 
 districts, there were certain prevailing directions in 
 which these fissures opened, and they accordingly 
 felled the tallest trees, making them fall at right 
 angles to the direction of the chasms. By stationing 
 themselves on these, they often escaped being swal- 
 lowed up when the earth opened beneath them. 
 Some of the shocks were perpendicular, while others, 
 much more desolating, were horizontal, or moved 
 along like great waves. 
 
 Before I left New Orleans, Mr. Bringier, the engi- 
 neer, related to me that he was on horseback near New 
 Madrid, in 1811, when some of the severest shocks 
 were experienced, and that, as the waves advanced, he 
 saw the trees bend down, and often, the instant after- 
 wards, when in the act of recovering their position, meet 
 the boughs of other trees similarly inclined, so as to 
 become interlocked, being prevented from righting 
 themselves again. The transit of the wave through 
 the woods was marked by the crashing noise of 
 countless branches, first heard on one side and then 
 on the other. At the same time, powerful jets of 
 water, mixed with sand, mud, and pieces of bitu- 
 minous coaly shale, were cast up with such force, that 
 both horse and rider might have perished, had the 
 
232 SAND-BUKSTS. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 undulating ground happened to burst immediately 
 beneath them. He also told me that circular cavities, 
 called sink-holes, were formed where the principal 
 fountains of mud and water were thrown up. 
 
 Hearing that some of these cavities still existed 
 near the town, I went to see one of them, three 
 quarters of a mile to the westward. There I found 
 a nearly circular hollow, ten yards wide, and five feet 
 deep, with a smaller one near it, and I observed, 
 scattered about over the surrounding level ground, 
 fragments of black bituminous shale, with much 
 white sand. Within a distance of a few hundred 
 yards, were five more of these "sand-bursts," or 
 " sand-blows," as they are sometimes termed here, 
 and, rather more than a mile farther west, near the 
 house of Mr. Savors, my guide pointed out to me 
 what he called " the sink-hole where the negro was 
 drowned." It is a striking object, interrupting the 
 regularity of a flat plain, the sides very steep, and 
 twenty-eight feet deep from the top to the water's 
 edge. The water now standing in the bottom is 
 said to have been originally very deep, but has grown 
 shallow by the washing in of sand, and the crum- 
 bling of the bank caused by the feet of cattle coming 
 to drink. I was assured that many waggon loads of 
 matter were cast up out of this hollow, and the 
 quantity must have been considerable to account for 
 the void ; yet the pieces of lignite, and the quantity 
 of sand now heaped on the level plain near its 
 borders, would not suffice to fill one-tenth part of the 
 cavity. Perhaps a part of the ejected substance may 
 have been swallowed up again, and the rest may have 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] LAKE EULALIE. 233 
 
 been so mixed with water, as to have spread freely 
 like a fluid over the soil. 
 
 My attention was next drawn to the bed of what 
 was once a lake, called Eulalie ; Mr. W. Hunter, the 
 proprietor of the estate, accompanying me to the spot. 
 The bottom, now dried up, is about 300 yards long by 
 100 yards in width, and chiefly composed of clay, co- 
 vered with trees, the whole of them less than thirty- 
 four years old. They consist of cotton-wood (Populus 
 angulata\ willows, the honey locust, and other spe- 
 cies. Some single cotton-wood trees have grown so 
 fast as to be near two and a half feet in diameter, 
 and had not my guide known their age accurately, 
 I should have suspected their origin to have been 
 prior to 1811. All the species on the bottom differ 
 from those covering the surrounding higher ground, 
 which is more elevated by twelve or fifteen feet. 
 Here the hickory, the black and white oak, the gum, 
 and other trees, many of them of ancient date, are 
 seen to flourish. On all sides, the ascent from the 
 old bed of the lake to its boundary, is by a steep 
 slope, on ascending which you reach a platform on a 
 level with the top of the bank of the Mississippi, 
 which is about a mile distant. Mr. Hunter informed 
 me that Lake Eulalie was formerly filled with clear 
 water, and abounded in fish, until it was suddenly 
 drained by the earthquake. In the clayey bottom, I 
 traced the course of two parallel fissures, by which 
 the waters escaped. They are separated from each 
 other by a distance of about eight yards, and are not 
 yet entirely closed. Near their edges, much sand 
 
234 EXCURSION TO [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 and coal shale lie scattered, which were thrown out 
 of them when they first opened. 
 
 In regard to the origin of this black bituminous 
 shale, so abundantly cast out of chasms in this region, 
 it belongs to the alluvial formation, and is found, in 
 digging wells, fifteen feet deep, or sometimes nearer 
 the surface. It was probably drifted down at a 
 former period by the current of the Mississippi, from 
 the coal-fields farther north. 
 
 Having learnt that still more striking monuments 
 of the earthquake were to be seen in the territory 
 farther to the westward of New Madrid, I endea- 
 voured, but in vain, to hire a horse. At length a 
 merchant's widow kindly lent me a steed. To pro- 
 cure a guide was impossible, all hands being fully 
 employed. I therefore set out alone through the 
 forest, skirting the borders of a swamp called the 
 Bayou St. John, where I observed a great many 
 fallen trees, and others dead and leafless, but stand- 
 ing erect. After riding some miles, I found my way 
 to a farm, the owner of which had witnessed the 
 earthquake when a child. He described to me the 
 camping out of the people in the night when the first 
 shocks occurred, and how some were wounded by the 
 falling of chimneys, and the bodies of others drawn out 
 of the ruins. He confirmed the published statements 
 of the inhabitants having availed themselves of fallen 
 trees to avoid being engulfed in open fissures, and I 
 afterwards heard that this singular mode of escape 
 had been adopted in distant places, between which 
 there had been no communication, and that even 
 children threw themselves on the felled trunks. My 
 
CHAP. XXXIIL] " SUNK COUNTRY." 235 
 
 new acquaintance then took me to see several fis- 
 sures still open, which had been caused by the un- 
 dulatory movement of the ground, some of them 
 jagged, others even and straight. I traced two of 
 them continuously for more than half a mile, and 
 found that a few were parallel ; but, on the whole, 
 they varied greatly in direction, some being ten and 
 others forty-five degrees west of north. I might 
 easily have mistaken them for artificial trenches, if 
 my companion had not known them within his 
 recollection to have been " as deep as wells." Sand 
 and black shale were strewed along their edges. 
 They were most of them from two to four feet 
 wide, and five or six feet deep ; but the action of 
 rains, frost, and occasional inundations, and above all 
 the leaves of the forest blown into them every au- 
 tumn in countless numbers, have done much to fill 
 them up. 
 
 Continuing my ride, I came to the house and farm 
 of Mr. Love, who had long resided in this district, 
 and he took me to part of the forest, on the borders 
 of what is called the " sunk country," where all the 
 trees of a date prior to 1811, although standing erect 
 and entire, are dead and leafless. They are chiefly 
 oaks and walnuts, with trunks three or four feet in 
 diameter, and many of them 200 years old. They are 
 supposed to have been killed by the loosening of the 
 roots during the repeated undulations which passed 
 through the soil for three months in succession. The 
 higher level plain, where these dead trees stand, ter- 
 minates abruptly towards the Bayou St. John, and 
 the sudden descent of eight or ten feet throughout 
 
236 SLIGHT SHOCK FELT. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 an area four or five miles long, and fifty or sixty 
 broad, was caused, my informant assured me, by the 
 earthquake. At the lower level are seen cypresses 
 and cotton- wood, and other trees which delight in wet 
 ground, all newer than 1812. I was told that there 
 are some places where the descent from the upper 
 level to that of the sunk country is not less than 
 twenty and even thirty feet. In part of this sunk 
 ground I saw not only dead oaks and hickory still 
 erect, but aged gum-trees also and cypresses (Cu- 
 pressus distichd). 
 
 While I was riding with Mr. Love he stopped his 
 horse, and asked me if I did not feel the shock of an 
 earthquake. When my attention was called to it, I 
 fancied I had perceived it, but was not sure. He 
 said they were frequent, although he had not felt one 
 for the last fortnight. It was now three years since 
 they had been seriously alarmed by any movement. 
 We looked at our watches, and when we returned to 
 the farm he inquired of the family if anything had 
 happened. They said they had felt a shock, and 
 heard a sound like distant thunder, at twenty-five 
 minutes past eleven o'clock, which agreed exactly 
 with the time when my companion had felt the 
 motion. 
 
 If the information I obtained from several quar- 
 ters be correct, in regard to the country perma- 
 nently submerged by the earthquake of 1811-12, 
 the area must exceed in magnitude what was stated 
 in former accounts. The " sunk country," I am told, 
 extends along the course of the White Water and its 
 tributaries for a distance of between seventy and 
 
CHAP. XXXIII.] "SUNK COUNTKY." 237 
 
 eighty miles north and south, and thirty miles east 
 and west. A trapper, who had been hunting on 
 the Little River, told me, that large spaces there were 
 obviously under water, owing to the great shake, 
 because the dead trees were still standing. In the 
 true hunter spirit, he regarded the awful catastrophe 
 of 181112 as a blessing to the country, and ex- 
 patiated with delight on the vast area turned into 
 lake and marsh, and the active trade carried on ever 
 since in the furs of wild animals. It had been the 
 making of New Madrid, he affirmed, which would 
 become a rival of St. Louis, and exported even now 
 at least half as many peltries. There had been taken 
 last year 50,000 racoon skins, and 25,000 musk-rats 
 for making hats and caps; 12,000 mink for trimming 
 dresses; 1000 bears and 1000 otters ; 2500 wild cats, 
 40 panthers, and 100 wolves. Beavers there were 
 none, or only five or six had been trapped. He had 
 gone in his canoe, which carried his hut, his gun, 
 and his baggage, over the whole sunk country, and 
 described to me the villages or hummocks built 
 in the swamps by the musk-rats, which he called 
 "French settlements," a piece of impertinence in 
 which the Anglo-Americans indulge towards the 
 Creoles of Louisiana. He told me that within the 
 area of the sunk country in Arkansas, about eighty 
 miles from New Madrid, is a space called Buffalo 
 Island, containing about twenty-five square miles, 
 where, two years ago, (1844,) a herd of buffaloes, 
 300 or 400 strong, was surprised, and six of them 
 taken. 
 
 The sunk country is not confined to the region 
 
238 TRADITION OF EARTHQUAKES. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 west of the Mississippi ; for, on my way up the river, 
 I learnt from Mr. Fletcher, a farmer, who had a 
 wooding station in Tennessee, that several extensive 
 forest tracts in that State were submerged during the 
 shocks of 1811-12, and have ever since formed 
 lakes and swamps, among which are those called 
 Obion and Reelfoot. He had observed, in several 
 of these, that trees which had been killed, and had 
 stood for a long time partially submerged, had 
 in many places rotted down to the water's edge. 
 In some swamps caused by the earthquake, they 
 had all decayed to within a few inches of the base of 
 the trunk. It is therefore evident, that should the 
 turbid waters of the Mississippi overflow that region, 
 and deposit their sediment on such stumps, they 
 would present to the geologist a precise counterpart 
 of the buried stools of trees with their roots before 
 described as occurring at the bottom of the bluff at 
 Port Hudson.* Mr. Fletcher also told me, that 
 he knew several fissures in Tennessee, formed in 
 1811-12, where the ground on one side of the rent 
 remained higher by two feet than that on the other 
 side. 
 
 I was informed at New Madrid that the Indians, 
 before the year 1811, had a tradition of a great 
 earthquake which had previously devastated this same 
 region. Yet there is so wide an area of forest 
 without sink-holes or, any great inequalities of sur- 
 face, and without dead trees like those above alluded 
 to, that we cannot suppose any convulsion of equal 
 
 * Ante, pp. 177180. 
 
CHAP. XXXIII. ] DREARY FOREST SCENE. 239 
 
 magnitude to have occurred for many centuries pre- 
 vious to 1811. 
 
 Having explored the margin of the Great Prairie, 
 and seen the sunk country several miles west of 
 New Madrid, I returned by a different path through 
 the woods, often losing my way, till I fell into the 
 main road for the last six miles, which was cut 
 straight through the forest, and was at this season 
 singularly monotonous and dreary. It was furrowed 
 with long deep ruts, cut in black mud, and full of 
 miry water. The sky was cloudy, and the plain as 
 level as if it had never been disturbed by the slightest 
 subterranean movement since it originated. The 
 trees were, for the most part, leafless, and almost all 
 of the same height, with no evergreens below them, 
 and no grass ; but, instead of it, a sombre brown 
 covering of damp and dead oak leaves, strewed evenly 
 over the ground. At one point I saw the rotting 
 trunks of several fallen trees, and near them an old 
 oak, on the boughs of which, near the base, a group of 
 five turkey-buzzards were perched, in perfect charac- 
 ter with the rest of the scene. Twilight was coming 
 on, and the woods were silent ; but, as I approached 
 the river, the silence was agreeably broken by the 
 varied and liquid notes of a mocking-bird, and, at the 
 same time, one of the large woodpeckers, with its 
 brilliant plumage, flew over my head, as if to remind 
 me that at other seasons the solitude is cheered by 
 the song and bright colours of birds, when the leaves 
 of the trees unfold themselves, and the sun's heat 
 would then be so intense, that a traveller would gladly 
 retreat into the shades of the dense forest. 
 
240 BOUGH QUARTERS. [CHAP. XXXIII. 
 
 When I took back my horse to its owner in New 
 Madrid, I received a pressing invitation to exchange 
 our present homely quarters for her comfortable 
 house. Some of the other principal merchants made 
 us hospitable offers of the same kind, which were ex- 
 ceedingly tempting. We thought it right, however, 
 to decline them all, as we might have hurt the feel- 
 ings of our German host and his wife, who, in their 
 anxiety to accommodate us, had purchased several 
 additional household articles. Among these was a 
 table-cloth, and, when I entered the house, I was 
 amused at the occupations of my wife and her com- 
 panion. The baker's lady had accepted the offer of 
 her guest to hem the new table-cloth, in which task 
 she was busily engaged ; while the settler in the back- 
 woods, having discovered that my wife had brought 
 from New Orleans a worked collar of the latest 
 Parisian fashion, had asked leave to copy it, and was 
 intent on cutting out the shape, thus qualifying her- 
 self to outdo all the " fashionists" of the sunk 
 country. 
 
 A great spirit of equality was observable in the 
 manners of the whites towards each other at New 
 Madrid, yet with an absence of all vulgar familiarity. 
 But what I saw and heard, convinced me that the 
 condition of the negroes is least enviable in such 
 out-of-the-way and half civilised districts, where 
 there are many adventurers, and uneducated settlers, 
 who have little control over their passions, and who, 
 when they oppress their slaves, are not checked by 
 public opinion, as in more advanced communities. 
 New comers of a higher tone of sentiment are com- 
 
CHAP. XXXIIL] SLAVERY IN MISSOURI. 241 
 
 pelled sometimes to witness cruelties which fill them 
 with indignation, heightened by the necessity of 
 being silent, and keeping on good terms with persons 
 of whose conduct they disapprove. To the passing 
 stranger, they can enlarge on this source of annoy- 
 ance, and send him away grieving that so late as the 
 year 1821, Missouri should have been added to the 
 Union as a Slave State, against the wishes of a re- 
 spectable minority of its own inhabitants, and against 
 the feeling of a majority of the more educated popu- 
 lation of the North. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
242 ALLUVIAL FORMATIONS. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 Alluvial Formations of the Mississippi, ancient and modern. 
 Delta defined. Great Extent of Wooded Swamps. 
 Deposits of pure Vegetable Matter. Floors of Slue Clay 
 with Cypress Roots. Analogy to ancient Coal-measures. 
 Supposed " Epoch of existing Continents." Depth of Fresh- 
 water Strata in Deltas. Time required to bring down the 
 Mud of the Mississippi. New Experiments and Observations 
 required. Great Age of buried and living Cypress-trees. 
 Older and newer Parts of Alluvial Plain. Upraised Terraces 
 of Natchez, fyc., and the Ohio, the Monuments of an older 
 Alluvial Formation. Grand Oscillation of Level. The 
 ancient Valleys inhabited by Quadrupeds now extinct. Land- 
 shells not changed. Probable Rate of Subsidence and Up- 
 heaval. Relative Age of the ancient Alluvium of the Missis- 
 sippi, and the Northern Drift. 
 
 BEFORE leaving the valley of the Mississippi, I shall 
 take this opportunity to offer some general remarks on 
 the modern delta and alluvial plain of the great river, 
 and on those freshwater deposits before described in 
 the bluffs of Port Hudson, Natchez, Yicksburg, and 
 Memphis, which I regard as the monuments of a 
 more ancient alluvial formation, one of high antiquity, 
 yet formed when the physical geography of the 
 country already bore a great resemblance to that 
 now existing, and when, moreover, the land and 
 waters were inhabited by the same species of terres- 
 trial, fluviatile, and lacustrine mollusca, which now in- 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] DELTA OF MISSISSIPPI. 243 
 
 habit this region, although the land quadrupeds were 
 almost entirely different. 
 
 The delta of the Mississippi may be defined as that 
 part of the great alluvial slope, which lies below, or 
 to the south of the branching off of the highest arm, 
 or that called the Atchafalaya. Above this point, 
 which is the head of the delta, the Mississippi re- 
 ceives water from its various tributaries; below, it 
 gives out again, through numerous arms or chan- 
 nels, the waters which it conveys to the sea. The 
 delta, so defined, is about 14,000 square miles in 
 area, and elevated from a few inches to ten feet 
 above the level of the sea. The greater part of it 
 protrudes into the Gulf of Mexico, beyond the 
 general coast line. The level plain to the north, 
 as far as Cape Girardeau, in Missouri, above the 
 junction of the Ohio, is of the same character, in- 
 cluding, according to Mr. Forshey, an area of about 
 16,000 square miles, and is, therefore, larger than 
 the delta. It is very variable in width from east 
 to west, being near its northern extremity, or at the 
 mouth of the Ohio, 50 miles wide, at Memphis 30, 
 at the mouth of the White River 80, and contracting 
 again further south, as at Grand Gulf, to 33 miles. 
 The delta and alluvial plain rise by so gradual a 
 slope from the sea as to attain at the junction of the 
 Ohio (a distance of 800 miles by the river) an eleva- 
 tion of only 200 feet above the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 First, in regard to the whole alluvial slope, whether 
 above or below the present head of the delta, it will 
 appear, from what has been already said, that sand 
 is thrown down near the borders of the main river 
 
 M 2 
 
244 WOODED SWAMPS. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 and its tributaries, and fine mud at more distant 
 points. The larger portion, however, of the whole 
 area consists of swamps, supporting a luxuriant 
 growth of timber, interspersed with lakes, most of 
 which are deserted river bends. These lakes are 
 slowly filling up, and every swamp is gradually 
 becoming shallower, the substances accumulated 
 in them being, for the most part, of vegetable 
 origin, unmixed with earthy matter. It is only on 
 their exterior margins (except after a sudden sub- 
 sidence, during an earthquake like that of 1811-12,) 
 that the waters of the Mississippi throw down sedi- 
 ment in the interior of any large swamp or lake, 
 for the reeds, canes, and brushwood, through which 
 the waters must first pass, cause them to flow slowly, 
 and to part with all the matter previously held in 
 mechanical suspension. Long before they reach the 
 central parts of a morass or lake, they are well 
 filtered, although still deeply stained by vegetable 
 matter in a state of decomposition. 
 
 Over a large portion of the submerged areas of 
 the great plain, trees are seen growing everywhere 
 in the water. Into the deeper water, where no 
 forest can grow, the trunks of trees are floated, and 
 many of these sink, when water-logged, to the bottom, 
 which is also raised by an annual deposit of leaves, 
 and of peaty matter derived from decaying plants, 
 of which there is an exuberant growth round the 
 borders of every swamp. That the admixture of 
 inorganic matter is very small, has been shown by 
 the observations of Messrs. Dickeson and Brown, 
 who state, "that when the woods are burning, 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] FLOORS OF BLUE CLAY. 245 
 
 after an unusually dry season, pits are found burnt 
 into the ground as far as the fire can descend with- 
 out coming in contact with water, and scarcely any 
 residuum or earthy matter is left." * They also state 
 that at the bottom of all the cypress swamps or 
 brakes, there is found a peculiar layer of tenacious 
 blue clay, which forms the foundation, or floor, on 
 which the vegetable matter accumulates. We may 
 conclude, therefore, that as the roots of the cypress 
 penetrate far beneath the soil, and project horizon- 
 tally far and wide, those of one tree interlacing 
 with another, such root-bearing beds of argillaceous 
 loam must be very analogous to what are called 
 fire-clays, so well known to the geologist as oc- 
 curring underneath almost every seam of coal in the 
 ancient carboniferous rocks.f 
 
 Other points of analogy might also be indicated 
 between the deposits, whether of organic or inorganic 
 matter, now accumulating in the valley-plain and 
 delta of the Mississippi, and those of the ancient 
 carboniferous rocks. When, for example, depressions 
 are suddenly caused, as in the " sunk country " 
 before described, certain wooded areas being sub- 
 merged, the lower parts of the erect trees become 
 enveloped with sand and mud, the upper portions 
 
 * Sillimau's Journal, Second Series, vol. v. p. 17. January, 
 1848. 
 
 } In my former " Travels," I have alluded to the fire-stones 
 with Stigmaria (now acknowledged to be the root of Sigillaria), 
 underlying the American coal-seams, as they do those of South 
 Wales, 3000 miles distant. " Travels in North America," vol. i. 
 p. 62. 
 
 M 3 
 
246 ANALOGY TO COAL-MEASURES. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 rotting away, as must have happened in the case of 
 the celebrated fossil forest of Dixon-fold, in Lan- 
 cashire, belonging to the ancient coal-measures.* In 
 the modern alluvial plain, also, river-sand will be 
 often thrown down, as the Mississippi shifts its 
 course over spaces on which pure vegetable matter 
 had been previously accumulating for hundreds or 
 thousands of years, just as we find sandstone some- 
 times resting immediately upon the old coal-seams ; 
 and, if there be a long succession of downward move- 
 ments, the thickness of strata, all formed in shallow 
 water or in swamps, may be indefinitely great. 
 Should the hilly country, moreover, be distant, pebbles 
 will no more be seen in the modern sand strewed 
 over the buried trees and layers of vegetable matter, 
 than they usually are in the grits associated with the 
 coal of ancient date. The phenomena, also, of the 
 New Madrid earthquake, may help us to explain the 
 vast geographical area over which, in the course of 
 ages, dense fluviatile and lacustrine strata, with in- 
 tercalated -beds of vegetable origin, may be made to 
 extend without any inroads of the sea. For the 
 inland parts of any hydrographical basin may be aug- 
 mented indefinitely in length and breadth, while the 
 seaward portions continue unaltered, as the delta 
 around New Orleans, and the low lands bordering 
 the Gulf of Mexico, preserved their level unchanged, 
 while parts of Missouri and Tennessee were lowered. 
 By duly appreciating the permanent geographical 
 revolutions which would result from a succession of 
 
 * Proceedings of Geol. Society, 1839, p. 139. 
 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] DEPTH OF FRESHWATER STRATA. 247 
 
 such earthquakes as that of 1811-12, in the territory 
 of New Madrid, we shall be prevented from em- 
 bracing the theory implied in the language of those 
 who talk of tf the epoch of existing continents." In 
 treating of deltas, they are in the habit of assuming 
 that the present mass of alluvial matter which has 
 been thrown into the sea at the mouths of great 
 rivers, began to be deposited in all the great hydro- 
 graphical basins of the world at one and the same 
 fixed period namely, when the formation of the 
 existing continents was completed ; as if the relative 
 levels of land and sea had, during that time, remained 
 stationary, or had been affected to so inconsiderable 
 an amount, as to be unimportant in their influence 
 on the physical geography of each region, in com- 
 parison with the changes wrought by the rivers, in 
 converting sea into land. But what we already 
 know of the deltas of the Po, Indus, Ganges, and 
 other rivers, leads to a very different conclusion. 
 The boring of an artesian well at Calcutta, was 
 carried to the depth of 481 feet, the greater part of 
 the section being below the level of the sea, and yet 
 all the beds pierced through were of freshwater 
 origin, without any intermixture of marine remains. 
 At different depths, even as far down as 380 feet, 
 lacustrine shells, and a stratum of decayed wood, 
 with vegetable soil, which appears to have supported 
 trees, was met with.* These appearances may readily 
 be accounted for, by assuming that there was a 
 gradual subsidence of the ground for ages, which 
 
 * See " Principles of Geology," Seventh Edition, 1847, p. 266. 
 M 4 
 
248 COMPUTATION OF AGE [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 was as constantly raised by the accession of fluviatile 
 sediment, so as to prevent any incursion of the sea. 
 Occasionally there were pauses in the downward 
 movement, when trees grew on the soil, and vege- 
 table matter of some thickness had time to ac- 
 cumulate. 
 
 Recent observations, by Morlot and others, have 
 demonstrated that, since the time of the Romans, 
 there has been a general subsidence of the coast at 
 the head of the Adriatic, to the amount of five feet, 
 which has not prevented the delta of the Po and 
 other rivers from advancing on the sea, although it 
 must have cheeked their progress. Of the much 
 greater movements of elevation and depression which 
 have taken place in the delta of the Indus, especially 
 those wrought in the year 1819, I have elsewhere 
 given an account.* It would, therefore, be perfectly 
 consistent with analogy to find, in the neighbour- 
 hood^of New Orleans, ancient swamp formations, with 
 the roots and stumps of erect trees, unmixed with 
 marine remains, far below the level of the sea, as is 
 the fact, if I can rely on the information given me 
 in 1846. f 
 
 Finding it impossible to calculate the age of the 
 delta, from the observed rate of the advance of the 
 land on the Gulf in each century, I endeavoured 
 to approximate, by a different method, to a minimum 
 of the time required for bringing down from the 
 upper country that large quantity of earthy matter 
 which is now deposited within the area of the delta. 
 
 * Principles, Seventh Edition, p. 437. | See ante, p. 137. 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] OF DELTA OF MISSISSIPPI. 249 
 
 Dr. Eiddell communicated to me, at New Orleans, 
 the result of a series of experiments which he had 
 made, to ascertain the proportion of sediment con- 
 tained in the waters of the Mississippi. He con- 
 cluded that the mean annual amount of solid matter 
 was to the water as y^Vy ' m weight, or about ^oV o 
 in volume.* Since that period, he has made another 
 series of experiments, and his tables show that the 
 quantity of mud held in suspension, increases regu- 
 larly with the increased height and velocity of the 
 stream. On the whole, comparing the flood season 
 with that of clearest water, his experiments, con- 
 tinued down to 1849, give an average annual quan- 
 tity of solid matter somewhat less than his first 
 estimate, but not varying materially from it. From 
 these observations, and those of Dr. Carpenter and 
 Mr. Forshey (an eminent engineer, to whom I have 
 before alluded), on the average width, depth, and 
 velocity of the Mississippi, the mean annual discharge 
 of water and sediment were deduced. I then as- 
 sumed 528 feet, or the tenth of a mile, as the pro- 
 bable thickness of the deposit of mud and sand in 
 the delta ; founding my conjecture chiefly on the 
 depth of the Gulf of Mexico between the southern 
 point of Florida and the Balize, which equals, on an 
 average, 100 fathoms, and partly on some borings, 
 600 feet deep, in the delta near Lake Pontchar- 
 
 * The calculations here given, were communicated to the 
 British Association in a Lecture which I delivered at South- 
 ampton, in September, 1846. See "Athenaeum Journal," 
 Sept. 26. 1846, and "Report of British Association," 1846, p. 1 17. 
 
 M 5 
 
250 COMPUTATION OF AGE [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 train, north of New Orleans, in which the bottom of 
 the alluvial matter is said not to have been reached. 
 The area of the delta being about 13,600 square 
 statute miles, and the quantity of solid matter an- 
 nually brought down by the river 3,702,758,400 
 cubic feet, it must have taken 67,000 years for the 
 formation of the whole ; and if the alluvial matter 
 of the plain above be 264 feet deep, or half that of 
 the delta, it must have required 33,500 more years 
 for its accumulation, even if its area be estimated 
 as only equal to that of the delta, whereas it is in 
 fact larger. 
 
 From information since received, I think it not 
 improbable that the quantity of water may have 
 been underrated in this estimate* ; and, if so, a larger 
 
 * I allude chiefly to the observations and experiments, on 
 the velocity of the Mississippi at various depths, made by 
 Mr. W. H. Sidell, during a Government survey, communicated 
 to me through the kindness of Mr. Ruggles, of New York, 
 which, if correct, would lead to the inference that the average 
 number of cubic feet of water discharged into the Gulf per 
 second, is considerably greater than Mr. Forshey and Dr. Car- 
 penter deduced from their observations on the velocity of the 
 stream at different depths. If, as I understand, there exist 
 documents in the hydrographer's office at Washington, which 
 would afford more ample data for such calculations, the Govern- 
 ment would confer a boon on the scientific world by publish- 
 ing them without delay. Such experiments as Mr. Sidell's, 
 which give the velocity at various depths and at different dis- 
 tances from the banks, are the more needed, because it seems 
 doubtful whether any correct mathematical formulae have as 
 yet been furnished for calculating the mean rate at which so 
 deep a river as the Mississippi flows, from observations made 
 simply on its superficial velocity. I placed all the data given 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] OF DELTA OF MISSISSIPPI. 251 
 
 amount of sediment would have been brought down 
 from the interior in a given time, and consequently 
 a deduction would have to be made from the number 
 of centuries above stated on that account. But, on 
 the other hand, if it could be shown, by more accurate 
 experiments and calculations, that the quantity of 
 water in the above computation was greatly defi- 
 cient, say even one-third less than the real quantity, 
 I do not imagine that any exaggeration has been 
 made in the time supposed to have elapsed since the 
 rivers began to transport their earthy ingredients to 
 the alluvial plains of Louisiana. The delta is, after 
 all, a mere fragmentary portion of a larger body of 
 mud, the finer particles of which never settle down 
 near the mouths of the Mississippi, but are carried 
 far out into the Gulf, and there dispersed. 
 
 The description which I have given of the great 
 distance to which the yellow and lighter streams of 
 
 me by Messrs. Riddell, Forshey, and Carpenter, in the hands of 
 my friend, Mr. George Rennie, F.R.S., to whom we are in- 
 debted for many valuable papers on the application of the 
 science of hydraulics to rivers (see Report of British Asso- 
 ciation, vol. iii. p. 415. 1834), and, after examining them, he 
 came to conclusions which did not vary materially from those 
 which I had previously announced. Mr. James Nicol, As- 
 sistant Secretary of the Geological Society of London, before 
 he had seen Mr. Sidell's experiments, had expressed to me his 
 belief that the quantity of water carried to the Gulf by the 
 Mississippi, must be greater than I had assumed from Mr. 
 Forshey's calculations, judging from the amount usually as- 
 signed as the annual discharge of rivers having hydrographical 
 basins smaller than that of the Mississippi. 
 
 M 6 
 
252 COMPUTATION OF AGE [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 freshwater are seen extending, from the various 
 mouths, in the flood-season, into the Gulf ; and still 
 more, the destruction of the banks and bars of mud 
 and sand caused by the tide scouring out the chan- 
 nels when the river is low*, and the strength of 
 the marine current, running ten miles an hour, and 
 the stories of anchors and heavy ballast cast up by 
 the breakers high and dry on the shifting shoals 
 near the extremity of the delta, make me doubt 
 whether the larger part of that impalpable mud, 
 which constitutes the bulk of the solid matter car- 
 ried into the sea by the Mississippi, is not lost alto- 
 gether, so far as the progress of the delta is concerned. 
 So impalpable is the sediment, and so slowly does it 
 sink, that a glass of water, taken from the Missis- 
 sippi, may remain motionless for three weeks, and 
 yet all the earthy matter will not have reached the 
 bottom. If particles so minute are carried by the 
 current, setting for a great portion of the year from 
 west to east, across the mouth of the river, into the 
 Gulf Stream, and so into the Atlantic, they might 
 easily travel to the banks of Newfoundland before 
 sinking to the bottom ; and some of them, which left 
 the head waters of the Missouri in the 49th degree 
 of north latitude, may, after having gone southwards 
 to the Gulf, and then northwards to the Great Banks, 
 have found no resting-place before they had wan- 
 dered for a distance as far as from the pole to the 
 equator, and returned to the very latitude from 
 which they set out. Were it not for the peculiar 
 
 * See ante, p. 154. 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] OF DELTA OF MISSISSIPPI. 253 
 
 manner in which the Mississippi forms long bars of 
 sand, which frequently unite with some part of the 
 coast, so as to dam out the sea and form lagoons, the 
 deposition of sediment in the delta would be much 
 less considerable. A lagoon, like Lake Pontchar- 
 train, once formed, becomes a receptacle of the finest 
 mud, poured into it by an arm of the great river 
 during the flood season, and the space thus parted off 
 from the Gulf by bars of sand, is protected from the 
 action of the breakers and marine currents. 
 
 When I inquired what might be the depth of 
 fluviatile mud in the suburbs of New Orleans, I was 
 told that, in making a railroad near Lake Pontchar- 
 train, piles were driven down sixty feet into the soft 
 mud or slush, and when a boring was made there, 600 
 feet deep, beds of gnathodon were found, but no 
 marine shells. 
 
 The depth of the alluvium may vary in different 
 parts of the great sloping plain; for certain areas, such 
 as the " sunk country," for example, west of New 
 Madrid, may have been repeatedly depressed, and 
 have been always brought up again to the same 
 superficial level, by the deposition of river mud, or 
 the growth of vegetable matter. 
 
 The age of stumps and erect trunks of the decidu- 
 ous cypress, whether living or buried, retaining their 
 natural position, at points near the present termina- 
 tion of the delta, ought to be carefully examined, as 
 they might afford evidence of the minimum of time 
 which can be allowed for the gain of land on the sea. 
 Some single trunks in Louisiana are said to contain 
 from 800 to 2000 rings of annual growth, and Dr. 
 
254 CYPRESS TREES. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 M. W. Dickeson and Mr. A. Brown state, that the 
 cypress brakes or basins, which fill up gradually, give 
 place at length to other timber ; but before this hap- 
 pens, the buried cypress stumps often extend through 
 a deposit of vegetable and sedimentary matter 
 twenty-five feet thick. " Sections of such filled-up 
 cypress basins, exposed by the changes in the position 
 of the river, exhibit undisturbed, perfect, and erect 
 stumps, in a series of every elevation with respect to 
 each other, extending from high- water mark down to 
 at least twenty-five feet below, measuring out a time 
 when not less than ten fully -matured cypress growths 
 must have succeeded each other, the average of whose 
 age could not have been less than 400 years, thus 
 making an aggregate of 4000 years since the first 
 cypress tree vegetated in the basin.* There are also 
 instances where prostrate trunks, of huge dimensions, 
 are found imbedded in the clay, immediately over 
 which are erect stumps of trees, numbering no less 
 than 800 concentric layers." 
 
 Michaud, in his famous work on the forest trees of 
 North America, mentions that stems of this deciduous 
 cypress ( Taxodium distichum) are met with in Florida, 
 and in Southern Louisiana, forty feet in circum- 
 ference above the enlarged base, which is three or 
 four times that size ; but such individuals dwindle to 
 nothing before the gigantic trunk near Santa Maria 
 del Tule, in the province of Oaxaca, in Mexico, 
 which was first mentioned by Exter, who found its 
 circumference to be 117'10 French feet. Zuccarini, 
 
 * Silliman's Journal, Second Series, vol. v. p. 17. January, 
 1848. 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] ALLUVIAL PLAIN. 255 
 
 has lately removed the doubts of De Candolle re- 
 specting this measurement, which was taken above 
 the dilated base, for that was no less than 200 feet 
 in circumference. In this stem there would be 5352 
 rings of annual growth, if one line a year was taken 
 as the average growth, the deposit of wood becoming 
 always much smaller in trees of great age ; but Zuo 
 carini, in his estimate, thinks it may be safer to 
 assume 1*6 line as the average, which would even 
 then give the age of 3512 years for this single tree. 
 
 The great number of crescent-shaped lakes to the 
 westward of the Mississippi, which formerly con- 
 stituted bends in its ancient channel, are also monu- 
 ments of the antiquity of the great plain over which 
 the river has been wandering. Darby, the geogra- 
 pher, observed that, in the steep banks of the Atchafa- 
 laya, there are alternations of the blueish clay of the 
 Mississippi and of the red ochreous earth peculiar 
 to Red River, proving that the waters of these two 
 streams once occupied alternately considerable tracts 
 below their present point of union.* Since their 
 junction (an event, the date of which is unknown), 
 the waters and sediment of the Red River and Mis- 
 sissippi have been thoroughly mixed up together, 
 before any deposition of their mud takes place in the 
 lower country. It is evident, therefore, that, when we 
 are enabled, by geological observations such as those 
 of Darby, to distinguish the older from the newer 
 portions, even of the modern alluvial plain, we may 
 obtain more aid in our chronological computations 
 
 * Darby's Louisiana, p. 103. 
 
256 UPRAISED TEEEACES [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 founded on rings of growth in buried trees ; for we 
 may then add the years deduced from stumps buried 
 in the modern parts of the delta, to those proved by 
 the structure of trees included in mud of earlier date. 
 
 After considering the age and origin of the modern 
 deposits of the Mississippi and its tributaries, we 
 have still to carry back our thoughts to the era of 
 the freshwater strata seen in the bluffs which bound 
 the great valley. These, in their southern termi- 
 nation, have evidently formed an ancient coast-line, 
 beyond which the modern delta has been pushed for- 
 ward into the sea. Let a, b (fig. 10.) represent the 
 alluvial plain of the Mississippi, bounded on its 
 eastern side at Yicksburg, as before described, by 
 the bluffs d, at the foot of which are seen the Eo- 
 cene strata,/, the upper part of the bluff being com- 
 posed of shelly loam, or loess, of freshwater origin, 
 d, e (No. 2.). 
 
 At Memphis, Port Hudson, and many other 
 places, loam of the same age as No. 2., rising from 50 
 to 200 feet above the level of the sea, constitutes the 
 entire bluffs, forming a table-land like that repre- 
 sented at d, e. Similar deposits, a, c (fig. 10.), recur 
 in Louisiana, on the western side of the great valley ; 
 but they are not, I am informed, denuded so as to 
 present a steep bluff at . They rest equally on 
 Eocene strata, /(No. 3.) 
 
 From what has been said of the species of shells 
 contained in the loam, d, e, at Natchez, and in other 
 localities, from the remains also of associated ter- 
 restrial animals, and from the buried trees of Port 
 Hudson, we have inferred that these deposits (No. 2.), 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] OF NATCHEZ AND OHIO. 257 
 
 are the monuments of an ancient alluvial plain, of an 
 age long anterior to that through which the Mis- 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 2 1 34 
 
 1. Alluvium. 2. Loess. 3. /. Eocene. 4. Cretaceous. 
 
 sissippi now flows, which was inhabited by land and 
 freshwater mollusca agreeing with those now ex- 
 isting, and by quadrupeds now for the most part 
 extinct. 
 
 In my former " Travels in North America," I de- 
 scribed some ancient terraces of gravel, sand, and 
 loam, occurring everywhere in the valley of the 
 Ohio, and gave a section of them as they are seen at 
 Cincinnati.* I pointed out that the included fossil 
 shells demonstrate the fluviatile and modern origin of 
 the deposits, and suggested that their present position 
 could only be explained by supposing, first, a gra- 
 dual sinking down of the land after the original exca- 
 vation of the valley, during which period the gravel 
 and sand were thrown down, and then an upheaval 
 of the same valley, when the river cut deep channels 
 through the freshwater beds.f Certain swamp form- 
 ations observable in the valleys of small tributaries 
 of the Ohio, such as those of Big Bone Lick, in 
 
 * Travels in North America, fig. 9., vol. ii. p. 59. chap. xvii. 
 f The second terrace (c, fig. 9. ibid.) at Cincinnati, may 
 imply a second oscillation. 
 
258 EXTINCT QUADRUPEDS. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 Kentucky, and Mill Creek, near Cincinnati, are of 
 geological celebrity, in consequence of the great 
 number of skeletons of extinct mammalia, such as 
 the megalonyx, mastodon, elephant, and others, which 
 seem to have lived, and have been mired in an- 
 cient morasses, before the land began to sink; for 
 the great mass of fluviatile loam and gravel forming 
 the terraces, has been superimposed on the black 
 bog earth containing such bones. The teeth, how- 
 ever, and bones of similar extinct quadrupeds, es- 
 pecially the mastodon, are occasionally met with 
 scattered through the incumbent gravel and loam, so 
 that the same assemblage of quadrupeds continued 
 to inhabit the valleys while the first change of level 
 or the subsidence was going on. By simply extending 
 to the valley of the Mississippi, the theory before 
 applied to that of the Ohio, we may, as already stated 
 at p. 183. in reference to the Port Hudson bluffs, 
 account for the geological appearances seen in the 
 larger and more southern area. 
 
 It has been long ascertained that in Norway and 
 Sweden a gradual rise of the land above the sea has 
 been going on for many centuries, producing an ap- 
 parent fall in the waters of the adjoining ocean. The 
 rate of elevation increases as we proceed northwards 
 from Gothenburg to the North Cape, the two extre- 
 mities of this line being distant more than a thousand 
 geographical miles from each other, and we know not 
 how much farther north or south the motion may be 
 prolonged under water. The rise of the land, which 
 is more than five feet in a hundred years at the North 
 Cape, gradually diminishes to a few inches in a cen- 
 
CHAP. XXXIV] OSCILLATION OF LEVEL. 259 
 
 tury in the neighbourhood of Stockholm, to the 
 south of which the upward movement ceases ; and in 
 Scania, the southernmost part of Sweden, appears 
 to give place to a slight movement in an opposite 
 or downward direction.* 
 
 We also know that part of the west coast of 
 Greenland, extending about 600 miles north and 
 south, has been subsiding for three or four centuries 
 between latitudes 60 and 69 N.f But whether, 
 in this instance, the rate of depression varies in 
 different parts of the sinking area, has not yet been 
 determined. In speculating, however, on the manner 
 in which the valleys of the Mississippi and its tribu- 
 taries may have been affected by subterranean move- 
 ments, we are at least authorised by analogy to 
 assume that the downward movement may have 
 been greater in the more inland part of the con- 
 tinent, just as we have seen in 1811-12, that the 
 " sunk country" west of New Madrid subsided, 
 while the level of the delta at New Orleans under- 
 went no sensible change. If, then, the vertical 
 movement in the interior, in and near the valley of 
 the Ohio, for example, were greater than near the 
 Gulf, as if, in the former case, it were two and a half 
 feet in a century, and near the sea only half that 
 amount, it would follow that the general fall of the 
 rivers would be lessened. They would deposit all 
 their heavier, and some even of their finer sediment, 
 in their channels, instead of having power to carry it 
 to the sea. They would fill up their beds, and often 
 
 * Principles of Geology, Seventh Ed. p. 506. 
 f See " Principles, 5 ' ibid. 
 
260 OSCILLATION OF LEVEL. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 overflow the adjoining plains, raising their level by 
 repeated layers of fluviatile matter or silt, frequently 
 containing the shells of land and amphibious mol- 
 lusks. 
 
 If, even now, the Mississippi, when flooded, dams 
 up the mouths of its great tributaries, and transforms 
 them for months into temporary lakes, it must have 
 produced the same effect to a far greater extent if at 
 any time the general fall of the country towards the 
 sea was less rapid. 
 
 In narrow valleys bounded by ancient rocks 500 
 or 600 feet high, such as that of the Ohio, the 
 alluvial formation could never acquire great breadth. 
 Its thickness would depend entirely on the length of 
 time throughout which the subsidence was prolonged. 
 But nearer the sea, where the continent falls with a 
 gentle slope towards the Gulf, the encroachment of 
 the freshwater deposits (No. 2. fig. 11. p. 262.), 
 of the great river on the tertiary strata (No. 3.), 
 constituting the original bluffs on its eastern and 
 western boundaries, might be very great. 
 
 If we then suppose the downward movement to 
 cease, and to be at length converted into an ascend- 
 ing one, the rate of upheaval being greatest in the 
 more inland country, the fall of every river, and con- 
 sequently its velocity, would begin immediately to 
 augment. Their power of carrying earthy matter 
 seaward, and of scouring out and deepening their 
 channels, would be greater and greater, till at length, 
 after a lapse of many thousand years, each of them 
 would have eroded a deep channel or valley through 
 the fluviatile formation previously accumulated. The 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] OSCILLATION OF LEVEL. 261 
 
 surface of what was once the river-plain at the period 
 of greatest depression, would remain fringing the val- 
 ley sides as a terrace, apparently flat, but in reality 
 sloping down with the general inclination of the 
 valley. Everywhere this terrace would present cliffs 
 of gravel and sand facing the river. 
 
 After these changes, the fundamental strata (Nos. 
 3,4, 5. fig. 11. p. 262.) might be restored nearly to 
 their ancient positions; the freshwater beds (No. 2.) 
 having been raised, and having suffered great de- 
 nudation. 
 
 It is not improbable that the same series of move- 
 ments gave rise to the accumulation and present 
 position of marine strata of comparatively modern 
 date, forming the lower terrace near Darien in 
 Georgia* which is indicated at 2*, in the annexed 
 section (fig. 11.). The reader will remember that the 
 remains of the megatherium, mastodon, elephant, 
 Harlanus, equus, and other extinct species of land 
 quadrupeds, are there associated with marine shells, 
 of species agreeing with those now inhabiting the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 On the other hand, there are proofs in Texas of 
 the prevalence of the same succession of subterranean 
 movements far to the south-west, along the country 
 bordering the Gulf of Mexico ; for on the Brazos 
 river there are beds of loam, or loess, examined by 
 Dr. Dickeson, and, when at New Orleans, I saw the 
 bones of extinct quadrupeds brought from that de- 
 posit. Among them was the jaw-bone of a tapir, 
 
 * See ante, vol. i. p. 346. 
 
SISSTJ\[ 9q? JO 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] PKOBABLE EATE OF SUBSIDENCE. 263 
 
 apparently identical with the South American species; 
 remains of the mastodon, elephant, ox, arid other 
 mammalia, much resembling, on the whole, those 
 found at Natchez and on the Ohio. 
 
 As to the seaward extremity of the ancient delta, 
 the effect of the gradual depression of land above 
 assumed would be to cause its mud and sand to 
 increase in thickness, instead of augmenting in area. 
 When at length the movement was reversed, and 
 the freshwater deposits began to rise, the action of 
 the sea would undermine them, and, aided by the 
 river and tides, sweep much of them away, and per- 
 haps shape out a bay. But the swamp-mud, with 
 innumerable interlaced roots of cypress and other 
 trees, might offer considerable resistance ; and, after 
 a time, the river charged with sediment would throw 
 down bars, and form a breakwater, to protect the 
 newly upraised deposits from annihilation. 
 
 In regard to the time consumed in accomplishing 
 the great oscillation of level which first depressed 
 so large an area to the depth of 200 feet or more, 
 and then restored it to its former position, it is im- 
 possible, in the present state of science, to form more 
 than a conjecture as to the probable mean rate of 
 movement. To suppose an average sinking and up- 
 heaval of two and a half feet in a century, might be 
 sufficient, or would, perhaps, be too great, judging 
 from the mean rate of change in Scandinavia, Green- 
 land, the north of the Adriatic, and other regions. 
 Even such an oscillation, if simultaneously continuous 
 over the whole area, first in one direction, and then 
 in another, and without any interruptions or minor 
 
264 NORTHERN DRIFT. [CHAP. XXXIV. 
 
 oscillations, would require sixteen thousand years for 
 its accomplishment. But the section at Cincinnati 
 seems to imply two oscillations, and there would pro- 
 bably be pauses, and a stationary period, when the 
 downward movement ceased, and was not yet changed 
 into an upward one. Nor ought we to imagine that 
 the whole space was always in motion at once. 
 
 When we have at length done our best to trace 
 back the history of the more modern and more 
 ancient alluvial formations of the Mississippi, the 
 question still remains, what may be their age rela- 
 tively to the great body of the drift containing erratic 
 blocks in the northern latitudes of this same con- 
 tinent. The terraces of gravel and loam bordering 
 the Ohio, and those on a larger scale, but of the 
 same age, which constitute many of the eastern bluffs 
 of the Mississippi, are evidently features of sub- 
 ordinate importance in the physical configuration of 
 the continent. But to explain the origin of the 
 northern drift of the Canadian lake district, and of 
 the St. Lawrence, as I have endeavoured to show in 
 my former " Travels," requires a reference to such 
 changes as would imply the submergence of a great 
 part of the continent drained by the head waters of 
 the Mississippi, Missouri, and their northern tribu- 
 taries.* For this and other reasons, into which I 
 cannot now enter, I presume that the great mass of 
 the most elevated drift in the north, and the glacial 
 grooving and polishing of the rocks, although they 
 belong to a very modern era in the earth's history, 
 
 * See vol. i. ch. ii. p. 47. and vol. ii. eh. xix. p. 99. 
 
CHAP. XXXIV.] NORTHERN DRIFT. 265 
 
 were nevertheless anterior in date to the loam of 
 Natchez and Vicksburg. 
 
 There exist in Canada, in the Niagara district, in 
 New York, and other States north of the Ohio, lacus- 
 trine and swamp deposits of marl and bog-earth, includ- 
 ing the bones of extinct quadrupeds, such as the mas- 
 todon, elephant, castoroides, and others, associated 
 with land and freshwater shells of recent species, 
 which are decidedly post-glacial, and often found in 
 hollows in the drift. These may be of contempo- 
 raneous date with the loam of Port Hudson and 
 Natchez. 
 
 The northern drift, however, is by no means all of 
 the same age, and as the period of glaciers and ice- 
 bergs freighted with erratics is still going on, and has 
 now a wide range in the temperate parts of the 
 Atlantic, bordering the eastern shores of North 
 America, so must we naturally suppose that certain 
 parts of the drift, especially those found at lower 
 levels, and near the sea, may not be more ancient than 
 the loam of the western bluffs of the Mississippi. 
 
 VOL. II. N 
 
266 DEPARTURE FROM NEW MADRID. [CiiAP. XXXV. 
 
 CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 Departure from New Madrid. Night-watch for Steamers. 
 Scenery of the Ohio River. Mount Vemon, Ornithology. 
 No Undergrowth in Woods. Spring Flowers. Visit to 
 Dr. Dale Owen, New Harmony. Fossil Forest of erect 
 Trees in Coal-measures. Movers migrating Westward. 
 Voyage to Louisville. Professional Zeal of one of " the Pork 
 Aristocracy." Fossil Coral-reef at the Falls of the Ohio, 
 Louisville. Fossil Zoophytes as perfect as recent Stone-corals. 
 
 March 27. 1846. WE took up our quarters in the 
 wharf-boat at New Madrid in readiness to sail by 
 the first steamer bound for the Ohio, for I wished to 
 visit New Harmony in Indiana, and there was some 
 risk of being detained several days. The first 
 steamer we hailed, was bound for St. Louis, the 
 next for the Cumberland river, in Tennessee, and a 
 third which might have taken us to Mount Vernon, 
 in Indiana, where I meant to disembark, was un- 
 willing to lose time by stopping, the captain shout- 
 ing out that she was full of passengers, and heavily 
 laden. 
 
 Before retiring to rest, I engaged with the keeper 
 of the boat that he should appoint a good night- 
 watch, and an hour after dark, I was awakened by 
 the loud puffing and splashing of a steamer, evidently 
 close at hand. Going on deck, I found the faithless 
 black sentinel fast asleep. It was already too late to 
 hail the vessel, but we made out that she was 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] NIGHT-WATCH FOR STEAMERS. 267 
 
 the Nimrod, and I after svards learnt, that in the 
 course of her voyage she was snagged, both her 
 chimneys thrown down, and her boiler pierced, so 
 that we had a narrow escape. I now gave the 
 keeper of the wharf-boat to understand that the 
 whole town of New Madrid should be informed next 
 day in what manner their night-watches were kept, 
 which piqued him, and he then lighted a large fire on 
 the bank ; but having no longer any faith in the sen- 
 tinel, I could not sleep, so I determined to keep a 
 look-out myself. Fortunately another steamer soon 
 appeared ; and, almost before she was fairly alongside, 
 a party of active negroes leapt upon our deck, each 
 snatching up an article of our luggage, while the 
 clerk ushered us over the plank into a brilliantly 
 lighted saloon. The change of scene to travellers 
 who had been roughing it for several days under a 
 humble roof, talking with trappers about the watery 
 wilderness of the " sunk country," and who had just 
 stepped out of a dark half-furnished wharf- boat, was 
 more like the fiction of a fairy-tale, than a real in- 
 cident in an ordinary journey. Some musicians 
 were playing at one end of the room, which was 150 
 feet long, and a gay young party from New Orleans 
 were dancing a quadrille. At the other end we were 
 delighted to see a table covered with newspapers, for 
 we were nearly a week in arrear of news, and their 
 columns were filled with the recent debates of the 
 English House of Commons. There were also 
 many articles reprinted from the best European pe- 
 riodicals, quarterly and monthly, besides those pub- 
 lished in New Eno-land and New York. Nor were 
 
 o 
 
 X 2 
 
268 SCENERY ON THE OHIO. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 any of the advantages afforded by this floating palace 
 more like an eastern tale of enchantment, than the 
 thought, as we went to our berths, that before we 
 rose next morning to breakfast we should be trans- 
 ported more than a hundred miles on our route 
 north wards against the current of a mighty river. 
 
 March 29. Passed Cairo in the night, and next 
 morning were at Smithland on the Ohio, at the mouth 
 of the Cumberland river, having Kentucky on our 
 right hand, and Illinois on the left. Limestone 
 cliffs, bounding the valley, were a welcome sight, 
 after the eye had been dwelling for so many weeks on 
 flat and level regions. Although we had not yet 
 ascended the river to a height of much more than 
 200 feet above the level of the sea, the climate had 
 changed, and we were told that snow had fallen the 
 day before. We observed that the red- bud, or Judas- 
 tree, was not yet in flower. 
 
 On reaching the mouth of the Wabash river, which 
 divides Illinois from Indiana, I learnt that when the 
 ice breaks up there in the spring, it is often packed 
 into such masses that, before melting, they float down 
 with gravel frozen on to them as far as New Ma- 
 drid. This fact may explain the coarseness of the 
 materials observable in the shoals of the Mississippi, 
 at low water, near Natchez, and still farther down ; 
 and may perhaps throw light on some large boulders, 
 of a former period, in the ancient gravel below the 
 shelly loam of Natchez. 
 
 At Mount Vernon we landed, and I collected there 
 many fossil shells, of freshwater and land species, from 
 a terrace of yellow loam, elevated many yards above 
 high-water mark, on the Ohio. Returning from my 
 
CIIAP. XXXV.] ORNITHOLOGY. 269 
 
 excursion, I fell in with a naturalist of the place, 
 armed with a rifle, and carrying some wild birds 
 which he had shot. He was a shoemaker by trade, 
 and had a collection of more than 150 well-stuffed 
 birds from the neighbourhood. He told me that the 
 notes I heard here in the woods were chiefly those 
 of the red-bird, but that some of the most musical 
 were the song of a brown thrush, called, in Indiana, 
 the mocking bird, but differing from the real mu- 
 sician of that name, which, though abounding at 
 New Madrid, does not range so far north as the 
 Ohio. Conversing with him, I learnt that the loud 
 tapping of the large red-headed woodpecker, so com- 
 mon a sound in the American forests, is not produced, 
 as I had imagined, by the action of the beak perfo- 
 rating the bark or wood, but is merely a succession of 
 sharp blows on the trunk of the tree, after which the 
 bird is seen to listen attentively, to know if there 
 are any insects within. Should they stir in their 
 alarm, and betray the fact of their being " at home," 
 the woodpecker begins immediately to excavate a 
 hole in the rotten timber. 
 
 I had promised to pay a visit to Dr. David Dale 
 Owen, the State geologist of Indiana, and hired a 
 carriage which conveyed us to New Harmony, situ- 
 ated on the Wabash river sixty miles above its 
 junction with the Ohio. On our way across the 
 country, we went through a continuous forest, con- 
 sisting chiefly of oak, beech, and poplar, without any 
 undergrowth, and in this respect differing remarkably 
 from the wooded valleys and hills of the Alleghanies, 
 and the region eastward of those mountains, as well 
 
 N 3 
 
270 SPKING FLOWERS. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 as all parts of New England. Here there were no 
 kalmias or azaleas, or sweet fern, or candleberry, or 
 other evergreens* The green carpet beneath the 
 trees was made up largely of mosses, and among 
 them was that beautiful European species of feather- 
 moss, ffypnum proliferum, in great plenty. The 
 trunks of many trees were spotted by a jet-black 
 fungus resembling a lichen. Below the branches we 
 were pleased to gather several spring flowers, the 
 white anemone, the blood-root (Sanguinaria cana- 
 densis), the dog-tooth violet (Eryihronium america- 
 nuni), and the spring-beauty (Claytonia virginica). 
 
 Though a large proportion of the mosses and other 
 cryptogamia are identical with those of Europe, we 
 saw no flower which was not peculiar to America. 
 Many European plants, however, are making their 
 way here, such as the wild camomile, and the thorn- 
 apple (Datura Stramonium) ; and it is a curious fact, 
 which I afterwards learnt from Dr. Dale Owen, that 
 when such foreigners are first naturalised they over- 
 run the country with amazing rapidity, and are quite 
 a nuisance. But they soon grow scarce, and after 
 eight or ten years can hardly be met with. 
 
 We spent several days very agreeably at New 
 Harmony, where we were most hospitably welcomed 
 by Dr. and Mrs. Dale Owen. The town is pleasantly 
 situated in a valley watered by the Wabash, which 
 here divides the States of Indiana and Illinois. Some 
 large buildings, in the German style of architecture, 
 stand conspicuous, and were erected by Rapp; but 
 the communities founded by him, and afterwards by 
 Robert Owen of Lanark, have disappeared, the prin- 
 cipal edifice being now appropriated as a public 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] NEW HARMONY. 271 
 
 museum, in which I found a good collection of geo 
 logical specimens, both fossils and minerals, made 
 during the State survey, and was glad to learn that 
 the Legislature, with a view of encouraging science, 
 has exempted this building from taxes. Lectures on 
 chemistry and geology are given here in the winter. 
 Many families of superior intelligence, English, Swiss, 
 and German, have settled in the place, and there is a 
 marked simplicity in their manner of living which 
 reminded us of Germany. They are very sociable, 
 and there were many private parties where there was 
 music and dancing, and a public assembly once a 
 week, to one of which we went, where quadrilles 
 and waltzes were danced, the band consisting of 
 amateur musicians. 
 
 Say, the eminent conchologist, who died at the 
 age of forty-five, formerly resided at New Harmony ; 
 and recently Prince Maximilian, of Neuwied, and 
 the naturalists who accompanied him, passed a winter 
 here. We found also, among the residents, a brother 
 of Mr. Maclure, the geologist, who placed his excellent 
 library and carriage at our disposal. He lends his 
 books freely amongst the citizens, and they are much 
 read. We were glad to hear many recent publica- 
 tions, some even of the most expensively illustrated 
 works, discussed and criticised in society here. We 
 were also charmed to meet with many children happy 
 and merry, yet perfectly obedient ; and once more to 
 see what, after the experience of the last two or three 
 months, struck us as a singular phenomenon in the 
 New World, a sliy child! 
 
 I made some geological excursions with Dr. Owen 
 
 N 4 
 
272 NEW HARMONY. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 and his friend, Mr. Bolton, to see the " carboni- 
 ferous rocks," of which this region is constituted, and 
 the shelly loam, like that of Natchez, which has 
 evidently once filled up to a considerable height the 
 valley of the Wabasb/and through which the running 
 waters have re-excavated the present valley. 
 
 There is no church or place of public worship in 
 New Harmony, a peculiarity which we never re- 
 marked in any town of half the size in the course of 
 our tour in the United States. Being here on week- 
 days only, I had no opportunity of observing whether 
 on Sundays there are any meetings for social wor- 
 ship. I heard that when the people of Evansville 
 once reproached the citizens of this place for having 
 no churches, they observed that they had also no 
 shops for the sale of spirituous liquors, which is still 
 a characteristic of New Harmony ; whereas Evans- 
 ville, like most of the neighbouring towns of Indiana, 
 abounds in such incentives to intemperance. 
 
 April 3. Left New Harmony for Evansville, on 
 the Ohio, Mr. Maclure having kindly lent us his 
 carriage and horses. We were accompanied by Dr. 
 Dale Owen and Mr. Bolton. On the way, we visited 
 Kimball's mill, in the township of Robinson, in Poser 
 county, fourteen miles north-west of Evansville, where 
 a fine example is seen of upright fossil trees belong- 
 ing to a species of Sigillaria. These are imbedded 
 in strata of argillaceous shale, or hardened mud, which 
 constitute the upper part of the great Illinois coal- 
 field, and above them lies a horizontal layer of sand- 
 stone, while a seam of coal, eighteen inches thick, is 
 observed about eighteen feet below the roots. Having 
 borrowed spades from the neighbouring mill, we dug 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] FOSSIL TREES, INDIANA. 273 
 
 out the earth from round one of the buried trees, 
 and exposed a trunk four feet eight inches high, from 
 the bottom of which the roots were seen spreading 
 out as in their natural position. There were two 
 other fossil trees near it, both apparently belonging 
 to the same species of SigiUaria. The bark, con- 
 verted into coal, displayed the scars left by the at- 
 tachment of the leaves, but no internal structure was 
 preserved in the mud, now forming a cylindrical mass 
 within the bark. The diameter of the three trunks 
 was from 18 inches to 2 feet, and their roots were in- 
 terlaced. A great number of others, found in like 
 manner in an erect posture, Im 7 e been removed in 
 working the same quarry. The fossil plants obtained 
 here, and in other parts of the Indiana coal-field, 
 are singularly like those in other carboniferous 
 strata in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, and Eu- 
 rope. Among them occur species of ferns of the 
 genera Pecopteris and Cyclopteris, and three plants, 
 Neuropteris flexuosa, N. cordata, and Lepidodendron 
 olovatwn, all European species, and common to 'the 
 Alleghanies and Nova Scotia. 
 
 The three large fossil trees above described as 
 newly exposed to view, were standing erect under 
 the spreading roots of one living oak, and it is 
 wonderful to reflect on the myriads of ages which 
 have intervened between the period when the ancient 
 plants last saw the light, and the era of this modern 
 forest, the vegetation of which would scarcely afford, 
 except in the case of the ferns, any generic resem- 
 blance, yet where the trees are similar in stature, up- 
 right attitude, and the general form of their roots, 
 
 N 5 
 
274 MOVERS MIGRATING WESTWARD. [CHAP. XXXV. 
 
 As we approached Evansville, we passed a German 
 farm, where horses were employed to tread out the 
 maize, and another where vines were cultivated on 
 the side of a hill. At one turn of the road, in the 
 midst of the wood, we met a man with a rifle, car- 
 rying in his hand an empty pail for giving water to 
 his horse, and followed at a short distance by his wife, 
 leading a steed, on which was a small sack. e ? It 
 probably contains," said our companions, " all their 
 worldly goods ; they are movers, and have their 
 faces turned westward, a small detachment of that 
 great army of emigrants, which is steadily moving 
 on every year towards the Rocky Mountains. This 
 young married couple may perhaps go down to the 
 Mississippi, and buy, for a few dollars, some acres of 
 land, near a wooding station. The husband will fell 
 timber, run up a log cabin, and receive ready money 
 from the steam-boats, which burn the wood. At the 
 end of ten or fifteen years, by which time some of 
 their children will have become profitable servants, 
 they may have put by 2000 dollars, bought a farm, 
 and be living in a frame-house." 
 
 The very moment of our arrival at Evansville, a fine 
 steam-boat, the Sultana, came in sight, and we found, 
 among the passengers, some agreeable acquaintances, 
 whom we had known at New Orleans and Natchez. 
 
 As some of these large vessels are much more ex- 
 pensive than others, Americans of the richer class, 
 when making a long voyage, choose them purposely, 
 as in England we take places in a first-class railway 
 carriage, that they may be less thrown into contact 
 with ruder travellers. One of our friends, a naval 
 officer, speaking of the improvement of society in the 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] VOYAGE TO LOUISVILLE. 275 
 
 Western States, said that duelling and drinking had 
 greatly diminished in the last fifteen years. He re- 
 lated one of the strange scenes he had witnessed at a 
 dinner-party, only a few years ago, at the house of a 
 judge, in a town on the banks of the Mississippi. 
 A quarrel had arisen, when one of the guests took 
 out a pen-knife, and stabbed the judge in the side, 
 so that the blood spirted out. The judge himself 
 immediately drew out a bowie knife, and his antago- 
 nist, at the same instant, a pistol, and it then ap- 
 peared that every other individual was armed with 
 knives or pistols. The narrator admitted, that as he 
 was travelling, he had also pistols upon him. For- 
 tunately some cool, judicious persons of the party 
 interposed in time to prevent farther mischief. 
 
 I fell into conversation with an intelligent well- 
 dressed passenger, who, as we sailed by the town of 
 Utica, in Indiana, remarked that it was too near the 
 large city of Louisville to thrive greatly ; and in 
 speculating on the future prospects of the West, he 
 said that by the census of 1840, it was proved that 
 the Atlantic States had about nine and a half mil- 
 lions of inhabitants, while the States lying west of 
 the mountains, and between the great lakes and the 
 Gulf of Mexico, numbered about six millions four 
 hundred thousand. Now it is believed that the census 
 of 1850 will show the population of the whole 
 country to have changed its centre to the west of 
 the mountains, and, under a system of universal suf- 
 frage, the centre of population becomes the centre 
 of political power. After having been much inte- 
 rested with the information which I gained from this 
 
 N 6 
 
276 PORK MERCHANT. [CHAP. XXXV 
 
 companion, although occasionally struck with his vio- 
 lation of the rules of ordinary good manners, I was 
 trying to divine to what class in society he might be- 
 long, when he began to enlarge on the number of 
 hogs killed last year in Cincinnati, which exceeded 
 all former seasons, amounting to 300,009, and to 
 describe to me how the streets, in killing time, were 
 blocked up with barrels of salt pork for exportation, 
 so that it was not easy to pass in a carriage. He 
 then asked me abruptly, " How many hogs do you 
 think I killed last season ?" Imagining that he might 
 be a farmer, I said, 300. He exclaimed, " 18,000, 
 and all of them despatched in thirty-five days ! " He 
 next began to boast that one of his men could evis- 
 cerate more hogs in one day than any other hand in 
 Kentucky ; and, placing himself in the attitude of his 
 favourite executioner, he gave me such a minute de- 
 scription of his mode of operating, and dwelt on it 
 Avith so much zest, as to make me feel satisfied that, 
 as Thomas Diafoirus, in the " Malade Imaginaire," 
 proposed to treat his mistress with " a dissection," so 
 this member of the " pork aristocracy" of the West, 
 would never doubt that such feats of professional 
 dexterity as he loved to dilate upon, must command 
 the admiration of all men who have the slightest 
 feeling for superior artistical skill. 
 
 The distance from Evansville to Louisville was 
 205 miles, and on both sides of the river were hills of 
 limestone or sandstone, of the coal formation, 300 
 feet high, frequently presenting steep and picturesque 
 cliffs. Everywhere I observed a flat terrace of loam, 
 or loess, bordering the river, sometimes on the side 
 of Kentucky, sometimes on that of Indiana. 
 
CHAP. XXXV.] FOSSIL CORAL REEF. 277 
 
 I had found this ledge, both at Mount Yernon and 
 at Evansville, to contain land and freshwater shells. 
 At the last-mentioned town, where the terrace was 
 from twenty to thirty feet high, one of the lower 
 beds of coarse materials was full of Paludina and the 
 valves of a Unio, both of living species ; yet with 
 them were included, in the same gravelly and shelly 
 mass, the well-preserved bones of the megalonyx. 
 
 The coal-measures had given place to an older 
 series of strata, the Devonian, when we reached the 
 Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, where are saw the river 
 foaming over its rocky bed. I first landed at New 
 Albany, in Indiana, nearly opposite Louisville, that 
 I might visit Dr. Clapp, and see his splendid collec- 
 tion of fossil corals, He accompanied me to the bed 
 of the river, where, although the water was not at 
 its lowest, I saw a grand display of what may be 
 termed an ancient coral reef, formed by zoophytes, 
 which nourished in a sea of earlier date than the 
 carboniferous period. The ledges of horizontal lime- 
 stone, over which the water flows, belong to the old 
 red sandstone, or Devonian group, and the softer 
 parts of the stone have decomposed and wasted away, 
 so that the harder calcareous corals stand out in re- 
 lief. Many branches of these zoophytes project 
 from their erect stems precisely as if they were 
 living. Among other species I observed large masses, 
 not less than five feet in diameter, of Favosites 
 gothlandica, with its beautiful honeycomb struc- 
 ture well displayed, and, by the side of it, the Favis- 
 tella, combining a similar honeycombed form with 
 the star of the Astrcea. There was also the cup- 
 shaped Cyathophyllum, and the delicate network of 
 
278 FOSSIL CORAL REEF. [CHAP. xxxv. 
 
 the Fenestella, and that elegant and well-known 
 European species of fossil, called " the chain coral," 
 Catenipora escharoides, with a profusion of others, 
 which it would be tedious to all but the geologist to 
 enumerate. These coralline forms were mingled 
 with the joints, stems, and occasionally the heads, of 
 lily encrinites. Although hundreds of fine speci- 
 mens have been detached from these rocks, to enrich 
 the museums of Europe and America, another crop is 
 constantly working its way out, under the action of the 
 stream, and of the sun and rain, in the warm season 
 when the channel is laid dry. The waters are now 
 twenty feet above their lowest, and more than forty 
 feet below their highest level, so that large spaces of 
 bare rock are exposed to view. 
 
 On one of the window-sills of Dr. Clapp's library 
 was displayed a group of these ancient corals, and, in 
 the other window, a set of recent corals from the 
 West Indian seas, of the genera Meandrina, Astrea, 
 Madrepora, and others ; some of them as heavy and 
 stony as those of older date, their pores, foramina, and 
 minute microscopic structure, not being more dis- 
 tinctly preserved. No one but a zoologist would 
 have been able to guess which set were of modern, 
 and which of ancient origin. Yet so old are the 
 fossils, that they are referable to an era antecedent 
 to the Alleghanies, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, nay, 
 even to the time when by far the greater part of 
 the materials composing these mountain-chains were 
 slowly elaborated beneath the ocean. 
 
CHAP. XXXVL] LOUISVILLE. 279 
 
 CHAP. XXXYI. 
 
 Louisville. Nolle Site for a Commercial City. Geology. 
 Medical Students. Academical Rotation in Office. Epis- 
 copal Church. Preaching against the Reformation. Service 
 in Black Methodist Church. Improved Condition of Negroes 
 in Kentucky. A coloured Slave married as a free White. 
 Voyage to Cincinnati. Naturalised English Artizan gam' 
 Uing. Sources of Anti-British Antipathies Progress of 
 Cincinnati. Increase of German Settlers. Democracy of 
 Romanists. Geology of Mill Creek. Land Tortoises. ' 
 Observatory. Cultivation of the Vine. Sculpture by Hiram 
 Powers. 
 
 April 5. 1846. FROM New Albany we crossed the 
 river to Louisville, the metropolis of Kentucky, and 
 found the Gait House the best hotel we had been in 
 since we left the St. Louis at New Orleans. On our 
 way through the streets, we saw written in large 
 letters, over a smith's shop, the word " blacksmithy," 
 and another inscription ran thus : " Cash paid for 
 coon, mink, wild-cat, beaver, musk-rat, otter, bear, 
 wolf, and deer-skins ;" which reminded us that this 
 city, being the first place where large vessels coming 
 up the river are stopped by the Falls, is the natural 
 emporium for the produce of the western hunting 
 grounds. A more noble site for a great commercial 
 town cannot be imagined ; and several merchants ex- 
 pressed to me their opinion, that Cincinnati, founded 
 at a later date, would not have outstripped her rival 
 in the race, so as to number now a population of 
 nearly 100,000 souls, more than double that of Louis- 
 
280 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 ville, but for the existence of slavery, and a large 
 negro population in Kentucky. Besides the disad- 
 vantages always arising from the partition of a 
 country between two races, evils which emancipation 
 cannot put an end to, Kentucky suffers from the 
 decided preference shown to the right bank of the 
 river by the best class of new settlers from the north- 
 eastern States, who choose the Free State of Ohio 
 for their residence, instead of the Slave State on the 
 left bank. 
 
 I made a geological excursion with Dr. Yandell, 
 one of the Professors of the University of this place, 
 into the neighbourhood, going to the summit of a 
 hill called Button-Mould Knob, so named from the 
 joints of encrinites with which the lower strata of the 
 carboniferous formation are charged. Here we en- 
 joyed a wide prospect of the surrounding country, 
 which, if all the valleys were filled up, would form 
 an even table-land, the nearly horizontal strata having 
 been evidently planed off at a certain level by the 
 denuding action of the sea. The valley of the Ohio 
 forms the principal break in a region otherwise void 
 of any striking feature in its natural scenery. A 
 few spring flowers only were to be seen, the most 
 plentiful being the Houstonia and the Claijtonia. 
 
 We went to an evening party at the house of one 
 of the Professors of the University, and met many of 
 his colleagues, and some medical students. Two of 
 the latter informed me, that they had been sent to 
 London to finish their course of study, having been 
 brought up to feel great respect and veneration for 
 English educational establishments. They had been 
 
CHAP. XXXVI.] MEDICAL STUDENTS. 281 
 
 received kindly and politely by the professors, but 
 the prejudices of the majority of their fellow pupils 
 against the institutions of the United States, and 
 still more their rude remarks about the vulgarity 
 of all Americans (of whom they knew scarcely any- 
 thing), had so wounded their national feelings, that 
 they had written home to entreat their parents to 
 allow them to attend classes at Paris, or in some 
 German University, to which they had reluctantly 
 assented. These young men, being of good families 
 in Kentucky, were gentlemanlike in their manners, 
 in this respect decidedly above the average standard of 
 students of the same profession in England, and they 
 spoke with no bitterness even on this annoying topic. 
 Talking over academical matters, some elders of the 
 company complained of the wish of the democratic 
 party to apply their favourite dogma of " rotation in 
 office," or " let every man have his turn," not only to 
 members of the executive and the election of judges, 
 but actually to University professors. " You may 
 amuse your countrymen," said they, " on your re- 
 turn, by telling them of the wisdom of our sovereign 
 rulers, who would shorten to a minimum the term of 
 service even of men who fill literary or scientific 
 chairs." I informed them that nearly the whole 
 University lectures at Oxford and Cambridge, had of 
 late years, in opposition to earlier usage, been trans- 
 ferred to temporary occupants of tutorships, who 
 looked forward to the resigning of their academical 
 functions as soon as they could afford to marry, or 
 could obtain church preferment ; so that the extreme 
 democracy of Kentucky would at least have no 
 
282 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. [CHAP. XXXVL. 
 
 claim to originality, should they apply their maxim 
 of rotation in office to a body of academical lecturers. 
 On Sunday we attended service in an Episcopal 
 church. The young preacher dwelt largely on the 
 supreme authority of the Church, and lamented 
 that many dogmas and pious usages, which had re- 
 ceived the unbroken sanction of fifteen centuries, 
 should have been presumptuously set at naught by 
 the rebellious spirit of the sixteenth century, the 
 great intellectual movement of which he described as 
 marked by two characteristics, " nonsense and philoso- 
 phy;" nor was it easy to discover which of these two 
 influences, in their reference to matters ecclesiastical, 
 were most evil in his sight. After a long dissertation in 
 this strain, he called up to him a number of intelligent 
 looking young girls to be catechized, and I never saw 
 a set of children with more agreeable or animated 
 countenances, or who displayed more of that modest 
 reverence and entire unreflecting trust in their teacher, 
 which it is so pleasing to see in young pupils. That 
 some of the questions should have reference to the 
 doctrines just laid down in the preceding discourse, 
 was to be expected. One of the last of the interroga- 
 tories, "Who wrote the Prayer-book?" puzzled the 
 whole class. After waiting in vain for an answer, the 
 minister exclaimed, "Your mother;" and made a short 
 pause, during which I saw the girls exchange quick 
 glances, and I found time to imagine that each might 
 be exclaiming mentally to herself, " Can he mean my 
 mother?" when he added, in a solemn and emphatic 
 tone, " Your mother, the Church !" Had this congre- 
 gation belonged to any other than the Anglican Church, 
 
CHAP. XXXVI.] BLACK METHODIST CHURCH. 283 
 
 I might simply have felt regret and melancholy at 
 much that I had witnessed ; as it was, I came out of 
 the church in a state of no small indignation. I had 
 heard, in the course of my travels, several discourses 
 equally at variance with the spirit of the Reformation, 
 but none before in which the Reformation itself was 
 so openly denounced, and I could not help reflecting 
 on the worldly wisdom of those who, wishing in the 
 middle of the nineteenth century, to unprotestantise 
 the members of a reformed church, begin their work 
 at an age when the mind is yet unformed and plastic 
 dealing with the interior of the skull as certain 
 Indian mothers dealt with its exterior, when they 
 bound it between flat boards, and caused it to grow 
 not as nature intended, but into a shape which suited 
 the fashion of their tribe. 
 
 In the evening we were taken, at our request, to a 
 black Methodist church, where our party were the 
 only whites in a congregation of about 400. There 
 was nothing offensive in the atmosphere of the place, 
 and I learnt, with pleasure, that this commodious 
 building was erected and lighted with gas by the 
 blacks themselves, aided by subscriptions from many 
 whites of different sects. The preacher was a full 
 black, spoke good English, and quoted Scripture 
 well. Occasionally he laid down some mysterious 
 and metaphysical points of doctrine with a dogmatic 
 air, and with a vehement confidence, which seemed 
 to increase in proportion as the subjects transcended 
 the human understanding, at which moments he occa- 
 sionally elicited from his sympathising hearers, es- 
 pecially from some of the women, exclamations such 
 
284 BLACK METHODIST CHURCH. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 as " That is true," and other signs of assent, but no 
 loud cries and sobs, such as I had heard in a white Me- 
 thodist church in Montgomery, Alabama. It appeared 
 from his explanation of " Whose superscription is 
 this ? " that he supposed the piece of money to be a 
 dollar note, to which Cresar had put his signature. 
 He spoke of our ancestors in the garden of Eden in 
 a manner that left no doubt of his agreeing with Dr. 
 Prichard, that we all came from one pair, a theory to 
 which, for my own part, I could never see any ethno- 
 logical or physiological objection, provided time 
 enough be allowed for the slow growth of races; 
 though I once heard Mr. A, W. Schlegel, at Bonn, pro- 
 nounce it to be a heresy, especially in an Englishman 
 who had read the " Paradise Lost." " I could have 
 pardoned Prichard," said the Professor, " for believing 
 that Adam was the forefather of all the Africans, had 
 he only conceded that ' the fairest of her daughters, 
 Eve,' never could have been a negress." 
 
 Towards the close of the discourse, the minister 
 said " that a protracted meeting would soon be held ; 
 but such assemblies were, in his judgment, becom- 
 ing too frequent." He also announced that on 
 Easter Sunday there would be a love-feast, which no 
 doubt would be very crowded, " and where I hope you 
 will all enjoy yourselves." He then said, " Sirs and 
 Madams, I have now to warn you of a serious matter, 
 but I see many of you are nodding, and let every 
 one wake up his neighbour. The sexton, poor man, 
 has more than he can do." This official, by the 
 way, had been administering with his cane many ad- 
 monitory taps on the heads of the younger part of 
 
CHAP. XXXVI.] BLACK PREACHER. 285 
 
 the congregation, such as must have precluded them 
 from napping for some time, if their skulls are not 
 harder than those of their white brethren. There 
 was a general stir, and two fat negro women, between 
 whom my wife was wedged in (for the two sexes sat 
 on separate sides), looked to see if she was awake. 
 " There is a storm brewing," said the preacher, 
 6{ owing to some late doings in Ohio, and I hope that 
 none of the membership will get themselves into a 
 scrape." The exciting topic on which he then en- 
 larged was the late seizure, or kidnapping, as it was 
 termed, of Jerry Phinney, who, after residing some 
 years in Ohio, had been reclaimed by the heirs of his 
 ownsrs, in consequence of some flaw in his letters of 
 freedom, and brought back to Kentucky. An attempt 
 at a rescue was for a time apprehended, but 500 
 dollars were soon raised and paid to secure his release. 
 When I commended the action of the black 
 preacher as graceful, I w r as assured that he had suc- 
 cessfully imitated an eminent American player who 
 had lately performed at Louisville. " These blacks," 
 said my informant, " are such inimitable mimics, that 
 they will sometimes go through a whole sermon in 
 the same style as they have heard it delivered by 
 a white man, only appearing somewhat to caricature 
 it, because they are more pompous and declamatory ; 
 w T hich in them is quite natural, for they are a more de- 
 monstrative race than we are. If he addressed them 
 in a plain, colloquial manner, his sermon would seem 
 tame, and make no impression. They cannot talk 
 about the price of a pair of shoes, or quid of tobacco, 
 without such gesticulations that you would fancy it 
 
286 NEGROES IN KENTUCKY. [CHAP. XXXVI* 
 
 was a matter of life and death they were discussing." 
 There was a second coloured man in the pulpit, who 
 delivered a prayer with a strong nasal twang, and 
 very extravagant action. The hymns were some of 
 them in rather a wild strain, but, on the whole, not 
 unmusical. 
 
 I learnt that the domestic servants of Louisville, 
 who are chiefly of negro race, belong very commonly 
 to a different church from their owners. During our 
 short stay here, an instance came to my knowledge of 
 a master who, having an untractable black servant, 
 appealed to a negro minister, not of his own church, 
 to interfere and reprove him for his bad conduct, a 
 measure which completely succeeded. We were told 
 of four Sunday schools for coloured people in the city, 
 and in one of them 170 children receive instruction. 
 There are also other schools on week days for teach- 
 ing negroes to read, both in Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 When I communicated these facts to Americans in 
 Philadelphia, they were inclined to be incredulous, 
 and then said, "If such be the condition of negroes in 
 Kentucky, they must be better off in slave. States than 
 in others called free ; but you must not forget that 
 their most worthless runaways take refuge with us." 
 
 A recent occurrence in Louisville places in a strong 
 light the unnatural relation in which the two jraces 
 now stand to each other. One of the citizens, a re- 
 spectable tradesman, became attached to a young 
 seamstress, who had been working at his mother's 
 house, and married her, in the full belief that she was 
 a white, and a free woman. He had lived happily 
 with her for some time, when it was discovered that 
 
CHAP. XXXVL] WHITE MARRYING A SLAVE. 28? 
 
 she was a negress and a slave, who had never been 
 legally emancipated, so that the marriage was void 
 in law. Morally speaking, it was certainly not void ; 
 yet a separation was thought so much a matter of 
 course, that I heard the young man's generosity com- 
 mended because he had purchased her freedom after 
 the discovery, and given her the means of setting up 
 as a dressmaker. No doubt the lady knew that she 
 was not of pure blood, and we were told that only 
 six years before she had run away from her owner. 
 She had also concealed this fact from her lover, but 
 at a time probably when her affections were deeply 
 engaged. On the other hand, we may pity the hus- 
 band who suddenly finds that he is disgraced by 
 having made an unlawful marriage, that his children 
 are illegitimate, and that the wife of his choice be- 
 longs to an inferior caste in society. This incident 
 is important in many points of view, and especially 
 as proving to what an extent the amalgamation of 
 the two races would take place, if it were not checked 
 by artificial prejudices and the most jealous and 
 severe enactments of law. I found that many 
 here believe and hope that the time of emancipation 
 is near at hand ; but I was sorry to discover that the 
 most sagacious seemed to think that the blacks in 
 these middle States will not be able to stand alone 
 when no longer protected by enjoying the monopoly 
 of the labour market. 
 
 April 1. Sailed in the Ben Franklin steamer 
 from Louisville to Cincinnati, a distance by the river 
 of 130 miles. The scenery much resembled that be- 
 low the Falls ; the valley of the Ohio being bounded 
 
288 VOYAGE TO CINCINNATI. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 by flat-topped hills, 200 or 300 feet high, formed of 
 horizontal beds of sandstone or limestone, with steep 
 slopes or cliffs towards the river, and at the base of 
 these a flat terrace of gravel or loam on one or both 
 sides of the Ohio, above high-water mark. 
 
 We made twelve miles an hour against the stream, 
 and if we were descending, the captain says, we 
 should go at the rate of eighteen miles an hour. 
 Among the passengers I saw a thin, sallow-faced, 
 anxious looking artizan, whom I mistook for a native- 
 born Yankee, holding forth to a small circle of idlers 
 about "our revolution" and "our glorious victories 
 over the British," and calling upon all to prove them- 
 selves " true democrats." Soon after we started I 
 saw him take a dram, and then sitting down to cards 
 lose sixty dollars in half an hour. The officers of the 
 ship, observing this transaction, interfered and put a 
 stop to the game, giving orders to the steward not to 
 sell any more brandy to this passenger. I afterwards 
 learnt that he was an Englishman, a skilful, first- 
 rate mechanic in the iron trade at Pittsburg, who 
 had come out from Liverpool about sixteen years 
 ago. After drinking and losing all his earnings 
 at the gaming table, he has returned again and again 
 to work, and can always command high wages. He 
 has read up the history of the American revolution, 
 and at an election can harangue a mob of newly come 
 emigrants with great effect, and with all the authority 
 of a native, assuming a tone of intense nationality. 
 On other occasions I had met with a naturalised En- 
 glishman of a different stamp, who might equally be 
 described as "ipsis Americanis Americanior," one 
 
CKAP. XXXVI.] ANTI-BRITISH ANTIPATHIES. 289 
 
 who, having been born in the middle classes, has gone 
 over early in life to the New World, where he has 
 succeeded in business, risen to a good social position, 
 and given his children an excellent education. He 
 then goes back to visit the " old country," and see 
 his friends and relatives, and is surprised and morti- 
 fied that they are separated by so great a gulf from 
 the higher classes, greater than exists between the 
 humblest and most elevated in his adopted country. 
 He finds, also, the religious sect to which he and 
 his kindred belong, only tolerated, and not standing 
 on the same footing of ' ' gentility " as the dominant 
 church. His sectarian zeal, his feelings of social 
 pride, and his political principles are all up in arms, 
 and he comes back to America far more patriotic and 
 more of an optimist than any native. If he then 
 ventures to enter on the political arena, his oppo- 
 nents warn the electors against one who is an alien 
 by birth and feeling, and, in his efforts to disprove 
 such imputations, he reaches the climax of anti- 
 British antipathy. 
 
 Such citizens were unaffectedly incapable of com- 
 prehending that I could have seen so much of the 
 Union, and yet have no wish whatever to live there. 
 Instead of asking, " Would you not like to settle 
 here ? " it would be more prudent for them to shape 
 their question thus : " If you were to be born over 
 again, and take your chance, by lot, as to your sta- 
 tion in society, what country would you prefer ? " 
 Before choosing, I should then have to consider, that 
 the chances are many thousands to one in favour of 
 my belonging to the labouring class, and the land 
 
 VOL. II. O 
 
290 PKOGKESS OF CINCINNATI. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 where they are best off, morally, physically, and in- 
 tellectually, and where they are most progressive, 
 would be the safest one to select. Such being the 
 proposition, the Free States of the Union might well 
 claim a preference. 
 
 Every town we had visited in the last three months, 
 since we left Savannah, in January, was new to us, 
 and Cincinnati was the first place where we were able 
 to compare the present state of things with that 
 observed by us in the summer of 1842. In this 
 short interval of four years, great improvements in 
 the buildings, streets, and shops were visible ; a vast 
 increase of population, and many additional churches, 
 and new cotton factories. The soil of the country 
 immediately behind the town is rich, and there is an 
 ample supply of labourers, partly indeed because the 
 Catholic priests strive to retain in the city all the 
 German emigrants. Although they are industrious 
 and thrifty, such an arrangement is by no means the 
 best for promoting the progress of Ohio, or her me- 
 tropolis ; for, next to having an " Irish quarter," a 
 " German quarter " in a large city is most undesir- 
 able. The priests, no doubt, judge rightly, both in 
 reference to their notions of discipline, and with a 
 view of maintaining their power ; for these peasants, 
 when scattered over the country, and interspersed 
 with Protestants, cannot be made to confess regularly, 
 attend mass, and read orthodox German newspapers, 
 three of which are published here daily, and one 
 weekly, all under ecclesiastical censorship. There are 
 a large number of German Protestants, and 20,000 
 Catholics, in all twelve churches, where the service is 
 
CHAP. XXXVI.] DEMOCRACY AND ROMANISM. 291 
 
 performed in the German language. Only half of 
 these are Romanist churches, but they are much more 
 crowded than the others. The chief emigration has 
 been from Bavaria, Baden, Svvabia, Wirtemberg, and 
 the Black Forest, and they are almost all imbued 
 with extreme democratic notions, which the ordinary 
 European training, or the working of semi-feudal 
 institutions, evidently fosters in the minds of the mil- 
 lion, far more than does the republicanism of the 
 United States. The Romanist priests feel, or affect, 
 sympathy with this political party, and in the last 
 election they instructed the Germans and the Irish 
 to vote for Polk against Clay. It ought, indeed, to 
 serve as a warning, and afford serious matter of re- 
 flection to the republicans of America, that a church 
 which requires the prostration of the intellect in 
 matters of faith and discipline, and which is most 
 ambitious of worldly power, is also of all others the 
 most willing to co-operate with the ultra-democratic 
 party. Are the priests conscious of having embarked 
 in a common cause with the demagogue, and that 
 they must, like him, derive their influence from court- 
 ing the passions, prejudices, and ignorance of the 
 people ? If so, one method alone remains for com- 
 bating both the removal of ignorance by a well- 
 organized government system of schools, neither 
 under sectarian or ecclesiastical control, nor under 
 the management of any one political party. 
 
 In the city, the New Englanders appeared to me 
 to have lost political weight since we were last here. 
 To show me how seriously the priests interfere in 
 
 o 2 
 
292 GEOLOGY OF MILL CREEK. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 their domestic affairs, a bookseller told me that he 
 had just lost the services of a young shopman who, 
 although a Protestant, like his father, found that his 
 mother, a Catholic, considered it her duty never to 
 let him rest till he adopted some other profession. 
 The priest had told her that he was constantly 
 handling dangerous and heretical books in his store, 
 with which his mind must be contaminated. 
 
 In many of the large towns, in the valley of the 
 Mississippi, the Catholics have established such ex- 
 cellent schools, and enforced discipline so well, that 
 the children of Protestants have been attracted there, 
 and many have become proselytes ; but I heard of 
 still more Catholics who have become converts to 
 Protestantism, and I cannot but believe that Ro- 
 manism itself will undergo many salutary modifica- 
 tions under the influence of the institutions of this 
 country. 
 
 I made an excursion with Messrs. Buchanan, James, 
 Carley, Clark, and Anthony, to Mill Creek, a tribu- 
 tary valley of the Ohio, where loam and gravel, with 
 freshwater shells, overlies a deposit of leaves and 
 fossil stems of trees. The shells are of recent species, 
 and the layer of vegetable matter of the same age as 
 that which contains the bones of the mastodon, ele- 
 phant, megalonyx, and other extinct animals at Big 
 Bone Lick, in Kentucky.* I afterwards saw in the 
 city some beautiful collections of Silurian fossils 
 from the blue limestone, and was struck with the 
 
 * See ante, p. 257258. and " Travels in North America," 
 vol. ii. pp. 62. 65. 67. 
 
CHAP. XXXVI.] LAND TORTOISES. 293 
 
 dimensions of some of the trilobites of the genus 
 Isoteles, the most perfect specimen being eight inches 
 long, and many large fragments of other individuals 
 indicating a length of not less than eighteen or 
 twenty inches. 
 
 In Mr. Clark's garden were several land-tortoises 
 ( Testudo clausa, Say), which had lived there for ten 
 years ; and, after a hybernation of some months, had 
 just re-appeared. They were crawling about in 
 search of snails, but will also eat strawberries and 
 meat, both raw and cooked. They grow very slowly ; 
 the largest are eight inches long, and some of the 
 young ones not bigger than a half-crown piece. Mr. 
 Clark tells me, that the female lays four eggs, and 
 digs a hole for them in the ground, hollowing it out 
 with her hind feet to the depth of four inches, and 
 shaping it so that it enlarges below. After being 
 occupied for about a week in this excavation, she 
 deposits the eggs and fills up the hole with earth, 
 beating it down with her hind feet to make it firm. 
 The spot is well concealed by a covering of soil two 
 inches thick, which does not prevent the sun's heat 
 from hatching the eggs as the summer advances. 
 
 In one of the cabinets of Ohio insects, I saw 
 specimens of that common English butterfly, Vanessa 
 atalanta, or " red admirable," which I had observed, 
 in the winter, flying about in the woods of Alabama. 
 I could not distinguish it from the European species, 
 yet Mr. Doubleday, the entomologist of the British 
 Museum, at once recognised all I showed him as 
 American specimens ; for there is a minute, but con- 
 
 o 3 
 
294 OBSERVATORY. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 stant difference, first pointed out by Mr. J. F. Ste- 
 phens, in the markings of the beautifully coloured 
 anterior wing. On an accumulation of facts of this 
 kind must depend ultimately the answer to that 
 difficult question, What is the difference between a 
 species and a permanent variety ? How far can 
 climate, food, heat, light, and other causes give rise 
 to fixed and constant modifications in individuals 
 descended from one parent stock ? 
 
 We ascended the hill, on which a new observatory 
 has been built by subscription since we were last 
 here, and where there is an equatorial telescope 
 seventeen feet twelve inches in diameter. Dr. 
 Mitchell, the astronomer, proposes to explore a part 
 of the heavens more to the south than that which falls 
 within the range of any active European observatory. 
 From this hill we had a fine view of the winding 
 valley of the Ohio, and the city on its banks, with 
 nearly 100,000 inhabitants, the flat terraces of loam 
 and gravel bordering the river, and the wharf with 
 its fleet of steamers. On the opposite side of the 
 Ohio is the town of Covington in Kentucky, the 
 streets of which are made so to correspond with 
 those of Cincinnati, that they appear as if they were 
 parts of the same city, and a bridge over the river 
 is in contemplation. 
 
 The height of the hills above the river is about 
 400 feet. The trees are still in great part leafless, 
 but our eyes were refreshed with the green sward 
 adorning the sloping banks, such as we had not seen 
 during our winter tour in the Southern States. 
 
 The German settlers have greatly extended the 
 
CHAP. XXXVL] CULTIVATION OF THE VINE. 295 
 
 cultivation of the vine on the steep and terraced sides 
 of these hills, and they make wine, preferred by them- 
 selves, at least, to beer, and to many German wines. 
 Some lands near the river, recently rugged and sterile, 
 but suited to the grape, have risen immensely in 
 value, being now trenched and walled. This work 
 has been done in the winter when there was no other 
 employment. Some are of opinion, that the native 
 American grape ought to have been cultivated and 
 improved instead of importing foreign kinds. A rich 
 citizen, who had spoken very contemptuously of the 
 home-made article, was lately hoaxed by having some 
 of it passed off upon him as Rhenish hock, which 
 he declared was excellent, while some genuine hock of 
 the Rhine, given him as home-made, was pronounced 
 to be l( sour cider." 
 
 The small number of coloured people is striking 
 to one coming direct from Louisville, and I was 
 glad to hear that a stand had recently been made 
 against the prejudices which prevent the improve- 
 ment of the mixed race. A free school for girls 
 having been established at the expense of the city, 
 some of the parents complained that the trustees had 
 admitted two children of colour ; and, in fact, there 
 were among them two daughters of a white father 
 and mulatto mother. One of the managers told me, 
 that taking the complainants into the school, he 
 asked them to point out which of the pupils they 
 supposed to have African blood in their veins ; they 
 confessed themselves unable to guess, for the two 
 girls were not only among the best scholars, but 
 
 O 4- 
 
296 SCULPTURE BY POWERS. [CHAP. XXXVI. 
 
 better looking and less dark than many of the other 
 pupils. 
 
 At Mr. Longworth's we saw a beautiful piece of 
 sculpture, an ideal head called Ginevra, by Hiram 
 Powers, who had sent it from Rome as a present to 
 his first patron. It appeared to me worthy of the 
 genius of the sculptor of " Eve " and the " Greek 
 Slave." Thorwaldsen, when he saw Powers' "Eve," 
 foretold that he would create an era in his art ; and 
 not a few of the Italians now assign to him the first 
 place in the " Naturalista " school, though assuredly 
 there is much of the ideal also in his conceptions of 
 the beautiful. It augurs well for the future cultiva- 
 tion of the fine arts in the United States, that the 
 Americans are as proud of their countryman's success 
 as he himself could desire. 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] CINCINNATI TO PITTSBUKG. 297 
 
 CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 Cincinnati to Pittsburg. Improved Machinery of Steamer. 
 Indian Mound. Gravel Terraces. Pittsburg Fire. 
 Journey to Greensburg. Scenery like England. Oregon 
 War Question. Fossil Foot-prints of Air-breathing Reptile 
 in Coal Strata. Casts of Mud- cracks. Foot-prints of Birds 
 and Dogs sculptured by Indians. Theories respecting the 
 Geological Antiquity of highly organized Vertebrata. Pre- 
 judices opposed to the Reception of Geological Truths. Popu- 
 lar Education the only Means of preventing a Collision of 
 Opinion between the Multitude and the Learned. 
 
 April 13. 1846. FROM Cincinnati we embarked 
 in the Clipper steamer for Pittsburg, a distance of 
 no less than 450 miles ; so magnificent is the scale of 
 the navigation of this mere tributary of the Missis- 
 sippi ! Yet there are other large steamers also ply- 
 ing above Pittsburg, on the tributaries of the Ohio. 
 We observe more punctuality than in 1842, in the 
 starting of the steamers. The Clipper made ten 
 miles an hour against the current, including stop- 
 pages. We fell in with some large artificial rafts 
 of wood stretching more than half across the river, 
 and met a steamer, which had run foul of one of 
 them, still entangled, and, though bound for Pitts- 
 burg, floating down the stream with the raft. Our 
 steamer only draws 3| feet water, and her engines 
 are of a very peculiar construction, hitherto used in 
 
 o 5 
 
298 MACHINERY OF STEAMEK. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 sea-boats only, with the exception of one on Lake 
 Erie. The inventor of this improvement is Thomas 
 K. Litch. There are two cylinders, one twice the 
 size of the other, and the steam escapes from the 
 smaller into the larger, instead of issuing into the 
 open air, so that its heat is not lost. The economy 
 of fuel arising from this contrivance is great, and the 
 vibrations and noise much less than in other boats 
 on the same high-pressure principle. In place of the 
 usual bell, signals are made by a wild and harsh 
 scream, produced by the escape of steam, as in loco- 
 motive engines ; a fearful sound in the night, and 
 which, it is to be hoped, some machinist who has 
 an ear for music will find means to modulate. There 
 was a Pennsylvanian farmer on board who told me 
 that, having a large family to provide for, he had re- 
 solved to settle in Indiana, and was returning from 
 that State, after making a purchase of land in " the 
 rolling prairies." He had paid the usual government 
 price of 1^ dollar, or about 5s. 6d. an acre; whereas 
 he could sell his own property in Pennsylvania, which 
 had a house on it, at the rate of 60 dollars an acre. 
 He had been much concerned at finding a strong war 
 party in the West, who were eager to have a brush 
 with the English. " It was a short-sighted policy," 
 he remarked, "in your country, to exert so little 
 energy and put forth so small a part of her strength 
 in the last war with the United States. It will one 
 day involve both you and us in serious mischief." 
 
 At a point about twenty-four miles below Wheel- 
 ing, we came to the largest of the Indian mounds 
 on the Ohio, of which I have spoken in my former 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] GRAVEL TERRACES. 299 
 
 " Travels." * It is between 60 and 70 feet high, 
 rising from a flat terrace of loam, and a very striking 
 object, reminding one, by its shape, of the pyramidal 
 Teocallis of the ancient Mexicans, of which Hum- 
 boldt has given figures, and which are so well de- 
 scribed by Prescott, in his " History of Cortes." As 
 we approached Wheeling, the valley of the Ohio 
 became narrower, and the hills, composed of strata of 
 the coal formation, sensibly higher. The State of 
 Ohio was on our left hand, or on the northern 
 bank of the river, and that of Virginia on our right. 
 The flat terrace of loam and gravel, extending every- 
 where from the base of the hills to the river's bank, 
 forms a picturesque contrast to the steep slope of the 
 boundary hills, clothed partly with ancient timber, 
 and partly with a second growth of trees of less 
 height, which has sprung up where clearings have 
 been made. It is worthy of remark, that the mate- 
 rials of the great terrace of loam and gravel become 
 more and more coarse as we approach nearer the 
 mountains between Wheeling and Pittsburg, and at 
 the same time the terrace itself is more and more 
 elevated above the level of the river. It appeared 
 to be about 60 feet high near the mouth of the 
 Great Kanawha, and about 80 feet high at George- 
 town, 40 miles below Pittsburg, which I can only 
 explain by reference to the theory before advanced -j- ; 
 namely, by supposing the amount of subsidence, as well 
 as of the subsequent upward movement, to have been 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 32. f See ante, p. 259. 
 
 o 6 
 
300 PITTSBURGH FIKE. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 greater inland, or farther north, than in the south, 
 or nearer the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 April 16. There had been so hard a frost in 
 the night, that the roof of our steamer's cabin was 
 glazed with a thin sheet of ice as we approached 
 Pittsburg, and we heard fears expressed that the 
 fruit trees would be injured. Four years had elapsed 
 since we were last at Pittsburg, and, in the interval, 
 a considerable part of the city, covering sixty acres, 
 had been burnt to the ground, the great roofed bridge 
 over the Monongahela, all built of wood, having shared 
 the same fate. A light suspension bridge has already 
 replaced that structure of ponderous aspect, and al- 
 though the conflagration only happened in April of last 
 year, new streets have sprung up everywhere from 
 the ashes of the old, and the town has very far from 
 a ruined or desolate look. Commanding the naviga- 
 tion of three great rivers, and an inexhaustible supply 
 of coal, it has every advantage save that of an at- 
 mosphere free from coal smoke. 
 
 I learnt that there had recently been a strike of 
 the factory girls here for ten instead of twelve hours 
 of daily labour. Their employers argue that they 
 are competing with rivals who work their girls twelve 
 or more hours per day, and the strike has failed ; yet 
 many are of opinion, that even without legislative in- 
 terference, a ten hour rule will be eventually esta- 
 blished. 
 
 Most of our companions in the steamer were 
 agents of commercial houses going to look out for 
 orders at Pittsburg. On the whole they were very 
 intelligent, and conversed well on a variety of sub- 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] JOURNEY TO GREENSBURG. 301 
 
 jects, while most of them were too gentlemanlike to 
 feel ashamed of " the shop." But we had now been 
 living so many weeks in public with strangers, and 
 without opportunities of choosing our society, that 
 great was our delight to be able to hire at Pittsburg 
 a private carriage, and set out alone on an expedition 
 to Greensburg, 32 miles distant, where I had a point 
 of geological interest to investigate. As we were 
 leaving the hotel, a news-boy, finding I was supplied 
 with newspapers, offered to sell me a cheap American 
 reprint of the miscellaneous works of Lord Jeffrey, 
 assuring me that " it contained all the best articles he 
 had written in the Edinburgh Review." 
 
 To be once more climbing hills even of moderate 
 height, was an agreeable novelty after dwelling so 
 long on the flat plains of the Mississippi. We were 
 on the direct road, leading across the Alleghanies to 
 Harrisburg. The scenery often reminded us of Eng- 
 land, for we were travelling on a macadamized road, 
 and passing through turnpike gates, with meadows on 
 one side, and often on the other large fields of young 
 wheat, of an apple-green colour, on which a flock of 
 sheep, with their lambs, had been turned in to feed. 
 The absence of stumps of trees in the fields was 
 something new to us, as was the non-appearance for 
 a whole day of any representative of the negro race. 
 Here and there a snake-fence, and a tall strong 
 stubble of maize, presented a point of contrast with 
 an English landscape. In some of the water-meadows 
 the common English marigold (Caltha palustris) was 
 in full flower. At one turn of the road, a party of 
 men on foot came in sight, each with his rifle, and 
 
302 GREENSBURG. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 they were followed, at a short distance, by a waggon 
 with women and children, and a train of others laden 
 with baggage. Our driver remarked that they were 
 " movers," and I asked him if he ever knew an 
 instance of an American migrating eastward. He 
 said that he was himself the only example he ever 
 heard of; for he was from Kentucky, having come 
 the year before to satisfy his curiosity with a sight 
 of the great Pittsburg fire. There he found a great 
 demand for work, and so was tempted to stay. 
 
 Our road lay through East Liberty, Wilkinsburg, 
 and Adamsburg. Some day-labourers, who were 
 breaking stones on the road, told me they were re- 
 ceiving seventy-five cents, or three shillings, a day ; 
 and this in a country where food and fuel are much 
 cheaper than in England, although clothing is rather 
 dearer. 
 
 Near Turtle Creek, two farmers conducted me to 
 a spot where coal was worked, and where the undu- 
 lating ground consisted of sandstone, limestone, and 
 shale, green and black, of the coal-formation, pre- 
 cisely resembling strata of the same age in England, 
 both in mineral appearance, and in most of the species 
 of imbedded fossil plants. 
 
 About fifteen miles before we reached Greensburg, 
 we saw, in the extreme distance, the blue, faint, long, 
 and unbroken line of the most western ridge of the 
 Alleghanies. 
 
 Greensburg is a neat, compact town of about 1000 
 inhabitants. The houses are all of brick ; there is a 
 court-house and five churches, some Lutheran, others 
 Calvinistic, the German language being used in some, 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] SCARCITY OF SERVANTS. 303 
 
 and the English in others. They publish three 
 newspapers. We took up our quarters at a com- 
 fortable old-fashioned inn, where we were waited 
 upon by the members of the family, for the difficulty 
 of hiring or retaining servants here, seems to be ex- 
 treme. One girl had left a lady, whose acquaintance 
 we made, because, being a farmer's daughter, she 
 was not allowed to sit down at table with her mis- 
 tress. The lady's sister, who was accomplished, and 
 conversed with us on many literary subjects, was 
 obliged to milk the cow for the whole summer, though 
 they were in easy circumstances, such was the 
 scarcity of " help." Fortunately for us, my wife 
 and I had, by this time, acquired the habit of wait- 
 ing on ourselves in the inns, going occasionally down 
 to the kitchen to ask for things, in a way which in 
 England would be thought quite derogatory to one's 
 dignity, especially in the eyes of the servants, whose 
 trouble would thereby be lessened. Here, on the 
 contrary, we found that it made us popular. The 
 general system in America that servants at inns re- 
 ceive no gratuities, but are paid ample wages in- 
 stead, is one cause of this difference. Yet much may 
 be said in its favour, as it raises the independence of 
 the servants, and relieves strangers from the per- 
 plexity of determining what fees are suitable. 
 
 There was a crowded public meeting the day of 
 our arrival, at which several orators were haranguing 
 an audience of the lowest class, in favour of war 
 with England about Oregon. The walls were pla- 
 carded with bills, on which were printed, in large 
 letters, these words, " Forty-Five, or Fight," which 
 
304 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 meant that the Oregon territory must extend as far 
 north as the 45th degree of latitude. 
 
 This ambition of the people of the West to pos- 
 sess Oregon, is at least no new idea, for I happened 
 to purchase at Louisville an old guide-book describing 
 the Falls of the Ohio and the city, in which, when 
 speaking of commercial matters, the colonization and 
 annexation of Oregon was set forth as the means of 
 " opening a direct trade with China." I observed 
 to one of the citizens, that it was satisfactory to see 
 that none of the upper, or even of the middle classes, 
 were taking any part at Greensburg in this agita- 
 tion. He shook his head, and said, " Very true ; 
 but these meetings are most mischievous, for you 
 must bear in mind, that your nobody in England is 
 our everybody in America." 
 
 I had determined to visit Greensburg, on my way 
 from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, that I might ex- 
 amine into the evidence of the reality of certain fos- 
 sil foot-prints of a reptile said to have been found 
 in strata of the ancient coal-formation, and of which 
 Dr. King, of Greensburg, had published an account 
 in 1844. The genuineness of these foot-marks was 
 a point on which many doubts were still entertained, 
 both in Europe and America, and I had been re- 
 quested by several geological friends not to return 
 without having made up my mind on a fact which, 
 if confirmed, was of the highest theoretical im- 
 portance. Up to this period, no unequivocal proofs 
 had been detected of the fossil remains of vertebrated 
 animals more highly organised than fishes, in strata 
 of such antiquity as the carboniferous rocks, and the 
 
CHAP. XXXVIL] IN COAL STRATA. 305 
 
 absence of air-breathing quadrupeds or birds, served 
 to constitute negative evidence, of peculiar signifi- 
 cance, in reference to the coal-measures, because, as 
 before stated*, they contained the monuments of 
 shallow freshwater swamps, and often of surfaces of 
 land covered with a luxuriant vegetation of terres- 
 trial plants, some of the buried trees of which still 
 remain with their roots in their natural position. 
 That we should never have found, in such deposits, 
 the remains of air-breathing creatures, except a few 
 insects, that we should not yet have met with a 
 single mammifer or bird, or lizard, snake, or tortoise, 
 or the faintest indication of their existence, seemed 
 most inexplicable, and led many geologists to em- 
 brace the opinion, that no beings having a higher 
 organization than fishes, were created till after the 
 carboniferous strata had been elaborated. 
 
 During my stay in Westmoreland county, I was 
 indebted to Dr. King for the most active assistance 
 in the prosecution of my inquiries. He kindly de- 
 voted several days to this object, and we first visited 
 together a stone quarry in Union township, six miles 
 south-east of Greensburg, on a farm belonging to 
 Mr. Gallagher, where the foot-marks had been first 
 observed, standing out in relief from the lower sur- 
 face of slabs of sandstone, resting on thin layers of 
 fine clay. These slabs were extracted for paving- 
 stones, and the excavation was begun in the bank of 
 a small stream, where there was at first a slight 
 thickness only of shale overlying the harder beds; 
 
 * See ante, p. 245, 246. 
 
306 
 
 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 Scale one-sixth the original. 
 
 Slab of sandstone from the coal-measures of Pennsylvania, with foot- 
 prints of air-breathing reptile and casts of cracks. 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] IN COAL STEATA. 307 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 Series of reptilian foot-prints in the coal-strata of Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania. 
 
 a. Mark of nail ? 
 
308 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 but as they cut their way into the bank, the mass of 
 shale became so dense as to oblige them to desist 
 from the work. Between the slabs of stone, each a 
 few inches thick, were thin parting layers of a fine 
 unctuous clay, well fitted to receive and retain faith- 
 ful impressions of the feet of animals. On the upper 
 surface of each layer, Dr. King saw the foot-steps im- 
 pressed more or less distinctly ; but, as the clay was 
 left exposed to the weather, it had crumbled to pieces 
 before I examined it, and I had only an opportunity 
 of seeing the casts of the same projecting in relief 
 from the undersides of slabs of argillaceous sandstone. 
 I brought away one of these masses, of which the 
 annexed figure (fig. 12.) is a faithful representation; 
 and it will be observed that it displays not only the 
 marks of the foot-prints of an animal, but also casts 
 of cracks, , a', of various sizes, which must have ex- 
 isted in the clay. Such casts are produced by the 
 drying and shrinking of mud, and they are usually 
 detected in sandstones of all ages in which foot-marks 
 appear. It will be seen that some of these cracks, as 
 at b, c, traverse the foot-prints, and they not unfre- 
 quently produce distortion in them, as might have 
 been expected, for the mud must have been soft 
 when the animal walked over it and left the impres- 
 sions, whereas, when it afterwards dried up and shrank, 
 it would become too hard to receive such indenta- 
 tions. I have alluded, in my former "Travels,"* to the 
 recent foot-prints of birds called sand-pipers ( Tringa 
 minutd), which I saw running, in 1842, over the red 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 168 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] IN COAL STRATA. 309 
 
 mud thrown down by every tide on the borders of 
 estuaries connected with the Bay of Fundy. When 
 this mud, which extends over thousands of acres, has 
 been baked by the hot summer sun of Nova Scotia, 
 it shrinks and cracks to the depth of several inches or 
 even feet, and acquires such consistency as to be 
 divisible into the successive layers of which it is com- 
 posed, presenting on many upper surfaces impres- 
 sions of birds' feet and cracks, and on the undersides 
 the casts of the same standing out in relief.* 
 
 I have also stated f that on the sea beach near 
 Savannah, in Georgia, I saw clouds of fine sand 
 drifted by the wind, filling up the foot-prints of 
 racoons and opossums, which a few hours before had 
 passed along the shore, after the retreat of the tide. 
 This process will account, in a satisfactory manner, 
 for the sharpness of many fossil casts of animals in 
 ancient rocks, as the grains of uniformly fine sand 
 were poured into the newly made cavities, not by a 
 current of water, which could scarcely have failed to 
 disturb the soft mud, but by the air, which could not 
 cause the slightest derangement of the most delicate 
 imprints. 
 
 No less than twenty-three foot-steps were observed 
 by Dr. King on slabs in the stone quarry of Union 
 township before mentioned, before its abandonment, 
 and the greater part of these were so arranged (see 
 fig. 13.) as to imply that they were the marks of the 
 
 * I have presented specimens of this red mud, with the foot- 
 prints of birds, to the British Museum, Geological Society, and 
 Museum of Economic Geology. 
 
 t Travels, vol. i. p. 167. , 
 
310 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 successive foot-steps of the same animal. Everywhere 
 there was seen a double row of tracks, occurring in 
 pairs, each pair consisting of a hind and 
 fore foot, and each being at nearly equal 
 distances from the next pair. The toes in 
 each of these parallel rows turn the one 
 set to the right, the other to the left. It 
 is instructive to compare these impressions 
 with those which had previously been met 
 with in an ancient European rock (although 
 one of less antiquity than the coal-form- 
 ation), namely, the new red sandstone or 
 Trias of Saxony and Cheshire. The ac- 
 companying figure (fig. 14.) represents the 
 Saxon Cheirotherium, so called by Professor 
 Kaup, because the marks both of the fore 
 and hind feet resemble the shape of a 
 human hand. Now in these European 
 hand-shaped foot-marks, both the hind 
 and fore feet have each five toes, and 
 the size of the hind foot is about five 
 times as large as the fore foot ; but in 
 
 fo 
 
 the American fossil (fig. 13.), the posterior 
 foot-print is not nearly twice as large as the an- 
 terior, and the number of toes is unequal, being- 
 five in the hinder and four in the anterior foot. 
 In the Greensburg animal, as in the European 
 Cheirotherium, the fifth toe stands out nearly at a 
 right angle with the foot, and somewhat resembles 
 the human thumb. On the external side of all the 
 Pennsylvanian tracks, both the larger and smaller, 
 there is a protuberance like the rudiment of another 
 
CHAP. XXXVII. ] IN COAL STKATA. 311 
 
 toe. The average length of the hind foot Is five and 
 a half inches, and of the fore foot four and a half. 
 The fore and hind feet being in pairs, follow each 
 other very closely, there being an interval of about 
 one inch only between them. Between each pair 
 the distance is six to eight inches, and between the 
 two parallel lines of tracks there is about the same 
 distance. 
 
 In the case of the European Cheirotherium, whe- 
 ther English or German, the hind and fore feet occur 
 in pairs, but they form only one row, as in fig. 14., 
 in consequence of the animal having put its feet to 
 the ground nearly under the middle of its body, and 
 the thumb-like toes are seen to turn to the right and 
 to the left in the alternate pairs. But in the Ame- 
 rican tracks, which form two parellel rows, all the 
 thumb-like toes in one set turn to the right, and in 
 the other set to the left. We may infer, therefore, 
 that the American Cheirotherium belongs to a new 
 genus of reptilian quadrupeds, wholly distinct from 
 that which characterises the triassic strata of Europe, 
 and such a generic diversity might have been ex- 
 pected in reptilian fossils of such different ages. 
 
 The geological position of the sandstone of Greens- 
 burg is perfectly clear, being situated in the midst of 
 the Appalachian coal-field, having the main bed of 
 coal, called the Pittsburg seam, three yards thick, a 
 hundred feet above it, worked in the neighbourhood, 
 and several other seams of coal at lower levels. The 
 impressions of Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, Stigmaria, 
 and other characteristic carboniferous plants, are 
 
312 FOSSIL FOOT-PRINTS [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 found both above and below the level of the reptilian 
 foot-steps. 
 
 We may safely assume that the huge reptile which 
 left these prints on the ancient sands of the coal- 
 measures was an air-breather, for its weight would 
 not have been sufficient under water to have made 
 impressions so deep and distinct. The same conclu- 
 sion is also borne out by the casts of the cracks above 
 described, for they show that the clay had been ex- 
 posed to the air and sun, so as to have dried and 
 shrunk. As we so often see the ripple mark pre- 
 served in sandstones of all ages, and in none more 
 frequently than in the American and European coal 
 strata, we ought not to feel surprise that superficial 
 markings, such as foot-prints, which are by no means 
 more perishable or evanescent in their nature, should 
 have been faithfully preserved down to our times, 
 when once the materials had been hardened into 
 stone. 
 
 There are some bare ledges of rock, composed of 
 pure white quartzose grit of the coal-measures, stand- 
 ing out exposed above the general level of the ground, 
 in many places near Greensburg, especially near 
 Deny, in Westmoreland county, about fourteen 
 miles north of Greensburg. They are so bare that 
 scarcely any lichens grow upon them, and on some 
 of them the foot-prints of birds, as well as those of 
 dogs and some other quadrupeds have been artificially 
 cut. After examining them carefully, I entertain no 
 doubt that they were sculptured by Indians, for 
 there are many Indian graves near Derry, and one 
 of their paths, leading through the forest from the 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] SCULPTURED FOOT-PRINTS. 313 
 
 Alleghany Mountains to the west, lay precisely in 
 the line of these curious carvings. The toe joints in 
 the feet of the birds thus cut are well indicated, as 
 might have been expected, for the aboriginal hunting 
 tribes of North America were skilful in following 
 the trail of all kinds of game, and are known to have 
 carved in some places on rocks, many rude imita- 
 tions of the external forms of animals. If, therefore, 
 they were sometimes tempted to use the representa- 
 tion of foot-prints as symbols of the birds or qua- 
 drupeds which they hunted, they would be not un- 
 likely to give very accurate copies of markings with 
 which they were so familiar. The important obser- 
 vations made by Dr. King relatively to the fossil 
 imprints, called the attention of the whole country 
 to the Indian antiquities of comparatively modern 
 date; but the popular notion that there was a con- 
 nection between them is wholly erroneous. 
 
 Since the announcement, by Dr. King, in 1844, 
 of the proofs of the existence of reptiles at the period 
 when the coal strata of Pennsylvania were formed, 
 Professor Goldfuss, of Bonn, has published the de- 
 scription of more than one saurian found in the 
 ancient coal-measures of Saarbruck, near Treves. 
 
 Never, certainly, in the history of science, were 
 discoveries made more calculated to put us on our 
 guard for the future against hasty generalisations 
 founded on mere negative evidence. Geologists have 
 been in the habit of taking for granted, that at 
 epochs anterior to the coal there were no birds or 
 air-breathing quadrupeds in existence ; and it seems 
 still scarcely possible to dispel the hypothesis that 
 
 VOL. II. P 
 
314 PREJUDICES OPPOSED TO [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 the first creation of a particular class of beings coin- 
 cides in date with our first knowledge of it in a 
 fossil state, or the kindred dogma that the first ap- 
 pearance of life on the globe agrees, chronologi- 
 cally, with the present limits of our insight into the 
 first creation of living beings, as deduced from organic 
 remains. These limits have shifted, even in our 
 own times, more than once, or have been greatly ex.. 
 panded, without dissipating the delusion, so intense is 
 the curiosity of man to trace back the present system 
 of things to a beginning. Rather than be disap- 
 pointed, or entertain a doubt of his power to discern 
 the shores of the vast ocean of past time, into which 
 his glances are penetrating, like the telescope into 
 the region of the remoter nebula?, he cannot refrain 
 from pleasing his imagination with the idea that some 
 fog-banks, resting on the bosom of the deep, are, in 
 reality, the firm land for which his aching vision is on 
 the stretch. 
 
 I cannot conclude these remarks on the geological 
 discoveries made in these remote valleys of the Alle- 
 ghanies, without alluding to a moral phenomenon, 
 which was forcibly brought before my mind in the 
 course of the investigation. The interest excited by 
 these singular monuments of the olden times, natu- 
 rally led to animated discussions, both in lecture- 
 rooms and in the columns of the daily journals, of 
 Pennsylvania, during which the high antiquity of the 
 earth, and the doctrine of former changes in the 
 species of animals and plants inhabiting this planet 
 before the creation of man, were assumed as esta- 
 blished truths. But these views were so new and 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] GEOLOGICAL TRUTHS. 315 
 
 startling, and so opposed to popular prepossessions, 
 that they drew down much obloquy upon their pro- 
 rnulgators, who incurred the censures not only of the 
 multitude, but also of some of the Roman Catholic 
 and Lutheran clergy. The social persecution was 
 even carried so far as to injure professionally the 
 practice of some medical men, who had given pub- 
 licity to the obnoxious doctrines. Several of the 
 ministers of the Lutheran church, who had studied 
 for years in German universities, were too well in- 
 formed not to believe in the conclusions established 
 by geologists, respecting the immensity of past time 
 and former vicissitudes, both in animal and vegetable 
 life; but although taking a lively interest in disco- 
 veries made at their own door, and joining in the 
 investigations, they were compelled by prudence to 
 conceal their opinions from their congregations, or 
 they would have lost all influence over them, and 
 might perhaps have seen their churches deserted. 
 Yet by maintaining silence in deference to the 
 opinions of the more ignorant, they become, in some 
 degree, the instruments of countenancing error ; nay, 
 they are rearing up the rising generation to be, in 
 their turn, the persecutors of many of their contem- 
 poraries, who may hereafter be far in advance in their 
 scientific knowledge. 
 
 " To nothing but error," says a popular writer of 
 our times, " can any truth be dangerous ; and I know 
 not," he exclaims, " where else there is seen so alto- 
 gether tragical a spectacle, as that religion should be 
 found standing in the highways, to say, ' Let no 
 man learn the simplest laws of the universe, lest they 
 
 JP 2 
 
316 INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM. [CHAP. XXXVII. 
 
 mislearn the highest. In the. name of God the 
 Maker, who said, and hourly yet says, Let there be 
 light, we command that you continue in darkness ! ' " * 
 Goldsmith, in the " Vicar of Wakefield," makes 
 his traveller say, that after he had walked through 
 Europe, and examined mankind nearly, he found 
 that it is not the forms of government, whether 
 they be monarchies or commonwealths, that deter- 
 mine the amount of liberty enjoyed by individuals, 
 but that " riches in general are in every country 
 another name for freedom." I agree with Goldsmith 
 that the forms of government are not alone sufficient 
 to secure freedom they are but means to an end. 
 Here we have in Pennsylvania a free press, a widely 
 extended suffrage, and the most perfect religious 
 toleration, nay, more than toleration, all the various 
 sects enjoying political equality, and, what is more 
 rare, an equality of social rank ; yet all this ma- 
 chinery is not capable, as we have seen, of securing 
 even so much of intellectual freedom as shall enable a 
 student of nature to discuss freely the philosophical 
 questions which the progress of science brings natu- 
 rally before him. He cannot even announce with 
 impunity, results which half a century of observation 
 and reasoning has confirmed by evidence little short 
 of mathematical demonstration. But can riches, as 
 Goldsmith suggests, secure intellectual liberty ? No 
 doubt they can protect the few who possess them 
 from pecuniary penalties, when they profess unpopu- 
 lar doctrines. But to enable a man to think, he 
 
 * Letter on Secular Education, by T. Carlyle, July, 1848. 
 
CHAP. XXXVII.] POPULAR EDUCATION. 317 
 
 must be allowed to communicate freely his thoughts 
 to others. Until they have been brought into the 
 daylight and discussed, they will never be clear even 
 to himself. They must be warmed by the sympathy 
 of kindred minds, and stimulated by the heat of con- 
 troversy, or they will never be fully developed and 
 made to ripen and fructify^ 
 
 How, then, can we obtain this liberty ? There is 
 only one method ; it is by educating the millions, and 
 by dispelling their ignorance, prejudices, and bigotry. 
 
 Let Pennsylvania not only establish numerous 
 free schools, but let her, when she organizes a system 
 of government instruction, raise the qualifications, 
 pay, and station in society of the secular teachers, as 
 highly as Massachusetts is now aspiring to do, and 
 the persecution I have complained of will cease at 
 once and for ever. 
 
 The project of so instructing the millions might 
 well indeed be deemed Utopian, if it were necessary 
 that all should understand the patient and laborious 
 trains of research and reasoning by which we have 
 arrived at grand generalisations in geology, and other 
 branches of physical science. But this is not requi- 
 site for the desired end. We have simply to com- 
 municate the results, and this we are bound to do, 
 without waiting till they have been established for 
 half a century. We ought rather carefully to prepare 
 the public mind for new conclusions as soon as they 
 become highly probable, and thus make impossible 
 that collision of opinion, so much to be deprecated, 
 between the multitude and the learned. 
 
 It is as easy to teach a peasant or a child that the 
 
 f 3 
 
318 POPULAR EDUCATION. [CnAp. XXXVII. 
 
 earth moves round the sun, as to inculcate the old 
 exploded dogma that it is the motionless centre of 
 the universe. The child is as willing to believe that 
 our planet is of indefinite antiquity, as that it is only 
 6000 years old. Tell him that the earth was inha- 
 bited by other races of animals and plants before the 
 creation of man, as we now know it to have been, 
 and the idea is not more difficult for him to conceive 
 than the notion which is usually allowed to take root 
 in his mind, that man and the species of animals and 
 plants, now our contemporaries, were the first occu- 
 pants of this globe. All that we require, when once 
 a good system of primary and normal schools has 
 been organized, is a moderate share of moral courage 
 and love of truth, on the part of the laity and clergy ; 
 and then the academical chair and scientific lecture- 
 room, and every pulpit, and every village school, may 
 be made to speak the same language, in regard to 
 those natural phenomena, which are of a kind to 
 strike and interest the popular mind. * 
 
 * The substance of the above remarks, on the fossil foot- 
 prints of Greensburg, was given by me in a Lecture to the 
 Royal Institution, London, Feb. 4. 1848. 
 
CHAP. XXXVIII.] STAGE TRAVELLING. 319 
 
 CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 Greensburg to Philadelphia. Crossing the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains. Scenery. Absence of Lakes. Harrisburg. 
 African Slave-trade. Railway Meeting at Philadelphia. 
 Borrowing Money for Public Works. Negro Episcopal 
 Clergyman. Washington. National Fair and Protectionist 
 Doctrines. Dog-wood in Virginia. Excursion with Dr. 
 Wyman. Natural History. Musk-rats. Migration of 
 Humming-birds to New Jersey. 
 
 April 19. 1846. LEFT Greensburg, intending to 
 cross the Alleghany Mountains to Harrisburg, and 
 go thence to Philadelphia. We started in the even- 
 ing in a large stage coach, in which were nine inside 
 passengers, so that our night journey through 
 Youngstown, Stonytown, and Shellsburg was fa- 
 tiguing, and not the less so by our having twice to 
 turn out in the dark, while all the luggage was 
 shifted to a new vehicle. The last of these broke 
 down, one of the wheels having given way, and we 
 had an opportunity of witnessing the resources and 
 ingenuity displayed on such occasions by American 
 travellers. A large bough of a tree was cut off with 
 an axe, and tied on to the axletree with ropes, so as 
 to support the body of the carriage, and in this way 
 we went several miles without inconvenience. Du- 
 ring one of the night transfers of our luggage a 
 carpet bag of mine was left behind, and when I after- 
 
 r 4 
 
320 CROSSING THE ALLEGHANIES. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 wards missed it at Philadelphia I wrote to three 
 places to claim it. After five days I found it in my 
 room in the hotel, no one knowing whence it came, 
 and nothing having been paid for it. Before reach- 
 ing Philadelphia it must have been transferred to 
 three distinct conveyances, including two railways. 
 I may state here a fact highly creditable to the public 
 conveyances in the United States, that I never lost 
 a package in either of my tours, although I sent 
 more than thirty boxes of geological specimens from 
 various places, often far south of the Potomac, and 
 west of the Alleghanies ; some by canals, some by 
 river steamers, others by coaches or railways. Every 
 one of them sooner or later found their way safely 
 to my house in London. 
 
 On leaving Greensburg we crossed one after ano- 
 ther of the long parallel ridges of which the Alle- 
 ghany chain is composed, descending into each of the 
 long intervening valleys, the hills becoming higher and 
 higher as we advanced eastward. The character of 
 
 o 
 
 the forest changed as we came to higher ground, 
 especially by the intermixture of trees of the fir tribe, 
 and by the undergrowth of azaleas, kalmias, and 
 rhododendrons, for I had seen none of these ever- 
 greens since I left Indiana, not even under the oak 
 wood round Greensburg. When day dawned we 
 had reached the highest part of our road, and enjoyed 
 a splendid mountain view, the steep wooded slopes 
 being relieved by the contrast of green meadows 
 bordering the rivers in the bottom of each deep valley, 
 while in many parts of the landscape a picturesque 
 effect was produced by what appeared to be extensive 
 
CHAP. XXXVIIL] ABSENCE OF LAKES. 321 
 
 lakes. All who were strangers to the scene required 
 to be assured that they were not really sheets of 
 water ; yet they were simply banks of dense white 
 fog resting on the low grounds, which the heat of the 
 sun would soon dissipate. It is singular that there 
 are no lakes in the Appalachian chain, all the rivers 
 escaping from the longitudinal valleys through gorges 
 or cross fissures, which seem invariably to accompany 
 such long flexures of the strata as characterise the 
 Alleghanies or the Jura. 
 
 In Campbell's " Gertrude of Wyoming," indeed, 
 we see 
 
 " Lake after lake interminably gleam," 
 
 amidst the Appalachian ridges ; but such character- 
 istics of the scenery of this chain are as pure inven- 
 tions of the poet's imagination, as the flamingos, 
 palrns, and aloes with which he adorns the banks of 
 the Susquehanna. 
 
 Near the highest summit of the chain I saw two 
 seams of excellent coal, one of them twelve feet 
 thick, in strata belonging to the same series which 
 I had examined near Greensburg. After descending 
 from the highest level, we followed for a time the 
 windings of the Juniata river, the road often bounded 
 by high rocky cliffs, on the ledges of which we saw 
 the scarlet columbine, blue hepatica, and other wild 
 flowers in blossom. 
 
 We slept at Cbambersburg, where, on the roof of 
 the court-house, stands a statue of Franklin, holding 
 a lightning conductor in his hand. A company of 
 firemen were exercising their engines in the great 
 
 r 5 
 
322 HARRISBURG. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 square, throwing up powerful jets of water high 
 enough to wash the statue. 
 
 From Chambersburg we went on by railway at 
 the rate of fourteen miles an hour, only slackening 
 our pace when we passed through the middle of 
 towns, such as Shippensburg and Carlisle, where we 
 had the amusement of looking from the cars into the 
 shop windows. 
 
 On reaching the Susquehanna we came in sight of 
 Harrisburg, the seat of Legislature of Pennsylvania, 
 a cheerful town, which makes a handsome appear- 
 ance at a distance, with its numerous spires and 
 domes. The railway bridge over the river had been 
 burnt down, and the old bridge carried away by a 
 recent freshet, when large fragments of ice were 
 borne down against the piers. 
 
 Among the passengers in the railway to Phila- 
 delphia, was an American naval officer, who had just 
 returned from service on the coast of Africa, fully 
 persuaded that the efforts made by the English and 
 United States' fleets to put down the slave-trade, 
 had increased the misery and loss of life of the 
 negroes without tending to check the traffic, which 
 might, he thought, have been nearly put an end to 
 before now, if England and other countries had spent 
 an equally enormous sum of money in forming set- 
 tlements such as Liberia ; although he admitted 
 that negroes from the United States, whose families 
 had been acclimatised in America for several genera- 
 tions, and who settled in Liberia, were cut off by 
 fever almost as rapidly as Europeans. 
 
 Returning to Philadelphia, after an absence of six 
 
CHAP. XXXVIII. J RAILWAY MEETING. 323 
 
 months, we Vere as much pleased as ever with the 
 air of refinement of the principal streets, and the 
 well-dressed people walking on the neat pavements, 
 under the shade of a double row of green trees, or 
 gazing, in a bright, clear atmosphere, at the tastefully 
 arranged shop windows ; nor could we agree with 
 those critics who complain of the prim and quakerish 
 air, and the monotonous sameness, of so regularly 
 built a city. 
 
 During our stay, a large meeting was held to pro- 
 mote a scheme for a new railway to Pittsburg, 
 through Harrisburg, the interest of the money to be 
 raised chiefly by city rates. Some of my friends 
 here are opposed to the measure, declaring that such 
 public works are never executed with economy, nor 
 thriftily managed. The taxation always falls on 
 some districts, which derive no profit from the enter- 
 prise, and they demand other grants of public money 
 as a compensation, and these are laid out with equal 
 extravagance. The good sense of the New England- 
 ers, say they, has almost invariably checked them 
 / from entering upon such undertakings, and in one of 
 the few instances in which they have deviated from 
 sound policy, they have repented. For when, in 
 opposition to the richer inhabitants, a branch railway 
 was made to connect Bridgeport, in Connecticut, 
 with the main line of road, the bonds of that small 
 inland town were pledged as security for the money 
 borrowed. The traffic proved insufficient to meet 
 their liabilities, and a majority of the citizens then 
 determined to repudiate. The rich alleged that they 
 had opposed the project, and the poor, who had voted 
 
 r 6 
 
324 NEGRO CLERGYMAN. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 away their monoy, were quite willing that no new 
 taxes should be imposed. The creditors, however, 
 went to law, and, by aid of the courts, compelled pay- 
 ment, as the Supreme Court might have done in the 
 case of the delinquent States (had not the original con- 
 stitution of the Union been altered before any of them 
 repudiated), which might have given a wholesome 
 check to rash enterprises guaranteed by State bonds. 
 
 The booksellers tell me that their trade is injured 
 by the war-panic, and I observe that most of the 
 halfpenny, or cent papers, are still very belligerent 
 on the Oregon question. 
 
 On Sunday I attended service, for the first time, 
 in a free black Episcopal church. Prayers were read 
 well by a negro clergyman, who was evidently an 
 educated man. The congregation consisted wholly 
 of the coloured race. Where there is a liturgy, and 
 where written sermons are read, there is small oppor- 
 tunity of comparing the relative capabilities of Afri- 
 cans and Europeans for the discharge of such func- 
 tions. In the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian 
 services, the success of the minister depends much 
 more on his individual ability. I was glad, however, 
 to see a negro officiating in a church which confers 
 so much social rank on its clergyman, and in no city 
 more than Philadelphia does the coloured race stand 
 in need of some such make- weights to neutralise the 
 prejudices which retard their natural progress. We 
 were told of an ineffectual attempt, recently made 
 by a lady here, to obtain leave to bury a favourite 
 free negro woman in St. James's graveyard, although 
 she had died a member of the Episcopal church; 
 
CHAP. XXXVIII.] WASHINGTON, FREE TRADE. 325 
 
 nor are any coloured people allowed to be buried at 
 the Laurel Hill Cemetery. That burial-ground com- 
 mands a beautiful view up and down the Schuylkill, 
 and the ground there is laid out with much taste, 
 being covered with evergreens and trees, and having 
 many of the graves adorned, at this season, with vio 
 lets and lilies of the valley. 
 
 April 27. Leaving my wife with some friends 
 at Philadelphia, I set out on a geological tour to 
 Richmond, Virginia, to resume my examination of 
 the Oolitic coal-field, left half finished in December 
 last. At Washington I found they were holding a 
 national fair, or grand exhibition of manufactured 
 articles, intended to convince Congress of the advan- 
 tage of a high tariff. The protectionists maintain 
 that every article which, for seven years, has been 
 shielded from foreign competition, has been reduced 
 in price to the consumer below the foreign cost at the 
 time when the duty was imposed. The free-traders, 
 on the other hand, argue, that their antagonists 
 keep out of sight the fact that in those same seven 
 years the price of the foreign articles might, and 
 probably would, have fallen as much. One party 
 points to the former policy of Great Britain towards 
 her American colonies ; how she interdicted them 
 from manufacturing for themselves, and even from 
 selling the productions of their own soil and indus- 
 try to any but the mother country ; how she grew 
 rich by monopoly and restrictions, nursing her in- 
 fant agriculture, commerce, and factories, by prohi- 
 bitive duties; and they ask whether, if the English 
 cabinet really believed in the theory of free-trade, 
 
326 DOG- WOOD IN VIRGINIA. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 they would not long ere this have repealed the 
 navigation laws ? The advocates of the opposite 
 policy appeal to the recent law for admitting Ameri- 
 can corn duty-free into England, as demonstrating 
 the sincerity of the British government. But in this 
 controversy it happens, as usual, that class-interests 
 are espoused with all the personal zeal and energy 
 with which men pursue a private object, while the 
 cause of science, and the general good of the public, 
 being every body's business, are treated with compa- 
 rative apathy. 
 
 When I arrived in Virginia, April 29th, I found 
 the woods everywhere enlivened by the dazzling 
 white flowers, or bracteae, of the dog-wood ( Cornus 
 Jlorida), the average height of which somewhat ex- 
 ceeds that of our white thorn ; and when, as often 
 happens, there is a back -ground of cedar or pine, the 
 mass of flower is almost as conspicuous as if a shower 
 of snow had fallen upon the boughs. As we some- 
 times see a pink variety of the wild thorn in England, 
 so there occurs here, now and then, though rarely, a 
 pink dog-wood. Having never remarked this splen- 
 did tree in any English shrubbery or park, I had 
 some fine young plants sent home from a nursery to 
 several English friends, and, amongst others, to Sir 
 William Hooker, at Kew, who was not a little di- 
 verted at my zeal for the introduction of a tree which 
 had been well-established for many years in the 
 British arboretum. But now that I have since seen 
 the dwarfed and shabby representatives of this species 
 in our British shrubberies, I am ready to maintain 
 that it is still unknown in our island. No Virginian, 
 
CHAP. XXXVIIL] TEEES AND FLOWERS. 327 
 
 who was not a botanist, could ever recognise it in 
 England as the same plant as the dog-wood of his 
 native land. Yet it is capable of enduring frosts as 
 severe and protracted as are ever experienced in the 
 south of England, and the cause of its flowers not 
 attaining their full size in our climate, is probably a 
 want of sufficient intensity of light and heat. 
 
 A great variety of oaks were now in leaf in the 
 Virginian forests, among which I observed the white 
 oak, with its leaves in the shape of a violin, and the 
 willow oak, with long and narrow leaves. The 
 ground underneath these trees was adorned with the 
 pink azalea and many other flowers, among the 
 rest the white violet, a species of phlox, and an ever- 
 lasting Gnaphalium. 
 
 The cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is often covered 
 at this season with what is termed here the cedar 
 apple (Podisoma macropus) supposed by many of the 
 inhabitants to be the flower or fruit of the tree itself. 
 It is a beautiful orange-coloured fungus, ornamented 
 with tassels, a very conspicuous object after a shower, 
 but shrinking up if exposed to a day's sunshine. 
 
 I made excursions in various directions with my 
 friend, Mr. Gifford, to examine the coal mines north 
 and south of Blackheath, near Richmond, and have 
 already given the results of our observations in the 
 first volume.* I afterwards made an expedition with 
 Dr. Wyman, now Professor of Comparative Anatomy 
 at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to examine the geology 
 of the tertiary strata round Richmond, and those 
 (of the Eocene period) displayed in the cliffs border- 
 Vol. i. p. 279- 
 
328 NATURAL HISTORY. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 ing the Potomac river, near Acquia Creek. In one 
 of our walks we saw some dogs feeding on part of 
 the carcass of a horse, and a group of turkey-buzzards 
 eagerly looking on close at hand, but not daring to 
 share in the repast. Near the same spot were the 
 skulls of two dogs lying bleached in the sun, and in 
 the hollow of each we found the nest of a large species 
 of wasp, somewhat resembling our hornet, containing 
 a good store of honey. On the surface of some pools 
 of water I saw floating the singular seed-vessel of 
 the nuphar, or yellow pond lily (Nelumlium). These 
 seeds have been known to vegetate after they have 
 been kept for a hundred years. 
 
 In passing through a wood near Acquia Creek, on 
 a hot day, we came upon a large snake, about four 
 feet long, resembling that called the moccasin, which 
 lifted itself up, folding its body into several graceful 
 coils, and then darted its head and neck forward at a 
 dog which had followed us from the inn. The dog 
 dexterously retreated as often as a blow was aimed 
 at him, barking loudly, and enjoying the mock fight. 
 The extremity of the snake's tail, although not armed 
 with a rattle, was in a state of constant vibration. 
 
 On a soft sandy road we saw a great many of the 
 ball-rolling beetles (Ateuchus volvens), which resemble 
 in form the Scarabaus sacer of Egypt. They were 
 all busily engaged in pushing along round balls of 
 dung, in the centre of some of which we found an 
 egg, and in others a maggot. A pair of beetles was 
 occupied with each globular mass, which considerably 
 exceeded themselves in size. One of them went be- 
 fore, and usually climbed up the side of the ball till 
 
CHAP. XXXVIIL] BALL-KOLLING BEETLES. 329 
 
 the weight of its body made the mass fall over, the 
 other pushing behind, so as to urge it forwards, or at 
 least prevent it from rolling back again. We saw 
 two of them in half a minute force a ball for a dis- 
 tance of eighteen inches up a gentle slope, and when 
 they reached a soft part of the road, one of them be- 
 gan to excavate a hole, and soon entirely disappeared 
 under ground, heaving up the earth till it cracked 
 and opened wide enough to allow his companion to 
 push the ball of dung into it. The round mass im- 
 mediately began to sink, and in a few minutes was 
 out of sight. We saw another pair try in vain to 
 bury their treasure, for they had selected a spot where 
 the soil was too hard ; at last they gave up the at- 
 tempt, and, rolling it away, set out in search of a more 
 favourable spot. 
 
 We crossed several ploughed fields on the slope of 
 the hills which descend towards the Potomac, where a 
 singular kind of manure is used, consisting of dead 
 fish, and almost exclusively of the bony pike, or gar- 
 fish (Lepidosteus oxyurus). The hard stony scales 
 resist decomposition for several years. The fisher- 
 men told us that they are greatly annoyed by con- 
 stantly taking these pikes in their nets with the 
 herrings. There is so enormous an abundance of 
 herrings in some spots in this estuary, that 50,000 
 have sometimes been taken this season in a few 
 hours. 
 
 In a marsh near the inn, we observed numerous 
 habitations of the musk-rat, standing up like hay- 
 cocks. When the small size of the animal is consi- 
 dered, the quantity of dried grass, reeds, and rushes 
 
330 MUSK-RATS. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 
 
 accumulated in one of these hummocks, at least a 
 cart-load, is surprising. We waded through the 
 water to one of them, and found that it was four feet 
 high, and nine feet in diameter. When we pulled it 
 to pieces, the smell of musk was very perceptible. 
 At the depth of about sixteen inches from the top 
 we found a cavity, or chamber, and a small gallery 
 leading from it to another chamber below, from 
 which a second gallery descended, and then went up- 
 wards again to a third chamber, from all which there 
 was a perpendicular passage, leading down to below 
 the level of the water, so that the rats can dive, and, 
 without being seen again, enter their apartments, in 
 which they breathe air. 
 
 The unio, or freshwater mussel, is a favourite food 
 of these rats, and they often leave the shells on the 
 banks of the American rivers, with one valve entire 
 and the other broken. In the evening the note of 
 the bull-frog, in these swamps, reminded me much of 
 the twanging of a large Jew's harp. 
 
 From Acquia Creek, I went, by steamer, to Wash- 
 ington, and thence by railway through Philadelphia, 
 to the town of Burlington, in New Jersey, beauti- 
 fully situated on the banks of the Delaware. Here 
 I paid a short visit to my friend, Mr. William 
 M'llvaine, and crossed the Delaware with him to 
 Bristol, to renew my acquaintance with Mr. Vanux- 
 em, a geologist of no ordinary merit. His death, 
 which happened soon afterwards, was a loss to the 
 public as well as to many personal friends. 
 
 In Wilson's " Ornithology" it is stated, that the 
 humming-bird migrates from the South to Pennsyl- 
 
CHAP. XXX\JII.] HUMMING-BIRDS. 331 
 
 vania the latter part of April, and builds its nest 
 there about the middle of May. For the last thirty 
 years, Mr. M'llvaine had never been disappointed 
 in seeing it reach Burlington the first week of that 
 month, generally about the middle of the week, its 
 northward progress being apparently hastened or re- 
 tarded by the mildness or inclemency of the season. 
 They seem always to wait for the flowering of a 
 species of horse-chesnut, called here the buck-eye, 
 from a fancied likeness of its fruit to the eye of a 
 deer. The bright-red blossoms of this tree supply 
 the nourishment most attractive to these birds, whose 
 arrival had been looked for the very day after I 
 came. Strange to say, one of them, the avant- 
 courier of the feathered host, actually appeared, and 
 next morning, May 7th, hundreds were seen and 
 heard flitting and humming over the trees. A lady 
 sent us word that a straggler from the camp was 
 imprisoned in her greenhouse, and, going there, I saw 
 it poised in the air, sucking honey from the blossom 
 of an orange-tree. The flower was evidently bent 
 down slightly, as if the bird rested its bill upon it 
 to aid its wings in supporting its body in the air, or 
 to steady it. When it wished to go out, it went 
 straight to the window at which it had entered, and, 
 finding it closed, flew rapidly round the large conser- 
 vatory, examining all parts of it, without once strik- 
 ing the glass or beating its wings against the wall, 
 as the more timid of the feathered tribe are apt 
 to do. No sooner, however, was a small casement 
 opened, than it darted through it like an arrow. 
 
332 NEW YORK. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 New York, clear Atmosphere and gay Dresses. Omnibuses. 
 Naming of Streets. Visit to Audubon. Croton A queduct. 
 
 Harper s Printing Establishment. Large Sale of Works 
 by English and American Authors. Cheapness of Books. 
 International Copyright. Sale of Eugene Sue's " Wandering 
 Jew? Tendency of the Work. Mr. Gallatin on Indian Corn. 
 
 War with Mexico. Facility of raising Troops. Dr. 
 Dewey preaching against War. Cause of Influence of Uni- 
 tarians. Geological Excursion to Albany. Heldei^berg War. 
 
 Voting Thanks to the Third House. Place-hunting. 
 Spring Flowers. Geology and Taconic System. 
 
 May 7. 1846. ON our return to New York, we 
 were struck with the brightness of the atmosphere 
 in spring, arising not merely from the absence of 
 smoke, but from the quantity of solar light as com- 
 pared to England, this city being in the same lati- 
 tude as Naples. The unsullied purity of the air 
 makes gay and brilliant colours in dress and furni- 
 ture appropriate. 
 
 Every fortnight the " Journal des Modes " is re- 
 ceived from France, and the ladies conform strictly 
 to the Parisian costume. Except at balls and large 
 parties, they wear high dresses, and, as usual in mer- 
 cantile communities, spare no expense. Embroidered 
 muslin, of the finest and costliest kind, is much worn ; 
 and my wife learnt that sixteen guineas were not un- 
 frequently given for a single pocket handkerchief. 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] OMNIBUSES. 333 
 
 Extravagantly expensive fans, with ruby or emerald 
 pins, are also common. I had heard it said in France 
 that no orders sent to Lyons for the furnishing of 
 private mansions, are on so grand a scale as some of 
 those received from New York ; and I can well be- 
 lieve it, for we saw many houses gorgeously fitted 
 up with satin and velvet draperies, rich Axminster 
 carpets, marble and inlaid tables, and large looking- 
 glasses, the style in general being Parisian rather 
 than English. It was much more rare here than at 
 Boston to see a library forming part of a suite of 
 reception-rooms, or even a single book-case in a 
 drawing-room, nor are pictures so common here. 
 
 In the five months since we were last in this me- 
 tropolis, whole streets had been built, and several 
 squares finished in the northern or fashionable end of 
 the town, to which the merchants are now resorting, 
 leaving the business end, near the Battery, where 
 they formerly lived. Hence there is a constant in- 
 crease of omnibuses passing through Broadway, and 
 other streets running north and south. Groups of 
 twelve of these vehicles may be seen at once, each 
 with a single driver, for wages are too high to sup- 
 port a cad. Each omnibus has an opening in the 
 roof, through which the money is paid to the coach- 
 man. We observed, as one woman after another got 
 out, any man sitting near the door, though a stran- 
 ger, would jump down to hand her out, and, if it was 
 raining, would hold an umbrella over her, frequently 
 offering, in that case, to escort her to a shop, atten- 
 tions which are commonly accepted and received by 
 the women as matters of course. 
 
334 NAMINO OF STREETS. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 All the streets which cross Broadway, run east and 
 west, and are numbered, so that they have now ar- 
 rived at 146th Street, a mode of designating the 
 different parts of a metropolis worthy of imitation on 
 both sides of the Atlantic, since experience has now 
 proved that there is, in the Anglo-Saxon mind, an in- 
 herent poverty of invention in matters of nomen- 
 clature. For want of some municipal regulations 
 like those of New York, the same names are in- 
 definitely multiplied in every great city, and letters, 
 after wandering over all the streets bearing the same 
 appellation, to the infinite inconvenience and cost of 
 the post-office, are at length received, if haply they 
 ever reach their destination, long after they are due. 
 
 The low island on which New York is built, is com- 
 posed of granite and gneiss covered with " drift" and 
 boulders. The original surface being very uneven, 
 the municipality has fixed upon a certain grade or 
 level to which all heights must be lowered by blast- 
 ing the rocks or by carting away gravel, and up to 
 which all the cavities must be raised. Besides other 
 advantages of this levelling process, the ground is 
 said to become more healthy and free from malaria, 
 there being no longer any stagnant pools of water 
 standing in the hollows. 
 
 May 10. Paid a visit to Mr. Audubon, the 
 celebrated ornithologist, at his delightful residence 
 on the banks of the Hudson, north of Bloomingdale. 
 His son had just returned from Texas, where he had 
 been studying the natural history of that country, 
 especially the mammalia, and was disappointed at the 
 few opportunities he had enjoyed of seeing the wild 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.j CROTON AQUEDUCT. 335 
 
 land quadrupeds in a state of activity, so as to observe 
 their habits. I told him I had been equally sur- 
 prised at the apparent scarcity of this tribe in the 
 native forests of the United States. This whole 
 class of animals, he said, ought to be regarded as 
 properly nocturnal ; for not merely the feline tribe 
 and the foxes, the weasels and bats shun the day- 
 light, but many others feed partly by night, most 
 of the squirrels and bears for example. The rumi- 
 nants no doubt are an exception, yet even the deer 
 and the buffalo, like the wild horse, travel chiefly in 
 the night. 
 
 From Mr. Audubon's I went to Highbridge, 
 where the Croton water is made to play for the 
 amusement of visitors, and is thrown up in a column 
 to the height of 120 feet. 
 
 I went also to see the reservoir, enclosing an area 
 of no less than thirty-six acres, from which the water 
 is distributed to all parts of New York. In this ar- 
 tificial lake all the river sediment is deposited, the 
 basin being divided into two parts, so that one may 
 be cleaned out while the other is use. The tunnel 
 or pipe conveying the water for a distance of more 
 than thirty miles, from the source to the Haerlem 
 river, is so large, that the chief engineer and com- 
 missioners of the works were able to float down it 
 in a flat-bottomed boat when it was first opened, in 
 July, 1842. 
 
 While at New York, we were taken by our literary 
 friend, Mr. Cogswell, over the printing and publish- 
 ing establishment of the Harpers, the largest in 
 America, and only surpassed, in the scale of its 
 
336 HARPER'S PRINTING-OFFICE. [CHAP, xxxix. 
 
 operations, by two or three in Great Britain. They 
 give employment to three hundred men, manufacture 
 their own types and paper, and have a " bookbindery " 
 under the same roof; for, in order to get out, with 
 the utmost despatch, the reprints of foreign works not 
 entitled to copyright, they require to be independent 
 of all aid from other traders. We were shown a fire- 
 proof vault, in which stereotype plates, valued at 
 about 300,000 dollars, are deposited. In one of the 
 upper stories a long line of steam-presses was throw- 
 ing off sheets of various works, and the greater 
 number were occupied with the printing of a large 
 illustrated Bible, and Morse's Geography for the use 
 of schools. In 1845, the Harpers sold two millions 
 of volumes, some of them, it is true, being only 
 styled numbers, but these often contain a reprint of 
 an entire English novel, originally published in two 
 or three volumes, at the cost of a guinea and a half, 
 the same being sold here for one or two shillings. 
 Several of Bulwer's tales are among these, 40,000 
 copies of his " Last of the Barons" having just issued 
 from this house. It may, indeed, be strictly said of 
 English writers in general, that they are better 
 known in America than in Europe. 
 
 Of the best English works of fiction, published at 
 thirty-one shillings in England, and for about six- 
 pence here, it is estimated that about ten times as 
 many copies are sold in the United States as in 
 Great Britain ; nor need we wonder at this, when 
 we consider that day labourers in an American vil- 
 lage often purchase a novel by Scott, Bulwer, or 
 Dickens, or a popular history, such as Alison's Eu- 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] CHEAPNESS OF BOOKS. 337 
 
 rope (published at thirteen pounds in England and 
 sixteen shillings in America), and read it at spare 
 moments, while persons in a much higher station 
 in England are debarred from a similar intellectual 
 treat by considerations of economy. 
 
 It might have been apprehended that, where a 
 daily newspaper can be bought for a halfpenny, and 
 a novel for sixpence, the public mind would be so 
 taken up with politics and light reading, that no time 
 would be left for the study of history, divinity, and 
 the graver periodical literature. But, on the con- 
 trary, experience has proved that, when the habit 
 and facility of reading has been acquired by the 
 perusal even of trashy writings, there is a steady 
 increase in the number of those who enter on deeper 
 subjects. I was glad to hear that, in proportion as 
 the reading public augments annually, the quality of 
 the books read is decidedly improving. About four 
 years ago, 40,000 copies were printed of the ordinary 
 common-place novels published in England, of which 
 sort they now only sell about 8000. 
 
 It might also have been feared that the cheapness 
 of foreign works unprotected by copyright, would 
 have made it impossible for native authors to obtain 
 a price capable of remunerating them highly, as well 
 as their publishers. But such is not the case. Very 
 large editions of Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," 
 and of his " Mexico," and " Peru," have been sold at 
 a high price ; and when Mr. Harper stated to me his 
 estimate of the original value of the copyright of these 
 popular works, it appeared to me that an English au- 
 thor could hardly have obtained as much in his own 
 
 VOL. II. Q 
 
338 CHEAPNESS OF BOOKS. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 country. * The comparative cheapness of American 
 books, the best editions of which are by no means in 
 small print, seems at first unintelligible, when we 
 consider the dearness of labour, which enters so 
 largely into the price of printing, paper, and binding. 
 But, first, the number of readers, thanks to the free- 
 schools, is prodigiously great, and always augmenting 
 in a higher ratio even than the population ; and, se- 
 condly, there is a fixed determination on the part of 
 the people at large to endure any taxation, rather 
 than that which would place books and newspapers 
 beyond their reach. Several politicians declared to 
 me that not only an income tax, but a window tax, 
 would be preferred; and "this last," said they, "would 
 scarcely shut out the light from a greater number of 
 individuals." The duty on paper, in the United States, 
 is trifling, when compared to that paid in Great Bri- 
 tain. Mr. Chambers informs us, that the Government 
 duty of 5 0007. , paid by him for his Miscellany, in 
 
 * A letter dated April 15. 1849, was lately shown me from 
 the Harpers, with permission to make known its contents, in 
 which they mentioned, that having been authorised by Mr. 
 Macaulay to publish in America his "History of England," they 
 had printed six editions at various prices varying from four 
 dollars to fifty cents (sixteen shillings and sixpence to two 
 shillings). At the expiration of the first three months, they 
 had sold 40,000 copies, and other booksellers who had issued 
 independent editions had sold about 20,000 ; so that 60,000 
 copies had been purchased in the United States at a time when 
 about 13,000 had been disposed of by Longman and Co., in 
 London, at the price of 17. 12s. each. As the cheap American 
 editions were only just brought into the market at the date of 
 this letter, the principal sale of the book was but commencing. 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 339 
 
 twenty volumes, was equal in amount to the whole 
 profits of that publication. The cost of advertise- 
 ments, in America, is also small. One of my Ame- 
 rican friends sent over to a London publisher 250 
 copies of his work, charging him 4s. 6d. each. After 
 paying entrance duties, and necessary outlay for ad- 
 vertisements in London, and the agency, it was found 
 that the price must be as high as 16s. 
 
 The party who are in favour of an international 
 copyright between England and the United States, 
 seems to be steadily gaining strength among the 
 booksellers, publishers, and authors, although the 
 editors of newspapers and their readers may perhaps 
 oppose the measure for some time. The number of 
 reprisals now made by English speculators are very 
 numerous. According to a statement lately presented 
 to Congress by Mr. Jay, of New York, there are 
 about 600 original American works " pirated " in 
 Great Britain; or, to speak more correctly, while the 
 law remains in its present state, reprinted without 
 leave of their American authors, or any pecuniary 
 acknowledgment to them. 
 
 Many are of opinion that the small print of cheap 
 editions in the United States, will seriously injure 
 the eyesight of the rising generation, especially as 
 they often read in railway cars, devouring whole 
 novels, printed in newspapers, in very inferior type. 
 Mr. Everett, speaking of this literature, in an address 
 to the students of Harvard College, said, " If cheap 
 it can be called, which begins by costing a man his 
 eyes, and ends by perverting his taste and morals." 
 
 As an illustration of the mischievous tendency of 
 Q 2 
 
340 THE " WANDERING JEW." [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 the indiscriminate reading of popular works by the 
 multitude, when the higher classes and clergy can exert 
 little or no control in the selection of the books read, 
 the wonderful success of Eugene Sue's " Wandering 
 Jew" was pointed out to me by many, with no small 
 concern. This led me to ask Mr. Harper how many 
 copies he had disposed of, and he answered, " 80,000, 
 issued in different shapes, and at various prices." It 
 had so often been thrust into my hands in railway 
 cars, and so much talked of, that, in the course of 
 my journey, I began to read it in self-defence ; and, 
 having begun, could not stop till I had finished the 
 whole, although the style of the original loses half 
 its charms in an imperfect translation. " Le vieux 
 dragon," for example, is always rendered the "old 
 dragon," instead of "dragoon," and the poetry of a bril- 
 liant passage is nearly destroyed by "defense" being 
 translated "defence, "instead of "barrier," with other 
 blunders equally unpardonable. Yet the fascination 
 of the original, and its power to fix the attention, 
 triumph over these disadvantages and over the vio- 
 lence done to probability in the general plot, and 
 over the extravagance of many of its details. The 
 gross, sensual, and often licentious descriptions in 
 which the author indulges, in some scenes, and still 
 more, such sentimental immorality as is involved in 
 the sympathy demanded for Hardy's love and in- 
 trigue with a married woman (he being represented 
 as the model of a high-minded philanthropist), 
 make one feel the contrast of such a work with the 
 chaste and pure effusions of Scott's genius. Yet 
 there is much pure feeling, many touches of tender- 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] ITS TENDENCY. 341 
 
 ness in the tale, and many passages fitted to awaken 
 our best affections. Even the false political economy 
 bordering on communism, is redeemed by the tendency 
 of the book to excite sympathy for the sufferings, 
 destitution, and mental degradation of the poor. The 
 dramatic power displayed in many scenes, is of a 
 high order ; as when the Jesuit Rodin, receiving his 
 credentials from Rome, is suddenly converted into 
 the superior of the haughty chief to whom he had 
 been previously the humble secretary, and where 
 Dagobert's wife, under the direction of her confessor, 
 refuses, in opposition to a husband whom she loves 
 and respects, to betray the place of concealment of 
 two young orphans, the victims of a vile conspiracy. 
 In this part of the narrative, moreover, the beauty 
 of the devotional character of the female mind is 
 done full justice to, while the evils of priestly domi- 
 nation are exhibited in their true colours. The im- 
 prisonment of a young girl, of strong mind and 
 superior understanding, in a madhouse, until she is 
 worked upon almost to doubt her own sanity, are 
 described with much delicacy of feeling and pathos, 
 and make the reader shudder at the facility with 
 which such institutions, if not subject to public in- 
 spection, may be, and have been abused. 
 
 The great moral and object of the whole piece, is 
 to expose the worldly ambition of the Romanist 
 clergy, especially of the Jesuits, and the injury done, 
 not only to the intellectual progress of society at large, 
 but to the peace and happiness of private families, by 
 their perpetual meddling with domestic concerns. 
 
 Q 3 
 
342 MR. GALLATIN [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 That the shafts of this satire have not missed their aim, 
 has been proved, among other evidences, by its having 
 been thought politic, even in England, to circulate, 
 chiefly, it is said, among the Irish Catholics, an " Adap- 
 tation of the Wandering Jew, from the original of 
 Eugene Sue." In this singular re-cast of the French 
 romance, which I have perused, the Russian police is 
 everywhere substituted for the Jesuits, and Rodin 
 becomes the tool of the Czar, intriguing in French 
 politics, instead of the servant of the successor of 
 Ignatius Loyola. On the whole, I am inclined to 
 believe that the good preponderates over the evil, in 
 the influence exerted on the million, even by such a 
 romance. It has a refining rather than a corrupting 
 effect, and may lead on to the study of works of a more 
 exalting character. The great step is gained, when the 
 powers of the imagination have been stimulated and 
 the dormant and apathetic mind awakened and lifted 
 above the prosaic monotony of every-day life. 
 
 May 9. Called with a letter of introduction 
 on Mr. Gallatin, well known by a long and distin- 
 guished career in political life. As a diplomatist in 
 London, he negotiated the original Oregon treaty with 
 Great Britain, and has now, at the age of eighty-two, 
 come out with several able and spirited pamphlets, to 
 demonstrate to his countrymen that their national 
 honour would not be compromised by accepting the 
 terms offered by the British Cabinet. Being at the 
 same time an experienced financier, he has told them 
 plainly, if they will go to war, how much it will cost 
 them annually, and what taxes they should make up 
 their minds to submit to cheerfully, if they would 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] ON INDIAN CORN. 343 
 
 carry on a campaign with honour and spirit against 
 such an enemy. 
 
 In the course of conversation, I found that Mr. 
 Gallatin was of opinion that the indigenous civilisa- 
 tion of several Indian tribes, and of the Mexicans 
 and Peruvians among others, was mainly due to the 
 possession of a grain so productive, and, when dried in 
 the sun, so easily kept for many years, as the maize 
 or Indian corn. The potatoe, which, when healthy, can 
 rarely be stored up and preserved till the next harvest, 
 may be said, on the contrary, to be a food on which 
 none but an improvident race would lean for support. 
 "I have long been convinced," said Mr. Gallatin, "that 
 the Indian corn has also given a powerful impulse to 
 the rapid settlement of the whites in Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, and other western States. In one of my 
 first excursions to the West, I saw a man felling 
 trees in March, who, when I returned in October, 
 had harvested a crop of Indian corn, grown on the 
 very spot. He had also the leaves and stems of the 
 plant to serve for winter fodder for his cattle. He 
 was an emigrant, newly arrived, and entirely with- 
 out the capital indispensable to enable him to culti- 
 vate wheat, which must have been twelve or thirteen 
 months in the ground before it could be reaped." 
 
 Next day the stirring news of the invasion of the 
 Mexican territory by the American army, reached 
 New York, and I met the news-boys, in every street, 
 crying out, " War with Mexico ! " Soon afterwards 
 I saw the walls covered with placards, headed with 
 the words, " Ho, for the halls of the Montezumas I " 
 
 The mayor had called a public meeting to ex- 
 Q 4 
 
344 WAR WITH MEXICO. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 press sympathy with the President and the war- 
 party at Washington. This meeting was held in the 
 Park, and although it may have served the purpose 
 of the democratic party, it was certainly a signal 
 failure, if any strong expression of popular feeling in 
 favour of such a war was looked for. Jn the crowd 
 I heard nothing but Irish, Scotch, and German 
 accents, and the only hearty cheer which any one 
 orator could draw, even from this mob of foreigners, 
 was obtained by representing the Mexicans as acting 
 under the influence of British gold. 
 
 I met with no one person in society who defended 
 the aggression on the Mexican territory ; but as they 
 cannot prevent it, they endeavour, each in his way, to 
 comfort themselves that the mischief is no worse, 
 some saying, it will be a less evil than fighting with 
 Great Britain, others that it will furnish employ- 
 ment for a host of turbulent spirits ; while some mer- 
 chants hint that the democratic party, had they been 
 economical, might have lowered the tariff, and carried 
 out their dangerous theory of free-trade, whereas 
 now they will plunge the nation into debt, and be 
 compelled to resort to high duties, which will " pro- 
 tect native industry." The dissatisfaction of others 
 is unbounded ; they dread the annexation of a re- 
 gion containing five millions of Indians, which, say 
 they, will deteriorate the general standard of the 
 white population ; they deplore the development of 
 a love for military, glory, a passion inconsistent with all 
 true republican principles ; and one friend observed 
 to me, " You will soon see a successful soldier, wholly 
 unknown to all of us at this moment, a man unversed 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] RAISING TROOPS. 345 
 
 in civil affairs, raised to the Presidentship." I asked 
 whether, in a country where nearly all are industri- 
 ously employed, it will be possible to find recruits for 
 foreign service. Nothing, they reply, is more easy. 
 " Our broad Indian frontier has nurtured a daring 
 and restless population, which loves excitement and 
 adventure, and in the Southern States there are num- 
 bers of whites to whom military service would be a 
 boon, because slavery has degraded labour." A 
 week later I received a letter from a correspon- 
 dent in the South, who said, " Such is the mili- 
 tary fever in Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and 
 Mississippi, that these States alone would furnish 
 50,000 men, if required; and in many districts 
 we are in fear of such an enlistment of the white 
 population, that there will be too few left at home 
 to serve as a police for the negroes. Married men 
 are going as well as bachelors, lawyers, medical men, 
 and schoolmasters, many of whom have no taste 
 whatever for fighting or foreign service, but they 
 know that to have served a year in a campaign, to 
 have been in a battle, or to have been wounded, 
 would advance them more in an election, or even in 
 their several professions, than any amount of study 
 or acquired knowledge." 
 
 The Sunday following we heard a sermon by the 
 Rev. Orville Dewey, in which this spirit of territorial 
 aggrandisement, this passion for war, these false no- 
 tions of national honour and glory, were characterised 
 as unchristian and indicating a low standard of pri- 
 vate as well as public morality. I remarked to a 
 New England acquaintance, who was one of the largQ 
 
346 DR. DEWEY. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 congregation, that whatever might be said against 
 the voluntary system, the pulpit in America seemed 
 to me more independent than the press. " Because 
 every newspaper," he replied, " is supported by half 
 yearly or annual subscribers, and no editor dares 
 write against the popular sentiment. He knows that 
 a dagger is always suspended over him by a thread, 
 and if he presumed to run counter to the current, 
 his table would be covered next morning with letters 
 each beginning with the dreaded words, ' Stop my 
 paper.' He has made a bargain like that of Doctor 
 Faustus with the devil, bartering away his immortal 
 soul for a few thousand dollars." When I after- 
 wards reflected on this alleged tyranny of regular 
 subscribers, it occurred to me that the evil must be 
 in a great degree mitigated by the cheapness and 
 variety of daily prints, each the organ of some dis- 
 tinct party or shade of opinion, and great numbers 
 of them freely taken in at every reading-room and 
 every hotel. 
 
 I might say of Dr. Dewey's discourse, as I have 
 already said of the preaching of the Unitarians gene- 
 rally, that, without wanting spirituality, it was more 
 practical and less doctrinal than the majority of ser- 
 mons to which I have been accustomed to listen. 
 But I should mislead my readers, if I gave them to 
 understand that they could frequent churches of this 
 denomination without risk of sometimes having their 
 feelings offended by hearing doctrines they have been 
 taught to reverence treated slightingly, or even with 
 contempt. On one occasion (and it was the only one in 
 my experience), I was taken, when at Boston, to hear 
 an eminent Unitarian preacher who was prevented by 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] UNITARIANS. 347 
 
 illness from officiating, and his place was supplied by 
 a self-satisfied young man, who, having talked dog- 
 matically on points contested by many a rationalist, 
 made it clear that he commiserated the weak minds 
 of those who adhered to articles of faith rejected by 
 his church. If this too common method of treating 
 theological subjects be ilLcalculated to convince or 
 conciliate dissentients, it is equally reprehensible from 
 its tendency to engender, in the minds of those who 
 assent, a Pharisaical feeling of self-gratulation that 
 they are not as other sectarians are. 
 
 I can only account for the power which the Unita- 
 rians have exerted, and are now exerting, in forward- 
 ing the great educational movement in America, in the 
 face of that almost superstitious prejudice with which 
 their theology is regarded by nineteen-twentieths 
 of the population, by attributing it to the love of in- 
 tellectual progress which animates both their clergy 
 and laity, and the deep conviction they are known to 
 feel that public morality and happiness can only be 
 ensured by spreading an elevated standard of popular 
 education throughout the masses. In their enthusi- 
 astic pursuit of this great end, they are acknowledged 
 to have no thought of making proselytes to any system 
 of religious doctrines, and are therefore trusted in 
 the management of schools by the parents of children 
 of the most opposite persuasions. In regard to their 
 own faith, some misapprehension has arisen in conse- 
 quence of the name they bear, which was not chosen 
 by themselves, but to which, on the contrary, they 
 have objections such as members of the Anglican 
 Church might feel if some such name as Anti-tran- 
 
 Q 6 
 
348 EXCURSION TO ALBANY. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 substantiationists, or any term which simply expressed 
 their opposition to some one article of the Romanist 
 creed, had been fixed upon them. "When the rigid 
 Calvinism of the old Puritans caused a schism in New 
 England, the seceders wished to free themselves from 
 the fetters of a creed, and to take the Gospel alone as 
 their standard of faith. They were naturally, therefore, 
 averse to accept a name which might be generally 
 supposed to imply that they attached a prominent 
 importance to the negation of any one doctrine pro- 
 fessed by other Christians. " I desire," said Chan- 
 ning, " to wear the livery of no party ; but we accept 
 the appellation which others have imposed upon us, 
 because it expresses what we believe to be a truth, 
 and therefore we ought not to shrink from the re- 
 proaches cast upon it. But, had the name been 
 more honoured, had no popular cry been raised against 
 it, I would gladly have thrown it off." * 
 
 May 11. Sailed from New York to Albany in 
 a steamer, which carried me at the rate of eighteen 
 miles an hour through the ' beautiful scenery of the 
 Hudson river. I had been invited by two of the 
 State surveyors of New York to make an excursion 
 with them to the north of Albany, and to discuss in 
 the field some controverted points respecting the 
 geology of the oldest fossiliferous strata. There was 
 a physician on board, who, having been settled for 
 twenty-six years in Virginia, had now come back, 
 after that long absence, to see his native State. His 
 admiration and wonder at the progress made by New 
 York in a quarter of a century were unbounded. 
 
 Channing's Works, vol. iii. p. 210. 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] HELDERBERG WAR. 349 
 
 Speaking of his adopted country, he exclaimed, " We 
 have been left far behind in the race." I suggested, 
 that if, twenty-six years ago, a period had been fixed 
 upon by law for the emancipation of their slaves, Vir- 
 ginia might, ere this, have been relieved of nearly all 
 her negro population, so great has been the migration 
 of negroes to the South. " It is useless," he said, 
 " to discuss the practicability of such a measure, while 
 the majority of our legislators, having been born 
 slave-holders, are not convinced of its desirability." 
 While my companion was absorbed in admiration at 
 the improvement of " the Empire State," my thoughts 
 and feelings took a very different turn, when I learned 
 that " the Helderberg war," which I have alluded to 
 in my former " Travels,"* is still going on, and seems 
 as far from a termination as ever. The agricultural 
 population throughout many populous counties have 
 now been in arms for eight years, to resist the pay- 
 ment of rents due to their landlords, in spite of the 
 decisions of the courts of law against them. Large 
 contributions have been made towards an insurrec- 
 tionary fund, one of its objects being to support 
 a newspaper, edited by a Chartist refugee from Eng- 
 land, in which the most dangerous anti-social doc- 
 trines are promulgated. The " anti-renters " have 
 not only set the whole militia of the State at defiance, 
 in more than one campaign, but have actually killed 
 a sheriff's officer, who was distraining for rent ! If 
 any thing could add to the disgrace which such pro- 
 ceedings reflect on the political administration of 
 
 Vol. i. p. 68. 
 
350 VOTING THANKS TO [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 affairs in New York, it is the fact that the insurgents 
 would probably have succumbed ere this, had they not 
 been buoyed up by hopes of legislative interference 
 in their favour, held out to them by popularity- 
 hunting candidates for the governorship, and other 
 official places. 
 
 In the newspapers of the day, a scene described as 
 having occurred at the close of the Legislative Ses- 
 sion in Albany excited my curiosity. One of the 
 members of the House of Representatives moved 
 a vote of thanks " to the gentlemen of the third 
 house for the regularity of their attendance and the 
 courtesy with which they had conducted themselves." 
 The motion was seconded, read from the chair amidst 
 great laughter, and then allowed to drop. I inquired 
 what might be the meaning of this joke, and was 
 asked in reply whether I had read the letters of Jesse 
 Hoyt and others, edited by Mackenzie ? I had, in- 
 deed, purchased the pamphlet alluded to, containing 
 a selection from an immense mass (said to amount to 
 twenty-five volumes) of the private and confidential 
 correspondence of official men, left accidentally by 
 them, on a change of administration, in the custom- 
 house of New York. All these had been printed for 
 the benefit of the public by their successors. The 
 authenticity of the documents made known by this 
 gentlemanlike stroke of party tactics, purporting to 
 be penned by men who had filled high places in the 
 State and Federal Governments, had been placed 
 beyond a doubt ; for the writers had attempted to 
 obtain an injunction in the law courts to stop the 
 publication, claiming the copyright of letters which 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] THE THIRD HOUSE. 351 
 
 they had written. Some time before this conversa- 
 tion, a merchant of Boston, who wished me to look 
 only on the bright side of their institutions, and who 
 was himself an optimist, had said to me, " Our poli- 
 ticians work in a glass hive, so that you always see 
 the worst of them; whereas your public men can 
 throw a decent veil of secrecy over much that may 
 be selfish and sordid in the motives of their conduct. 
 Hence the scandal of your court and cabinets is only 
 divulged to posterity, a hundred years after the events, 
 in private memoirs." Unfortunately for this theory, 
 a glance at the Mackenzie letters was enough to 
 teach me, that, if the American bees work in a glass 
 hive, the glass is not quite so transparent as my 
 friend would have led me to believe. The explana- 
 tion of the satirical motion made in the house at 
 Albany, then proceeded thus : " The patronage of the 
 State of New York is enormous ; the Governor alone 
 has the appointment of two hundred and sixty civil 
 officers, and the nomination of more than two thousand 
 places is vested jointly in him and the senate. Some 
 of these are for two, others for five years, and they 
 are worth from two hundred to five thousand dollars 
 a-year. Among the posts most coveted, because the 
 gains are sometimes very high, though fluctuating, 
 are those of the inspectors, who set their mark or 
 brand on barrels of exported goods, such as flour, to- 
 bacco, preserved pork, mackerel and other fish, to 
 guarantee their good quality, and guard the public 
 against imposition, in cases where the articles would 
 be injured if opened and examined by the purchaser. 
 It is scarcely necessary to state, that where the prey is 
 
352 PLACE HUNTING. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 so abundant, there will the eagles be gathered together ; 
 and besides the aspirants to vacant offices, there is a 
 crowd of lawyers and paid agents of private indivi- 
 duals and companies, who have to watch the passage 
 of private and public bills through the Legislature. 
 During the whole session, they fill the Governor's 
 ante-room, and the lobby of each House ; and, as 
 they are equal in respectability, number, station, and 
 influence, to the two other houses put together, be- 
 sides that they spend, perhaps, more money in 
 Albany, we dignify them with the name of f the 
 third house.' " 
 
 " Are they," said I, " suspected of giving money- 
 bribes to legislators ? " " No ; but they may convey 
 a party of representatives on a railway trip, to make 
 them acquainted with the merits of some case relat- 
 ing to a canal or railroad, and then entertain them 
 with a dinner before they return." " In Massachu- 
 setts," said I, " people speak with more respect of 
 their assembly." " No doubt, for in that State there 
 is much less to give away, and therefore less corrup- 
 tion and intrigue. Besides, we have only 160 sena- 
 tors and representatives, whereas the assembly at 
 Boston is far more numerous, so that it is not so 
 easy to bring the influence pf ' the third house ' to 
 bear upon it." 
 
 In the public museum at Albany, Dr. Emmons 
 showed me a fine collection of simple minerals, rocks, 
 and fossils, made by himself and other geologists to 
 whom the State survey was entrusted. He then ac- 
 companied me across the Hudson river, to examine 
 
CHAP. XXXIX.] SPRING FLOWERS. 353 
 
 the slate and limestone eastward of Albany. Here, 
 from the summit of Greenbush Hill, we enjoyed a 
 magnificent view of the Catskill Mountains, and the 
 Helderberg range in the distance. In the foreground 
 was the river, and Albany itself, now containing a 
 population of 40,000 inhabitants, with its domes and 
 spires clustered together, in the higher parts of the 
 city, and lighted up by a bright sunshine. 
 
 The day following, Dr. Emmons and Mr. James 
 Hall went with me to explore the chain of the Bald 
 Mountains, north of Galeville. We passed through 
 the gay town of Saratoga Springs, where the mineral 
 waters burst out from " the Lower Silurian," or most 
 ancient fossiliferous rocks. We saw many picturesque 
 spots, especially the waterfall called Baaten Kill, near 
 Galeville, but no grand or striking scenery. Among 
 the plants in blossom, we gathered Anemone nemorosa, 
 Trientalis Americana (less beautiful than our British 
 Trientalis Europ&d), Cypripcdium pubescens, Gera- 
 nium sylvaticum, three species of violet (all without 
 scent), Houstonia c&rulea, Gnaphalium perenne, and 
 in several copses, the beautiful Polygala pauciflora, 
 which might be truly said 
 
 " To purple all the ground with vernal flowers." 
 
 Whether, in this part of the United States, there are 
 any fossiliferous rocks older than the Lower Silurian, 
 was the geological point at issue ; and the question 
 resembled one on which an animated controversy had 
 lately been carried on in Great Britain, in regard to 
 
354 GEOLOGY. [CHAP. XXXIX. 
 
 the relative age of the " Cambrian " and " Silurian " 
 groups. As those strata, called Cambrian, which con- 
 tained organic remains, were found to be nothing 
 more than highly disturbed and semi-crystalline 
 Silurian rocks, so I believe the formations called 
 Taconic in the United States, to have claim to no 
 higher antiquity, and to be simply Silurian strata 
 much altered, and often quite metamorphic. 
 
CHAP. XL.] RAILWAYS. 355 
 
 CHAP. XL. 
 
 Construction and Management of Railways in America. 
 Journey by Long Island from New York to Boston. Whale 
 Fishery in the Pacific. Chewing Tobacco. Visit to Wenham 
 Lake. Cause of the superior Permanence of Wenham Lake 
 Ice. Return to Boston. Skeletons of Fossil Mastodons. 
 Food of those extinct Quadrupeds. Anti-war Demonstration. 
 
 Voyage to Halifax. Dense Fog. Large Group of Ice- 
 bergs seen on the Ocean. Transportation of Rocks by Icebergs. 
 Danger of fast Sailing among Bergs. Aurora Borealis. 
 
 Connection of this Phenomenon with drift Ice. Pilot with 
 English Newspapers. Return to Liverpool. 
 
 May 21. 1846. IN the construction and manage- 
 ment of railways, the Americans have in general 
 displayed more prudence and economy than could 
 have been expected, where a people of such sanguine 
 temperament were entering on so novel a career of 
 enterprise. Annual dividends of seven or eight per 
 cent, have been returned for a large part of the capital 
 laid out on the New England railways, and on many 
 others in the Northern States. The cost of passing 
 the original bills through the State parliaments has 
 usually been very moderate, and never exorbitant ; 
 the lines have been carried as much as possible 
 through districts where land was cheap ; a single line 
 only laid down where the traffic did not justify two ; 
 high gradients resorted to, rather than incur the 
 
t 
 356 NEW YORK TO BOSTON. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 expense of deep cuttings ; tunnels entirely avoided ; 
 very little money spent in building station-houses ; 
 and, except where the population was large, they have 
 been content with the speed of fourteen or sixteen 
 miles an hour. It has, moreover, been an invariable 
 maxim " to go for numbers," by lowering the fares so 
 as to bring them within the reach of all classes. Oc- 
 casionally, when the intercourse between two rich and 
 populous cities, like New York and Boston, has ex- 
 cited the eager competition of rival companies, they 
 have accelerated the speed far beyond the usual 
 average ; and we were carried from one metropolis to 
 the other, a distance of 239 miles, at the rate of 
 thirty miles an hour, in a commodious, lofty, and 
 well-ventilated car, the charge being only three 
 dollars, or thirteen shillings. We went by a route 
 newly opened, first through Long Island, ninety-five 
 miles in length, over a low, level tract, chiefly com- 
 posed of fine sand ; and we then found a steamer 
 ready to take us across the Sound to New London in 
 Connecticut, where we were met by the cars at Point 
 Allen ; after which we enjoyed much delightful 
 scenery, the railway following the margin of a river, 
 where there were cascades and rapids foaming over 
 granite rocks, and overhung with trees, whose foliage, 
 just unfolded, was illumined by a brilliant sunshine. 
 
 In the estuary of New London we saw many large 
 whalers, and a merchant talked to me with satisfaction 
 of the success of the United States' whale-fishery in 
 the Pacific, saying it amounted to 200,000 tons, 
 while that of Great Britain did not exceed 60,000. 
 " Five fish," said he, " is the usual cargo of an En- 
 
CHAP. XL.] WHALE FISHERY. 357 
 
 glish whaler, as they boil the blubber at home, 
 whereas the Americans boil it in a huge cauldron on 
 deck, and after staying out three years, return with 
 the oil of ninety whales in one ship. Our fishery in 
 the Pacific is becoming a most important nursery for 
 seamen, giving occupation to about 20,000 men, 
 which would enable us at any moment to man a 
 powerful fleet. The possession of California is 
 therefore much coveted by us, because the port of 
 San Francisco is the only one in the Northern Pacific 
 not exposed to the west wind, or blocked up by a bar 
 of sand, such as that which renders the mouth of the 
 Columbia river impassable to large ships. It is not 
 territory but a sea-port we need, and this advantage 
 a war w r ith Mexico may give us." 
 
 There was besides much characteristic conversation 
 in the cars, about constructing a railway 4000 miles 
 long from Washington to the Columbia river ; and 
 some of the passengers were speculating on the hope 
 of seeing in their lifetime a population of 15,000 souls 
 settled in Oregon and California. A variety of plans 
 was also freely discussed for crossing the isthmus from 
 the Gulf of Mexico into the Pacific, so as to avoid 
 the long and dangerous voyage round Cape Horn. 
 A ship-canal across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, 
 135 miles in length, was alluded to as the favourite 
 scheme ; and the expediency of forcing Mexico to 
 cede a right of way was spoken of as if the success 
 of their campaign was certain. 
 
 It is the fashion for travellers in the New World 
 to dwell so much on the chewing of tobacco, that 
 I may naturally be expected to say something of this 
 
358 CHEWING TOBACCO. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 practice. There is enough of it to be very annoying 
 in steam-boats and railway-cars, but far less so as we 
 journey northwards ; and I never saw, even in the 
 South, any chewing of the weed in drawing-rooms, 
 although we were told in South Carolina that some 
 old gentlemen still indulged in this habit. That it is 
 comparatively rare in the New England States, was 
 attested by an anecdote related to me of a captain 
 who commands one of the steamers on Lake Cham- 
 plain, who prided himself on the whiteness of his 
 deck, intended to be kept as a promenade. Observing 
 a Southerner occasionally polluting its clean floor, 
 he ordered a boy to follow him up and down with a 
 swab, to the infinite diversion of the passengers, and 
 the no small indignation of the Southerner, when at 
 length he discovered how his footsteps had been 
 dodged. The governor of a Penitentiary told me, 
 that to deprive prisoners of tobacco was found to be 
 a very efficient punishment, and that its use was 
 prohibited in the New England madhouses, as being 
 too exciting. 
 
 From Boston we went to Ipswich, Massachusetts, 
 to visit Mr. Oakes, the botanist, with whom we had 
 spent many pleasant days in the White Mountains.* 
 He set out with us on an excursion to Wenhain 
 Lake, from which so much ice is annually exported 
 to England and other parts of the world. 
 
 This lake lies about twenty miles to the north- 
 east of Boston. It has a small island in the middle 
 of it, is about a mile long and forty feet deep, and 
 
 * See Vol. I. p. 71. 
 
CHAP. XL.] WENHAM LAKE. 359 
 
 is surrounded by hills of sand and gravel, from forty 
 to a hundred feet high. The water is always clear 
 and pure, and the bottom covered with white quart- 
 zose sand. It is fed by springs, and receives no mud 
 from any stream flowing into it ; but at the lower 
 extremity a small brook of transparent water flows 
 out. In some parts, however, there must, I presume, 
 be a soft and muddy bottom, as it is inhabited by 
 eels, as well as by pickerell and perch. Mr. Oakes 
 had recently received a present of a snapping turtle, 
 weighing 25 Ibs., taken from the lake. The ice is con- 
 veyed by railway to Boston to be shipped, and the 
 increase of business has of late been such as to cause 
 the erection of new buildings, measuring 127 feet by 
 120, and 24 feet high. They stand on the water's 
 edge, by the side of the old storehouses, which are 
 very extensive, built of wood, with double walls two 
 feet apart, the space between being filled with saw- 
 dust, which excludes the external air; while tan is 
 heaped up, for the same purpose, on the outside. 
 The work of cutting and storing the ice is carried on 
 in winter, and is not commenced till the ice is at least 
 a foot thick. The surface is always carefully swept 
 and kept free from snow ; and as none but the most 
 compact and solid ice is fit for the market, it is neces- 
 sary to shave off three inches or more of the super- 
 ficial ice, by means of a machine called an ice-plane, 
 drawn by a horse. This operation is especially re- 
 quired after a thaw or a fall of rain, succeeded by a 
 frost, which causes the lake to be covered with opake, 
 porous ice. 
 
 Sir Francis Head, in his "Emigrant," 1846, has 
 
360 WENHAM LAKE ICE. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 attributed the durability of the Wenham Lake ice, 
 or its power of resisting liquefaction, to the intense 
 cold of a North American winter. It is perfectly 
 true that this ice does not melt so fast as English ice ; 
 but the cause of this phenomenon is, I believe, very 
 different from that assigned for it by the late Gover- 
 nor of Upper Canada. " People in England," he 
 says, " are prone to think that ice is ice ; but the 
 truth is, that the temperature of 32 Fahrenheit, that 
 at which water freezes, is only the commencement 
 of an operation that is almost infinite : for after its 
 congelation, water is as competent to continue to 
 receive cold, as it was when it was fluid. The 
 application of cold to a block of ice does not, 
 as in the case of heat applied beneath boiling water, 
 cause what is added at one end to fly out at the 
 other : but, on the contrary, the centre cold is added 
 to and retained by the mass, and thus the tempe- 
 rature of the ice falls with the temperature of the air, 
 until in Lower Canada it occasionally sinks to 40 
 below zero, or 72 below the temperature of ice just 
 congealed. It is evident, therefore, that if two ice- 
 houses were to be filled, the one with Canada ice, 
 and the other with English ice, the difference be- 
 tween the quantity of cold stored up in each would 
 be as appreciable as the difference between a cellar 
 full of gold and a cellar full of copper ; that is to say, 
 a cubic foot of Lower Canada ice is infinitely more 
 valuable, or, in other words, it contains infinitely 
 more cold, than a cubic foot of Upper Canada ice, 
 which again contains more cold than a cubic foot of 
 Wenham ice, which contains infinitely more cold 
 
CHAP. XL.] WENHAM LAKE ICE. 361 
 
 than a cubic foot of English ice ; and thus, although 
 each of these four cubic feet of ice has precisely the 
 same shape, they each, as summer approaches, diminish 
 in value ; that is to say, they each gradually lose a 
 portion of their cold, until, long before the Lower 
 Canada ice has melted, the English ice has been con- 
 verted into lake- warm water." 
 
 There can be no doubt that where an intense frost 
 gives rise to a great thickness of ice, permitting large 
 cubic masses to be obtained after the superficial and 
 porous ice has been planed off, a great advantage is 
 afforded to the American ice merchant, and the low 
 temperature acquired by the mass must prevent it 
 from melting so readily when the hot season comes on, 
 since it has first to be warmed up to 32 Fahrenheit, 
 before it can begin to melt. Nevertheless, each frag- 
 ment of ice, when removed from the store-house, 
 very soon acquires the temperature of 32 Fahren- 
 heit, and yet when a lump of Wenham ice has been 
 brought to England, it does not melt by any means 
 so readily as a similar lump of common English ice. 
 Mr. Faraday tells me that Wenham Lake ice is ex- 
 ceedingly pure, being both free from air-bubbles and 
 from salts. The presence of the first makes it ex- 
 tremely difficult to succeed in making a lens of En- 
 glish ice which will concentrate the solar rays and 
 readily fire gunpowder, whereas nothing is easier 
 than to perform this singular feat of igniting a com- 
 bustible body by the aid of a frozen mass, if Wenham 
 ice be employed. 
 
 The absence of salts conduces greatly to the per- 
 manence of the ice, for where water is so frozen that 
 
 VOL. II. R 
 
362 EETURN TO BOSTON. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 the salts expelled are still contained in air-cavities 
 and cracks, or form thin films between the layers of 
 the ice, these entangled salts cause the ice to melt 
 at a lower temperature than 32, and the liquefied 
 portions give rise to streams and currents within the 
 body of the ice, which rapidly carry heat to the in- 
 terior. The mass then goes on thawing within as 
 well as without, and at temperatures below 32; 
 whereas pure and compact Wenham ice can only 
 thaw at 32, and only on the outside of the mass. 
 
 Boston, May, 23. Sir Humphrey Davy, in his 
 " Consolations in Travel,"* has said, that he never 
 entered London, after having been absent for some 
 time, without feelings of pleasure and hope,; for there 
 he could enjoy the most refined society in the grand 
 theatre of intellectual activity, the metropolis of the 
 world of business, thought, and action, in politics, 
 literature, and science. 
 
 " I have more than once experienced the same feel- 
 ings of hope and pleasure after having wandered 
 over the less populous and civilised parts of the 
 United States, when I returned to Boston, and never 
 more so than on this occasion, when, after travelling 
 over so large a space in the southern and western 
 States, we spent ten days in the society of our literary 
 and scientific friends in the metropolis of Massachu- 
 setts, and in the flourishing university in its suburbs. 
 They who wish to give a true picture of the national 
 character of America, what it now is, and is destined 
 to become, must study chiefly those towns which 
 
 * P. 168. 
 
CHAP. XL.] FOSSIL MASTODON. 363 
 
 contain the greatest number of native-born citizens. 
 They must sojourn in the east, rather than in the 
 west or south, not among the six million who are one 
 half African and the other half the owners of ne- 
 groes, nor among the settlers in the back-woods, who 
 are half Irish, German, or Norwegians, nor among 
 the people of French origin in Louisiana ; for, how- 
 ever faithfully they may portray the peculiarities of 
 such districts, they will give no better a representa- 
 tion of America, than an accurate description of 
 Tipperary, Connemara, the West Indies, French Ca- 
 nada, Australia, and the various lands into which 
 Great Britain is pouring her surplus population, 
 would convey of England. 
 
 Among other scientific novelties at Boston, I was 
 taken to see two magnificent skeletons, recently ob- 
 tained, of the huge mastodon, one of them found in 
 Warren county, New Jersey, which a farmer had 
 met with six feet below the surface, when digging 
 out the rich mud from a small pond newly drained. 
 There were no less than six skeletons, five of them 
 lying together, and the sixth and largest about ten 
 feet apart from the rest. A large portion of the 
 bones crumbled to pieces as soon as they were ex- 
 posed to the air, but nearly the whole of the separate 
 specimen was preserved. Dr. John Jackson called 
 my attention to the interesting fact that this perfect 
 skeleton proved the correctness of Cuvier's conjec- 
 ture respecting this extinct animal, namely, that it 
 had twenty ribs like the elephant, although no more 
 then nineteen had ever been previously found. From 
 the clay in the interior within the ribs, just where 
 
 R 2 
 
364 FOOD OF MASTODON. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 the contents of the stomach might naturally have 
 been looked for, seven bushels of vegetable matter 
 had been extracted ; and Professor Webster, of Har- 
 vard College, had the kindness to present me with 
 some of it, which has since been microscopically ex- 
 amined for me in London by Mr. A. Henfrey, of the 
 Geological Survey. He informs me that it consists 
 of pieces of the small twigs of a coniferous tree of 
 the cypress family ; and they resemble in structure 
 the young shoots of the white cedar ( Thuja occiden- 
 talis\ still a native of North America, on which, 
 therefore, we may conclude that the mastodon fed. 
 
 But a still nobler specimen of this great probos- 
 cidian quadruped was exhumed in August, 1845, in 
 the town of Newburg, New York, and purchased by 
 Dr. John C. Warren, Professor of Anatomy in Har- 
 vard University. It is the most complete, and, 
 perhaps, the largest ever met with. The bones 
 contain a considerable proportion of their original 
 gelatine, and are firm in texture. The tusks, when 
 discovered, were ten feet long ; but the larger part of 
 them had decomposed, and could not be preserved. 
 The length of the skeleton was twenty-five feet, and 
 its height twelve feet, the anchylosing of the two 
 last ribs on the right side affording the comparative 
 anatomist a true gauge for the space occupied by the 
 intervertebrate substance, so as to enable him to form 
 a correct estimate of the entire length. Dr. Warren 
 gave me an excellent Daguerreotype of this skeleton 
 for Mr. Clift, of the College of Surgeons in London. 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable than the large propor- 
 tion of animal matter in the tusk, teeth, and bones of 
 
CHAP. XL.] ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION. 365 
 
 many of these extinct mammalia, amounting in some 
 cases, as Dr. C. T. Jackson has ascertained by ana- 
 lysis, to 27 per cent., so that when all the earthy 
 ingredients are removed by acids, the form of the 
 bone remains as perfect, and the mass of animal mat- 
 ter is almost as firm, as in a recent bone subjected to 
 similar treatment. It would be rash, however, to 
 infer confidently from such data that these quadru- 
 peds were mired at periods more modern than the 
 fossil elephants found imbedded in similar clayey de- 
 posits in Europe, for the climate prevailing in this 
 part of America may possibly have been colder than 
 it was on the eastern side of the Atlantic. At the 
 same time, I have stated in my former " Travels," ' 
 that all the mastodons whose geological position I 
 was able to examine into, in Canada and the United 
 States, lived subsequently to the period of erratic 
 blocks, and the formations commonly called glacial. 
 I have also shown that the contemporary freshwater 
 and land shells were of such species as now live in 
 the same region, so that the climate could scarcely 
 have differed very materially from that now prevail- 
 ing in the same latitudes. 
 
 During my stay at Boston, as I was returning one 
 evening through Washington Street, I fell in with a 
 noisy rabble of young men and boys, some of whom 
 were dressed up for the occasion in rags, and pro- 
 vided with drums, sticks, whistles, tin-kettles, and 
 pans, with other musical instruments, most of them 
 on foot, but some mounted and sitting with their 
 
 * Vol. I. pp. 51. 55. Vol. II. p. 65. 
 R 3 
 
366 VOYAGE TO HALIFAX. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 faces towards the horse's or ass's tail, others with 
 banners, calling out, " Hurrah for Texas," for they 
 styled themselves " the Texas volunteers." This I 
 found was an anti-war demonstration, and shows 
 that there is a portion even of the humblest class 
 here, who are inclined to turn the aggressive spirit 
 and thirst for conquest of the Washington Cabinet 
 into ridicule. 
 
 June 1. Sailed for England in the Britannia, one 
 of the Cunard line of steamers, the same in which 
 we had made our outward voyage. For several days 
 a white fog had been setting in from the sea at Bos- 
 ton, and we were therefore not surprised to find the 
 mist so dense off the harbour of Halifax that the 
 lighthouse was invisible. By a continual discharge 
 of guns, which were answered by the firing of cannon 
 at the lighthouse, our captain was able safely to steer 
 his ship into the harbour. In the post-office we 
 found letters from England, left by a steamer which 
 had touched there two days before, and had come from 
 Liverpool in nine days. 
 
 June 7. When we had quitted Halifax five days, 
 and were on the wide ocean, the monotony of the 
 scene was suddenly broken by the approach of a 
 group of icebergs, several hundred in number, vary- 
 ing in height from 100 to 250 feet, all of the purest 
 white, except such portions as, being in shade, as- 
 sumed a greenish hue, or such as acquired a delicate 
 rose-colour tint from the rays of the evening sun. 
 These splendid bergs were supposed to have floated 
 from Placentia Bay, in Newfoundland, where a great 
 many merchantmen had been imprisoned for several 
 
CHAP. XL.] ICEBERGS. 367 
 
 months by a huge barrier of ice. They were almost 
 all of picturesque shapes, and some of them of most 
 fantastic form ; three in particular, which came 
 within a mile of us. One presented a huge dome, 
 rising from the centre of a flat tabular mass ; an- 
 other, more than 100 feet high, was precisely in the 
 form of a pyramid, quite sharp at the top, and the 
 angle formed by the meeting of two sides, very well 
 defined ; at the base of it rose a hummock, which 
 we called the Egyptian Sphinx. The third was 
 covered with pinnacles, and seemed like a portion of 
 the Glacier des Bossons, in the valley of Chamouni, 
 detached and afloat. Erect on one side of it stood 
 an isolated obelisk of ice, 100 feet high, which in- 
 creased very slightly in size towards the base. Some 
 of these bodies appeared to the north, others far to 
 the south of us, the loftiest of the whole rising out of 
 the water to the height of 400 feet, according to the 
 conjecture of the seamen, who thought they could 
 not be far out in their estimate, as there was a 
 schooner alongside of it, and they could tell the 
 height of her mast within a few feet. We sailed 
 within half a mile of several bergs, which were 250 
 feet, and within a quarter of a mile of one 150 feet 
 in height, on which, by aid of the telescope, we dis- 
 tinctly observed a great number of sea-birds, which 
 looked like minute black specks on a white ground. 
 I was most anxious to ascertain whether there was 
 any mud, stones, or fragments of rock on any one of 
 these floating masses, but after examining about forty 
 of them without perceiving any signs of foreign mat- 
 ter, I left the deck when it was growing dusk. My 
 
 R 4 
 
368 ICEBERGS. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 questions had excited the curiosity of the captain 
 and officers of the ship, who assured me they had 
 never seen any stones on a berg, observing, at the 
 same time, that they had always been so eager to 
 get out of their way, and in such a state of anxiety 
 when near them, that such objects might easily have 
 been overlooked. I had scarcely gone below ten 
 minutes, when one of the passengers came to tell me 
 that the captain had seen a black mass as large as a 
 boat on an iceberg, about 150 feet high, which was 
 very near. By aid of a glass, it was made out dis- 
 tinctly to be a space about nine feet square covered 
 with black stones. The base of the berg on the side 
 towards the steamer was 600 feet long, and from the 
 dark spot to the water's edge, there was a stripe of 
 soiled ice, as if the water streaming down a slope, as 
 the ice melted, had carried mud suspended in it. In 
 the soiled channel were seen two blocks, each about 
 the size of a man's head. Although I returned in- 
 stantly to the deck when the berg was still in sight, 
 such was then the haziness of the air, and the ra- 
 pidity of our motion, that the dark spot was no 
 longer discernible. Such instances of the transporta- 
 tion of rocks by ice, occurrences most interesting to 
 geologists, were first recorded by Scoresby, in the 
 northern hemisphere ; but from the accounts given 
 me by Sir James Ross and Dr. Joseph Hooker, they 
 are evidently much more common in the icebergs 
 drifted from the Antarctic than from those of the 
 Arctic regions. 
 
 When we were among the ice, the temperature oi 
 the water was 45 Fahrenheit. On the day before 
 
CHAP. XL.] AURORA BOREALIS. 369 
 
 we came up with it, the passengers had already 
 begun to look out warmer clothing, and shawls and 
 great coats were in requisition. Occasionally we 
 were steering amongst small pieces of ice, and the 
 wheel at the helm was turned first one way and then 
 another, reminding me of the dangers of the Missis- 
 sippi, when we were avoiding the bumping against 
 logs. In the fore part of the vessel the watch was 
 trebled, some aloft and others below, and we went on 
 at the rate of nine miles an hour, and once in the 
 night came within less than a ship's length of a large 
 berg. A naval officer on board declared to me next 
 morning that the peril had been imminent; that he had 
 weathered a typhoon in the Chinese seas, and would 
 rather brave another than sail so fast in the night 
 through a pack of icebergs. He now thought it 
 most probable that the President steam-ship had been 
 lost by striking a berg. He reminded me that we 
 had seen a pinnacle of ice, distant 100 yards or more 
 from the main body of a berg, of which it was evi- 
 dently a part, the intervening submerged ice being 
 concealed under water. How easily, therefore, might 
 we have struck against similar hidden masses, where 
 no such projecting pinnacle remained to warn us of 
 our danger. 
 
 At half-past nine o'clock on the evening of the 8th 
 June, it being bright moonlight, some hours after 
 we had lost sight of the ice, when we were in a 
 latitude corresponding to the South of France, we 
 saw in the north a most brilliant exhibition of the 
 Aurora Borealis ; the sky seemed to open and close, 
 emitting, for a short period, silvery streams of light like 
 R 5 
 
370 AUROKA BOKEALIS. [CHAP. XL. 
 
 comets' tails, and then a large space became over- 
 spread with a most delicate roseate hue. The occur- 
 rence of this phenomenon in the summer season, and 
 in so southern a latitude, seemed to point to its 
 connection with the ice which was drifting over the 
 sea between us and Newfoundland, now to the N. W. 
 of us. We learn from Sir James Ross's narrative 
 of the late antarctic expedition, the highly interest- 
 ing fact, that when the Aurora Borealis was playing 
 over the great barrier of coast ice on the shores of 
 the antarctic land, it partook distinctly of the irre- 
 gular and broken shape of the icy cliffs over which 
 it hovered.* 
 
 June 12. A pilot came on board from Ireland, 
 with English newspapers, filled with debates on the 
 repeal of the corn- laws. Among the foreign news, 
 a considerable space was occupied with the affairs of 
 France, Germany, Italy, India, China, and there was 
 only a short paragraph or two about America, North 
 and South. I had been travelling long enough in the 
 New World to sympathise fully with the feelings of 
 some of my American fellow-passengers, who were 
 coming abroad for the first time, when they expressed 
 their surprise at the small space which the affairs of 
 the United States occupied even in English journals. 
 It is a lesson which every traveller has to learn when 
 he is far from home, and seeks in a foreign news- 
 paper to gain some intelligence of his native land. 
 He is soon accustomed to find that day after day 
 even the name of his country is not mentioned. 
 
 * Vol.11, p. 221. 1842. 
 
CHAP. XL.] RETURN TO LIVERPOOL. 371 
 
 The speed of our steamer had been constantly 
 increasing as the weight of coal diminished. The 
 length of the voyage, therefore, to America might 
 be considerably abridged if the quantity of coal were 
 lessened by a day and a half's consumption, the 
 steamer starting from the West of Ireland, to which 
 passengers might be conveyed in a few hours, by 
 steam-boat and railway, from Liverpool. 
 
 June 13., Saturday. Anchored off Liverpool at 
 half-past ten o'clock in the evening, having made 
 the passage from Boston in twelve days and a half, 
 it being nine months and nine days since we left 
 that port. 
 
 R 6 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 ABOLITIONIST "wrecker," ii. 38. 
 
 Abolitionists, i. 319. 322. ; ii. 
 163. 
 
 , coloured, i. 126. 
 
 Absenteeism in Southern States, 
 ii. 82. 
 
 Acquia Creek, ii. 330. 
 
 Actors in steamer, ii. 216. 
 
 Advocates and attorneys, i. 47. 
 
 African Tom, i. 359. 
 
 Age of delta of Mississippi, ii. 
 251. 
 
 Agelaius phseniceus, i. 328. 
 
 Alabama geology, ii. 89. 
 
 , travelling bad, ii. 82. 
 
 , coal-field, ii. 80. 
 
 Alatamaha river, i. 326. 344. 
 
 Albany, excursion to, ii. 348. 
 
 Alcseus, ii. 123. 
 
 Alleghany Mountains, ii. 320. 
 
 Alligators, i. 317. 336. ; ii. 203. 
 
 Alligator's nest, i. 337. 
 
 Alluvium of Mississippi, ii. 242. 
 
 Alpine plants, i. 79. 
 
 American oratory, i. 182. 
 
 Antarctic ice, i. 36. 
 
 Anthracite coal, i. 247. 
 
 Anti-British antipathies, ii. 289. 
 
 Anti-Corn-Law-League, ii. 224. 
 
 Anti-English feeling, i. 299. 
 
 Anti-negro feeling, ii. 160. 
 
 Anti-renters, N. Y., ii. 349. 
 
 Arbitration, i, 261. 
 
 Arctic Flora on Mount Washing- 
 ton, i. 78. 
 
 Arisaig, i. 133. 
 
 Artesian wells, ii. 90. 
 
 , near Montgomery, ii. 
 
 42. 
 
 Arundo phragmitis, ii. 149. 
 Ateuchus volvens, ii. 328. 
 Attakapas, ii. 175. 
 Audubon, Mr., visit to, ii. 334. 
 Augusta, in Maine, i. 45. 
 Aurora Borealis, ii. 369. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bachman, Dr., i. 302. 
 Backwoods, inconveniences of, 
 
 Bald region of Mount Washing- 
 ton, i. 77. 
 Balize, ii. 143. 147. 
 
 , houses on piles, ii. 149. 
 
 look-out, ii. 148. 
 
 Bankruptcies, i. 160. 
 Baptist and Atheist, i. 178. 
 
 and Methodists, i. 363. 
 
 Barn moved, i. 121. 
 Bartram, i. 335. 351.; ii. 177. 
 Basking shark, i. 147. 
 Baton Rouge, ii. 122. 176. 
 Battle-ground, New Orleans, ii. 
 
 155. 
 Bayou Liere, ii. 145. 
 
 la Fourche, ii. 175. 
 
 Plaquemine, ii. 176. 
 
 Sara, ii. 191. 
 
 St. John, ii. 234. 
 
 Bear in New England, i. 66. 
 Beaufort, i. 308. 
 Beetle, ball-rolling, ii. 328. 
 Beetles called bugs, ii. 206. 
 
374 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bequests, i. 201. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, i. 207. 
 
 Bibles distributed, i. 365. 
 
 Big Black River, ii. 209. 
 
 Bone Lick, ii. 257. 
 
 Birds, i. 316. 
 
 on Mount Washington, i. 75. 
 
 of Indiana, ii. 269. 
 
 Bishop of St. Asaph, i. 23. 
 
 Black Baptist church, ii. 2. 
 
 mechanics, i. 360. 
 
 Methodist church, ii. 283. 
 
 Blanco White, i. 241. 
 
 Blind asylum, i. 1 68. 
 
 Blocks of granite and gneiss, ii. 21. 
 
 Bluff of St. Stephen's, ii. 91. 
 
 Bluffs, fossils of, ii. 50. 
 
 , shipping cotton at, ii. 49. 
 
 Bonaventure, i. 319. 
 
 Bony pike used for manure, ii. 329. 
 
 Boott factory, i. 109. 
 
 Boston, i. 16. 152. 
 
 , public buildings, i. 21. 
 
 militia, i. 22. 
 
 , environs of, i. 25. 
 
 , suburbs of, i. 111. 
 
 , lodgings in, i. 152. 
 
 , mode of living, i. 156. 
 
 Boulders, i. 103. 
 
 Bowie knives, ii. 275. 
 
 Brazilian caves, i. 349. 
 
 Bridgeport, repudiation, ii. 323. 
 
 Bringier, Mr., ii. 137. 231. 
 
 British aggrandisement, i. 256. 
 
 Brown, Mr. A., ii. 254. 
 
 Brumby, Mr., professor of che- 
 mistry, ii. 79. 
 
 Brunswick Canal, i. 347. 
 
 Buffalo Island, ii. 237. 
 
 Bunker Hill monument, i. 16. 
 
 Buried trees, ii. 137. 177. 181. 
 192. 
 
 Butler's Island, i. 333. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cabbage-palm, i. 314. 
 Cairo on the Ohio, ii. 266. 
 
 Campbell, life of, i. 144. 
 
 , Gertrude of Wyoming, ii. 
 
 321. 
 
 Canadian legislature, i. 262. 
 Canadians, ii. 159. 
 Canal cut through ice, i. 18. 
 Canes on bank of river, ii. 79. 
 Cannon's Point, i. 338. 
 Cape Cod, i. 113. 
 Capitol, i. 265. 
 Captains of steamers, ii. 223. 
 Caravel of Columbus, i. 1. 
 Carlyle, Mr., ii. 316. 
 Carnival, ii. 112. 
 
 at New Orleans, ii. 112. 
 
 Carolina, North, i. 289. 
 Carpenter, Dr., ii. 134. 140. 178. 
 
 249. 
 
 Carriages, i. 157. 
 Carthage Crevasse, ii. 169. 
 Carver, Governor, i. 120. 
 Gary a aquatica, ii. 145. 
 Cass, General, i. 260. 
 Cathedral, Catholic, New Orleans, 
 
 ii. 114. 
 
 Cattle, miring of, ii. 105. 
 Cercis canadensis, ii. 200. 
 Chamserops adansonia, ii. 134. 
 
 palmetto, i. 315. 
 
 Chambersburg, ii. 321. 
 Channing, Dr., i. 172. 196. 
 
 on Milton, i. 203. 
 
 on Slavery, i. 323. 
 
 Channing's Works, i. 176. 
 Charleston, i. 293. 
 
 , gardens, i. 305. 
 
 , society in, i. 296. 
 
 Charlevoix, ii. 151. 
 Charlottesville, ii. 173. 
 Chatahoochie, Fall of, ii. 33. 
 Cheapness of books in U. S., ii. 
 
 338. 
 
 Cheirotherium of Saxony, ii. 310. 
 in coal of Pennsylvania, ii. 
 
 306. 
 
 Cherokee rose, ii. 199. 
 Chicken-thieves, ii. 168. 
 Children, spoilt, ii. 22 1. 
 Christians, sect so called, i. 173. 
 Christmas Day, i. 293. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 375 
 
 Christians, i. 173. 
 Churches in Maine, i. 58. 
 
 in New York, i. 238. 
 
 , none in New Harmony, ii. 
 
 272. 
 
 Cincinnati, progress of, ii. 290. 
 Civilisation among negroes, i. 361. 
 Claiborne, fossil remains at, ii. 58. 
 
 , landing at, ii. 58. 
 
 Clapp, Dr., ii. 278. 
 
 Clay, Mr., ii. 129. 
 
 Clergy, pay of, i. 228. 
 
 Climate of Boston, i. 154. 
 
 , change of, affecting plants, 
 
 i. 83. 
 
 of New England, i. 154. 
 
 Clipper Steamer, ii. 297. 
 Coal-fields, i. 286. 
 
 of Alabama, ii. 80. 
 
 seams, i. 283. 
 
 strata, foot-prints of reptiles 
 
 in, ii. 308. 
 
 , vegetable structure, i. 284. 
 
 measures, origin of, ii. 246. 
 
 Cobblers, i. 121. 
 Cockburn, Admiral, i. 359. 
 Cocoa-grass, ii. 156. 
 Cogswell, Mr., ii. 335. 
 Cold, indifference to, ii. 12. 
 Coloured race, exclusiveness of 
 
 whites towards, ii. 57. 
 
 servants, i. 265. 
 
 domestics, ii. 84. 
 
 Coluber constrictor, i. 137. 
 
 Columbus, ii. 33. 
 
 Competition of negro and white 
 
 mechanics, ii. 34. 
 Complaint of the Captive, ii. 128. 
 Concord, town of, i. 107. 
 Congregationalists, i. 212. 
 Consumption, common in Maine, 
 
 i. 62. 
 
 Converts to Rome, i. 240. 
 Coolies in W. Indies, i. 12. 
 Copyright, international, ii. 339. 
 Coral reef, fossil, ii. 277. 
 Cottagers of Glenburnie, ii. 221. 
 Cotting, Dr. J. R., ii. 21. 
 Cotton, ii. 167. 
 Cotton- wood, ii. 194. 233. 
 
 Cotton Mather on Day of Doom, 
 i. 52. 
 
 Couper, Mr. Hamilton, i. 327. 
 
 Couthuoy, Captain, i. 7. 
 
 Cowley, i. 204. 
 
 Crackers, i. 326. 
 
 Creeds, variations in, i. 216. 
 
 Creek Indians, departure of, ii. 
 33. 
 
 Creole ladies, ii. 115. 
 
 Crescent city, ii. 133. 
 
 Cretaceous strata near Mont- 
 gomery, ii. 42. 
 
 Crevasses, ii. 169. 
 
 Crimes among negroes, i. 358. 
 
 Croton water, ii. 335. 
 
 water-works, i. 236. 
 
 Cupressus disticha,i. 327.; ii. 254. 
 
 Curfew at Montgomery, ii. 43. 
 
 Currents, oceanic, i. 7. 
 
 Custom-house officers, i. 19. 
 
 Cyperus hydra, ii. 156. 
 
 Cypress trees, i. 327. 
 
 roots, ii. 245. 
 
 knees, ii. 180. 
 
 , deciduous, age of, ii. 253, 
 
 254. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dana, i. 197. 
 
 Darby, on mud of Red river, ii. 
 
 255.' 
 
 Darien, i. 326. ; ii. 2. 
 Darwin, Mr., i. 36. 350. 
 
 , Pampean formation, i. 346. 
 
 Date palms, i. 339. ; ii. 138. 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, ii. 362. 
 Dawson, J. W., i. 132. 
 Day of Doom, poem, i. 51.. 
 De Candolle, i. 330. 
 Declaration of independence, i. 
 
 23. 
 
 Decomposition of gneiss, ii. 22. 
 Decoy pond, i. 121. 
 Delta, advance of, ii. 152. 
 
 , subsidence of, ii. 183. 
 
 Democracy and Romanism, ii. 
 
 291. 
 
376 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Democrats, coalition of, with 
 
 slave-owners, i. 96. 
 Devil's Punch Bowl, ii. 200. 
 
 Swamp, ii. 188. 
 
 Dewey, Dr., sermon against war, 
 
 ii. 345. 
 
 Dickeson, Dr., ii. 196. 254. 
 Diplomatists, i. 270. 
 Diron, Sieur, ii. 153. 
 Dirt-eating, ii. 7. 
 Dissenters' Chapels Bill, i. 217. 
 Division of property, i. 63. 
 Divorced man, ii. 220. 
 Dog-wood in Virginia, ii. 326. 
 Domestic tea, ii. 210. 
 Donaldsonville, ii. 123. 175. 
 Dreissena, ii. 135. 
 Dressmakers, i. 165. 
 
 at Boston, i. 166. 
 
 Drift, Northern, relative age of, 
 
 ii. 264. 
 
 Drift-wood, ii. 171. 
 Driver, black, i. 357. 
 Drunkenness in Alabama, ii. 67. 
 
 92. 
 
 Duelling, new law against, ii. 68. 
 Dunbar, Mr., ii. 153. 
 Dwarf firs, i. 76. 
 
 E. 
 
 Je, i. 312. 
 Earthquake at New Madrid, ii. 
 
 229. 
 
 Echo, mountain, i, 72. 
 Education of ladies, i. 158. 
 
 , popular, ii. 317. 
 
 , secular, i. 191. 
 
 Educational movement, i. 195. 
 Eldon, Lord, i. 107. 
 Election, i. 183. 
 
 at Boston, i. 183. 
 
 Electoral franchise, i. 257. 
 Electric telegraph, i. 242, 243. 
 
 245. 
 
 Elliott, Dr., i. 363. 
 Ellis's Cliffs, ii. 194. 
 Eloquence, inflated, i. 263. 
 
 Emancipation, effects of, ii. 100. 
 Emigrants, ii. 222. 
 
 to the West, ii. 72. 
 
 Eminent preachers, i. 175. 
 Emmons, Dr., ii. 352. 
 Engine room, i. 10. 
 Engine, revolutions of, i. 11. 
 Engines, high pressure, ii. 47. 
 English newspapers, ii. 224. 
 
 pronunciation, ii. 117. 
 
 turn, ii. 155. 
 
 Envy in a democracy, i. 99. 
 Episcopal churches, i. 172. 
 
 clergymen in steamer, ii. 86. 
 
 Episcopalian asceticism, i. 178. 
 Equality, ii. 223. 240. 
 
 , social, i. 91. 
 
 in society, ii. 73. 
 
 Eulalie, lake, ii. 233. 
 Evansville, Indiana, ii. 277. 
 Everett, Mr. i. 22. 
 
 on cheap literature, ii. 339. 
 
 Eye-glass, ii. 218. 
 
 F. 
 
 Factories, Lowell, i. 109. 
 Fanaticism of New England, i. 
 
 91. 
 
 Faneuil Hall, i. 21. 
 Faraday, Mr., ii. 361. 
 Fashion in the back-woods, ii. 
 
 240. 
 
 Fashionists, ii. 15. 
 Faulkner, Mr., ii. 185. 
 Fausse Riviere, ii. 185. 
 Ferry boat, i. 27. 
 Fire, alarms of, i. 167. 
 Fire-clays of coal, ii. 245. 
 Fires, i. 291. 
 
 at New York, i. 237. 
 
 Firs, dwarf, ii. 75. 
 
 First juvenile, ii. 216. 
 
 Fish, fossil, i. 29. 
 
 Fissures during earthquake, ii. 
 
 234. 
 
 Flat boats, ii. 167, 168. 
 Fleming, Dr., i. 147. 
 Fletcher, Mr., ii. 238. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 377 
 
 Flint, the geographer, ii. 230. 
 Fog off Halifax, ii. 366. 
 Fogs, ii. 174. 
 
 on river Piscataqua, i. 34. 
 
 Fontania, ii. 185. 
 Food for negroes, i. 356. 
 Forefather's Day, i. 114. 
 Forest scenery, ii. 239. 
 Forshey, Mr., ii. 155. 176. 203. 
 
 243. 
 Fort Adams, ii. 194. 
 
 Jackson, ii. 144. 
 
 " Forty-five or fight," ii. 303. 
 Foot-prints, fossil, of Greensburg, 
 
 ii. 304. 
 Fossil-trees, i. 282. 
 
 human bone, ii. 197. 
 
 remains, i. 348. 
 
 Fossils in drift, i. 30. 
 
 at Gardiner, i. 44. 
 Fox, Mr., i. 268. 
 Franconia, i. 102. 
 Free school, i. 189. 
 
 visit to a, i. 189. 
 
 schools, i. 205. 
 
 Free trade and protectionism, ii. 
 
 325. 
 
 French Creoles, ii. 156. 
 " French settlements," ii. 237. 
 Freshwater loam, ii. 194. 
 Frost, severe, at Boston, i. 17. 
 Funeral of Northern man, ii. 15. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gale off Great Bank, i. 2. 
 Gallatin, Mr., on Indian corn, ii. 
 343. 
 
 , on Oregon question, ii. 342. 
 
 Gallows Hill, i. 124. 
 Gardenia, ii. 199. 
 Gardens at Mobile, ii. 106. 
 Gar-fish, ii. 187. 
 Gas, explosion of, i. 285. 
 Gas-works, New Orleans, ii. 136. 
 Geese, i. 121. 
 Gelasimus, ii. 145. 
 Gelsemlum nitidum, ii. 188. 
 
 1 General Jackson's log cabin, ii. 
 226. 
 
 Geological epoch of White Moun- 
 tains, i. 83. 
 
 Geology, prejudices opposed to, 
 ii. 314. 
 
 of Georgia, ii. 9. 
 
 round Portsmouth, i. 29. 
 
 , Alabama, ii. 89. 
 
 Georgia, Bishop of, i. 363. 
 
 German baker, ii. 227. 
 
 baker's wife, ii. 240. 
 
 Germans in Cincinnati, ii. 290. 
 
 Gertrude of Wyoming, ii. 321. 
 
 Giant's Grave, i. 73. 
 
 Grammar school for boys, i. 190. 
 
 Gravel terraces, ii. 299. 
 
 Gifford, Mr. A. F., i. 279. 287. ; 
 ii. 327. 
 
 Gist, Dr., ii. 209. 
 
 Glacial grooves, i. 34. 
 
 Glynn county, i. 365. 
 
 Gnathodon, ii. 150. 
 
 cuneatus, ii. 134. 
 
 Gneiss, decomposition of, ii. 22. 
 
 Goldfuss, Professor, on reptiles in 
 coal, ii. 313. 
 
 Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, 
 ii. 316. 
 
 Gordonia pubescens, i. 351. 
 
 Governesses, i. 297. 
 
 Governor's lady, ii. 19. 
 
 Grand Gulf, ii. 205. 
 
 Greenland, subsidence of, ii. 259. 
 
 Greensburg, Pennsylvania, ii. 302. 
 
 Gulf of Mexico shells, ii. 104. 
 
 Gum tree, i. 332. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hale, Sir Matthew, i. 124. 
 Half breeds, i. 130. 
 Halifax, i. 14. 
 
 , lighthouse, ii. 366. 
 
 Hall, Captain Basil, ii. 129. 
 
 , Mr. James, ii. 353. 
 
 Halsvdrus Pontoppidani, i. 143. 
 Hand-car on railway, ii. 8. 
 Harlanus Americanus, i. 348. 
 
378 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Harper's printing establishment, 
 
 ii. 336. 
 
 Harrisburg, ii. 322. 
 Hawkes, Dr., ii. 129. 
 Hay, vessels laden with, i. 42. 
 Hayes, Mr. J. L., i. 28, 33. 
 Head, Sir Francis, ii. 360. 
 Health in New England, i. 155. 
 
 in U. S., i. 155. 
 Heavenly witnesses, i. 222. 
 Helderberg war, ii. 349. 
 Hitchcock, Professor, i. 8. ' 
 Hockmar or shark, i. 145. 
 Hogarth's Election Feast, i. 225. 
 Home, Sir Everard, i. 144. 
 Hooker, Dr. Joseph, i. 38. ; ii. 368. 
 Horticultural show, i. 2 1 . 
 Hospitality in South, i. 329. 
 Hotel St. Louis, at New Orleans, 
 
 ii. 112. 
 
 Hotels, Boston, i. 153. 
 House of Commons, i. 262. 
 Howe, Dr., i. 169. 
 Hoyt, Jesse, letters of, ii. 351. 
 Huguenots, ii. 159. 
 Humboldt, ii. 230. 
 Humming-bird, migration of, ii. 
 
 331. 
 
 Hunter, Mr., ii. 233. 
 Hurst Castle, i. 113. 
 Hydrarchos, ii. 74. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ice of Wenham Lake, ii. 361. 
 , antarctic, enclosing whale, 
 
 i. 37. 
 
 Iceberg, i. 5. 
 Icebergs, i. 38. 
 
 , rocks transported by, ii. 368. 
 
 , danger of collison with, ii. 
 
 369. 
 
 , drifting of, i. 8. 
 
 on homeward voyage, ii. 367. 
 
 Iberville river, ii. 176. 
 Illegitimate children, i. 366. 
 Immersion in baptism, i. 363. 
 Income tax, i. 254. 
 Independence day, i. 184. 
 Independents, i. 219. 
 
 India tree, pride of, i. 290. 308. 
 
 Indian blood, ii. 222. 
 
 carvings of foot-prints, ii. 
 
 313. 
 
 mound, Wheeling, ii. 299. 
 
 mounds, ii. 200. 
 
 mounds near Macon, ii. 14. 
 
 corn, uncertain crop, ii. 72. 
 
 shell mound, i. 338. 
 
 Indiana, fossil erect trees in coal 
 
 strata, ii. 273. 
 Inflated oratory, ii. 123. 
 Initial letters, i. 182. 
 Inns of Southern States, ii. 64. 
 Inquisitiveness, ii. 219. 
 Inundations, ii. 169. 
 Ipswich, i. 157. 
 Irish repeal meeting, i. 187, 188. 
 
 voters, i. 249. 
 
 servants, ii. 121. 
 
 emigrants, i. 186, 187. 
 
 Island Eighty-four, ii. 215. 
 
 J. 
 
 ; j 
 Jackson, ii. 208. 
 
 , hotel at, ii. 210. 
 
 , Dr. John, ii. 363. 
 
 Jealousy of wealth, ii. 69. 
 Jefferson College, ii. 173. 
 Jeffrey, Lord, works reprinted in 
 
 U. S., ii. 301. 
 
 Johnson on Milton, i. 203. 
 Judas-tree, ii. 200. 
 Judges at Tuscaloosa, ii. 88. 
 
 cashiered, ii. 125. 
 
 elected, ii. 213. 
 
 Julian calendar, i. 224. 
 Juniata river, ii. 321. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kean, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 117. 
 
 , Mrs., ii. 217. 
 
 Kendall, Captain, i. 36. 
 
 Kennebec river, i. 42. 
 
 King, Dr., on fossil footprints in 
 
 coal strata, ii. 305. 
 Kingfisher, i. 332. 
 Koch, i. 131. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 379 
 
 Ladies, educated, i. 158. 
 
 ' ordinary, ii. 119. 
 
 Laing, Malcolm, i. 142. 144. 
 
 Lake Solitude, ii. 185, 186. 
 
 Pontchartrain, ii. 110. 133. 
 
 135. 
 
 Ooncordia, ii. 203. 
 
 Eulalie, ii. 233. 
 
 Lalaurie, Madame, ii. 163. 
 
 Land tortoises, ii. 293. 
 
 quadrupeds, chiefly noc- 
 turnal, ii. 335. 
 
 crabs, ii. 145. 
 
 Landed proprietors, i. 64. 
 
 Landslip, ii. 182. 
 
 Language, i. 161. 
 
 , peculiarities of, i. 161, 162. 
 
 Laura Bridgeman, i. 168. 
 
 Law against black mechanics, ii. 
 97. 
 
 Lay teachers, i. 226. 
 
 Le Conte, Dr., i. 317. 
 
 Lectures, i. 198. 
 
 Leg " bitten off," ii. 220. 
 
 Legal profession, i. 45. 
 
 Legislators, paid, i. 98. 
 
 Legislature of Louisiana, ii. 122. 
 
 Lending libraries, i. 199. 
 
 Lepidosteus, ii. 187. 
 
 Levee, New Orleans, ii. 131. 
 
 Levees, artificial, ii. 170. 
 
 Levelling up and down, ii. 223. 
 
 Leyden Street, i. 115. 
 
 Liberia, ii. 322. 
 
 Liebig, i. 330. 
 
 Lightning, i. 316. 
 
 Lighthouse, Halifax, guns fired 
 at, ii. 366. 
 
 Lighthouse near Mobile, ii. 103. 
 
 Lightwood, i. 291. . 
 
 Lignite, ii. 232. 
 
 Linnaea borealis, i. 72. 
 
 Literary clerk of steamer, ii. 190. 
 
 tastes, i. 164. 
 
 Little Prairie, ii. 230. 
 
 Live oaks, i. 319. 
 
 Liverpool, landing at, ii. 371. 
 
 Liverpool, voyage from, i. 1. 
 Living, cost of at Boston, i. 165. 
 Loam, ii. 225. 229. 
 
 or loess, ii. 208. 
 
 Loblolly pine, i. 316. 
 Loess, ii. 195. 
 
 Long Island Railway, ii. 356. 
 Louisiana, ii. 157. 
 , loess of, ii. 256. 
 Louisville, Kentucky, ii. 279. 
 Love, Mr., ii. 235. 
 Lowell Factories, i. 109. 
 Loxia cardinalis, i. 331. 
 Luxury of New Orleans, ii. 124. 
 Luzenberger, Dr., i. 337. 
 Lynch Law in Florida, ii. 28. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay's History, sale of, in 
 
 U. S., ii. 338. 
 Maclarty, Mrs., ii. 221. 
 Macon, Georgia, ii. 14. 
 
 , Alabama, ii. 65. 
 
 M'Connell, i. 188. 
 M'Cormack, Dr., ii. 134. 
 Madam, use of term, i. 162. 
 M'llvaine, Mr. William, i. 139. 
 Mackenzie letters, ii. 351. 
 Maclean, Rev. Donald, i. 145. 
 M'Quhae, Captain, i. 151. 
 Magnolia steamer, ii. 165. 207. 
 Mai, Cardinal, L 223. 
 Mallotus, i. 29. 
 Mammoth ravine, ii. 196. 
 Man shot in a brawl, ii. 27. 
 Manchester, i. 108. 
 Manners, familiar, ii. 218. 
 Marriage between coloured and 
 
 white, ii. 287. 
 
 Marriages in Boston, i. 159. 
 , early, i. 159. 
 
 Marine shells, i. 113. 
 Market at New Orleans, ii. 130. 
 Marsh blackbird, i. 328. 
 Martineau, Miss, ii. 163. 
 Martins killed by storm, i. 33. 
 Mastodon, skeletons of, ii. 363. 
 
 , food of, ii. 364. 
 
 Maximilian, Prince, ii. 271. 
 
380 
 
 INDP:X. 
 
 Mayflower, i. 114. 
 
 , table of, i. 119. 
 
 Medical students, ii. 281. 
 Megatherium, i. 347. 
 Melville, Dr., i. 148. 
 Memphis, ii. 225. 
 Mendicity, i. 343. 
 Merigomish, i. 132. 
 Merrimack river, i. 108. 
 Metairie ridge, ii. 135. 
 Methodist church, black, ii. 283. 
 
 prayer meetings, i. 364. 
 
 church,Montgomery,ii.284. 
 
 sermon, i. 104. 
 
 Mexico, war with, ii. 344. 
 Michaud on the age of cypress, 
 
 ii. 254. 
 
 Migration of plants, i. 80. 
 Mill Creek, geology of, ii. 292. 
 Milledgeville, ii. 18. 
 Millerite movement, i. 87. 
 Mississippi, banks of, ii. 214. 
 
 river, ii. 131. 
 
 water, ii. 207. 
 
 coast, ii. 166. 
 
 , bank caving in, ii. 229. 
 
 , delta of, ii. 243. 
 
 sediment, ii. 154. 
 
 , age of delta, ii. 248. 
 
 Missouri, slavery in, ii. 241. 
 Mixture of races, i. 366. 
 Mob of gentlemen, i. 295 
 Mobile built on bed of shells, ii. 
 
 106. 
 
 , gardens at, ii. 106. 
 
 Mocking birds, ii. 239. 
 Montgomery, j ourney to, ii. 35. 4 1 . 
 Mormons, i. 90. 
 
 and Stephanists, ii. 55. 
 
 Morals of Puritans, i. 159. 
 Morlot on Subsidence in Adriatic, 
 
 ii. 248. 
 Morse, i. 244. 
 
 geography, ii. 336. 
 
 Moss, Spanish, i. 292. 
 Mount Auburn, i. 171. 
 
 Vernon, ii. 266. 
 
 Washington, i. 74. 
 
 Mountains of New Hampshire, i. 
 
 65. 
 
 "Movers" to Texas, ii. 61. 109. 
 Mud cracks, casts of, ii. 307. 
 Mulattos, i. 366. 
 Museum, Salem, i. 123. 
 Musk rats, ii. 237. 
 
 , habitations of, ii. 329. 
 
 Musquitos, ii. 121. 175. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nahant, i. 139. 
 
 Napoleon, ii. 215. 
 
 Natchez, country houses, ii. 199. 
 
 , ii. 194. 
 
 , tornado, ii. 198. 
 
 National fair at Washington, ii. 
 
 325. 
 
 Nativism, i. 250. 
 Naval arsenal, ii. 226. 
 Names of negroes, i. 354. 
 Negro Baptists, ii. 3. 
 
 brain, i. 129. 
 
 houses, i. 333. 355. 
 
 episcopal clergyman, ii. 324. 
 
 prayer, ii. 5. 
 
 hospital, i. 356. 
 
 slaves, ii. 32. 
 
 children, ii. 18. 
 
 maid-servants, i. 342. 
 
 names, i. 354. 
 
 porters, i. 326. 
 
 preacher, Louisville, ii. 285. 
 
 intelligence, ii. 5. 
 
 and white mechanics, ii. 34. 
 
 shot by overseer, ii. 92. 
 
 instruction, i. 275. 
 
 mistaken for white, ii. 217. 
 
 Negroes, i. 297. 
 
 , civilisation of, ii. 96. 
 
 , emancipation of, i. 13. 
 
 , increase of, ii. 95. 
 
 in Louisiana, ii. 162. 
 
 in mines, i. 287. 
 
 , intelligence of, ii. 9. 
 
 , kindness to, i. 278. 
 
 , more progressive in upper 
 
 country, ii. 10. 
 on sale, ii. 161. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Negroes, position of, in the South, 
 
 ii. 98. 
 
 , prejudices against, i. 294. 
 
 , progress of, i. 362. ; ii. 83. 
 
 , runaway, i. 294. 
 
 , treatment of, ii. 93. 
 
 Neill, Mr. i., 142. 
 New Albany, ii. 277. 
 New Harmony, ii. 269. 
 New Jersey, i. 251. 
 New London, ii. 356. 
 New Madrid, ii. 226. 
 
 , departure from, ii. 266. 
 
 , earthquake, ii. 229. 
 
 New Orleans, French appearance 
 
 of, ii. 111. 
 
 , Hotel St. Louis, ii. 112. 
 
 , Catholic cathedral, ii. 114. 
 
 , theatres, ii. 117. 
 
 , tombs at, ii. 118. 
 
 , shops at, ii. 118. 
 
 , ladies' ordinary, ii. 119. 
 
 , procession at, ii. 119. 
 
 , salubrity of, ii. 120. 
 
 Newberne, i. 348. 
 Newfoundland, i. 9. 
 Newhaven, i. 235. 
 Newman, Mr., i. 240. 
 Newsboys, ii. 40. 
 Newspaper press, ii. 41. 
 Newspapers, i. 59. 
 
 distribution of, i. 19. 
 
 from England, ii. 224. 
 
 New York, gay dresses in, ii. 332. 
 
 , omnibuses in, ii. 333. 
 
 , naming of streets, ii. 334. 
 
 Nicol, Mr. J M ii. 251. 
 
 North and South split, i. 365. 
 
 Northern prices, ii. 121. 
 
 Norton, Mr., i. 174. 
 
 Nothingarians, i. 177. 
 
 Novels, sale of by newsboys, ii.41 
 
 Nuttall, i. 348. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oakes, Mr. William, i. 71. ; ii. 
 
 359. 
 Obion, ii. 238. 
 
 Observatory, Cincinnati, ii. 294. 
 Ocmulgee river, i. 344. ; ii. 16. 
 Oconee river, i. 344. 
 Ogilthorpe, i. 339. 
 ' Old Virginia," i. 361. 
 Omnibuses in New York, ii. 333. 
 Oolitic coal, i. 280. 
 Opossum, ii. 7. 
 Oregon, ii. 224. 
 
 , war about, i. 253. 
 Organic remains in ice, i. 35. 
 Oscillation of level, ii. 263. 
 Ostracism of wealth, i. 96. 
 Owen, Professor, i. 44. 
 , Mr., i. 129. 
 
 , Robert, of Lanark, ii. 270. 
 Oxenstiern, i. 102. 
 Oysters, i. 312. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pacific, whale fishery in, ii. 357. 
 Palenque, i. 267. 
 Palisades, i. 251. 
 Palmetto, i. 314. 
 Parker, Theodore, i. 242. 
 Patent Office, i. 265. 
 Pauperism, absence of, i. 186. 
 Peace Association, i. 23. 
 Pearl River fossils, ii. 209. 
 Peltier, i. 301. 
 Peltries, ii. 237. 
 
 Pemigewasset river, i. 103. 105. 
 Pendleton, Capt. Benj., i. 36. 
 Pere Antoine, ii. 139. 
 Perkins, Colonel, i. 117. 138. 
 Peytona steamer, ii. 205. 
 Philadelphia, ii. 323. 
 Physical science, i. 221. 
 Pilgrim relics, i. 116. 
 Pilgrim fathers, names of, i. 115. 
 Pilots, ii. 151. 228. 
 Pine-trees, age of, ii. 36. 
 Pine-barrens, want of elbow- 
 room in, ii. 13. 
 Pinus tseda, i. 316. 
 Piscataqua river, i. 34. 
 Pittsburg, fire at, ii. 300. 
 Place-hunter, disappointed, ii. 28. 
 
382 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Placentia Bay, ii. 366. 
 
 Planters, i. 329. 352. 
 
 Plants, i. 56. 
 
 , Alpine, i. 79. 
 
 at New Orleans, ii. 134. 
 
 in Virginia, ii. 327. 
 
 , migrations of, i. 80. 
 
 near Saratoga, ii. 353. 
 
 , spring flowers of Indiana, 
 
 ii. 270. 
 
 , wild, N. Hampshire, i. 32. 
 
 Plassy, ii. 156. 
 
 Pledges at elections, i. 100. 
 
 Plymouth Beach, i. 112. 
 
 , Massachusetts, i. 111. 
 
 , New Hampshire, i. 102. 
 
 Politics in Massachusetts, i. 183. 
 
 Polk, i. 267. 
 
 Pontoppidan, i. 135. 
 
 Popular education, i. 200. ; ii. 
 317. 
 
 instruction, i. 229. 
 
 Populus angulata, ii. 194. 233. 
 
 Pork merchant, ii. 276. 
 
 Porpoises, i. 4. 
 
 Person, i. 222. 
 
 Port Hudson, ii. 165. 177. 238 
 
 Portland in Maine, i. 40. 48. 
 
 Portsmouth, N. Hampshire, i. 28. 
 
 Post-office abuses, i. 107. 
 
 Potter, Bishop, i. 109. 
 
 Preachers, eminent, i. 175. 
 
 Prejudices opposed to geology, 
 ii. 314. 
 
 Preston, Mr., ii. 173. 
 
 Primogeniture, opinion of, i. 64. 
 
 Proclamation of Thanksgiving 
 Day, i. 185. 
 
 Procession at New Orleans, ii. 
 119. 
 
 Protectionist doctrines, i. 160. 
 
 Protectionists, i. 160. 
 
 Protracted meetings at Mont- 
 gomery, ii. 44. 
 
 Pond, Mr., ii. 33. 
 
 Powers the sculptor, ii. 296. 
 
 Public meetings, want of, i. 184. 
 
 Purgstall, Countess, ii. 129. 
 
 Puritans, i. 49. 159. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quadroons, ii. 116. 217. 
 Quadrupeds, extinction of, i. 349. 
 Quicksand, Plymouth,!. 114. 
 Quincey, i. 111. 
 
 R. 
 
 Races, mixture of, i. 366. 
 Raccourci cut-off, ii. 193. 
 Railway cars, i. 26. ; ii. 37. 
 
 travelling, i. 27. 
 
 Railways, i. 233. 
 
 in U. S., ii. 337. 
 
 Rattle-snakes, i. 304. 
 Ravine near Milledgeville, ii. 25. 
 Ravines, modern, ii. 23. 
 Recruiting in U. S., facility of, 
 
 ii. 345. 
 
 Red-bird, i. 331. 
 Red maple, ii. 188. 
 Red river, red mud of, ii. 194. 
 
 255. 
 
 Redfield, Mr., i. 7. 
 Reelfoot, ii. 238. 
 Relics, authenticity of, i. 118. 
 Religion and politics, i. 179. 
 
 , progress in, i. 211. 
 
 Religious toleration, i. 49. 
 
 Rennie, Mr. G., ii. 251. 
 
 Repeal of English corn laws, ii. 
 
 29. 
 
 meeting, i. 188. 
 
 Reptile, fossil, air-breathing, in 
 
 coal strata, ii. 312. 
 Repudiation, i. 255. 
 Revival at Bethlehem, i. 85. ; 
 
 ii. 5. 
 
 Rice plantations, i. 353. 
 Richmond, i. 271. 
 
 coal-field, i. 280. 
 Riddell, Dr., ii. 135. 
 , on sediment of Mississippi, 
 
 ii. 249. 
 
 Rise of Sweden, ii. 258. 
 River-fogs, ii. 143, 144. 
 Robin drunk with berries, ii. 60. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 383 
 
 Robinson, Pastor, i. 210. 
 Rogers, Prof. W. B., i. 272. 280. 
 Roman law, ii. 122. 
 
 Catholics, i. 232. 
 
 Romanism and democracy, ii. 
 
 291. 
 
 Ross, Sir James, i. 6. 38. ; ii. 368. 
 Rotation of trees, i. 330. 
 Ruggles, Mr., ii. 250. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saco, valley of the, i. 70. 
 Sailing, rate of, i. 1 1. 
 Salem Museum, i. 122. 
 Salt marshes, i. 334. 
 Salubrity of New Orleans, ii. 120. 
 San Francisco, ii. 357. 
 Sand-bursts, ii. 232. 
 Saratoga, plants near, ii. 353. 
 Savage, Mr., i. 120. 
 Savannah, i. 313. ; ii. 1. 
 Schlegel, A. W., Prof., ii. 284. 
 Schools, common, i. 58. 
 
 in New York, i. 246. 
 
 Scoliophys atlanticus, i. 138. 
 Sea-serpent, Norwegian, i. 131. 
 
 134. 140. 
 
 , Cape Ann, i. 137. 
 
 Section, geological, from Darien 
 
 to Vicksburg, ii. 262. 
 Sects, equality of, i. 48. 
 Secular education, i. 247. 
 Sellick, Captain, ii. 180. 
 Sensitiveness, American, i. 165. 
 Servants, i. 156, 157. 354.; ii. 
 
 219. 
 
 , position of, i. 94. 
 
 , scarcity of, ii. 303. 
 
 Shark, basking, i. 147. 
 
 Shells, i. 341. 
 
 on shore of Gulf of Mexico, 
 
 ii. 104. 
 
 Shell-road, ii. 134. 
 Shepard, Professor, i. 304. 
 Shock of earthquake, ii. 236. 
 Shops at New Orleans, ii. 118. 
 Shrike, i. 332. 
 Sidell on Mississippi, ii. 250. 
 
 Silicified shells and corals, ii. 17.. 
 Silliman, Professor, i. 234. 
 Sink-holes, ii. 232. 
 Skiddaway, i. 313. 
 | Slave, marriage of, with white, 
 
 Kentucky, ii. 287. 
 
 labour, i. 274. ; ii. 84. 
 
 States, i. 309. 
 
 dealers, 5. 277. 
 
 whip, i. 358. 
 
 , runaway, ii. 37. 
 
 Slaves, sale of, Macon, ii. 66. 
 selling at Montgomery, 
 
 ii. 42. 
 
 Slave-trade, i. 311. ; ii. 322. 
 Slave-dealer on steamer, ii. 110. 
 Slavery, i. 323. 352. 
 
 in Southern States, ii. 94. 
 
 party against extension, i. 
 
 183. 
 
 Smith, Sydney, ii. 4. 
 Smoke, absence of, i. 247. 
 Snag-boats, ii. 171. 
 Snake and dog, ii. 328. 
 Snapping turtle, ii. 203. 
 Soap, home-made, ii. 20. 
 Social equality, i. 93. 
 Southern steamboat, ii. 46. 
 
 planters' superior political 
 
 tact, i. 95. 
 Spanish moss, i. 326. ; ii. 130. 
 Species, creation of, i. 304. 
 Specific centres, theory of, i. 81. 
 Spiritual boulanger, i. 364. 
 Split, north and south, i. 365. 
 Spoilt children, ii. 221. 
 Squalus maximus, i. 144. 
 Squirrels, i. 303. 
 Stage-coach, ii. 319. 
 from Macon to Columbus, 
 
 ii. 32. 
 
 Stage -travelling, ii. 17. 
 State debts, ii. 62. 
 
 education, i. 191. 
 
 Statehouse at Jackson, ii. 211. 
 Steamboats, ii. 48. 
 Steamboat passengers, ii. 53. 
 
 , collision with trees, ii. 51. 
 
 accidents, ii. 141. 
 
 Steamer in Maine, i. 41. 
 
384 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Steamer to Tuscaloosa, ii. 77. 
 
 Steamers safest in storms, i. 3. 
 
 Steam ships, ii. 131. 
 
 Stephanists, ii. 54. 
 
 Stewardess, German, ii. 53. 
 
 Storer, Dr., on fish, i. 202. 
 
 Story, Judge, i. 14. 
 
 Stoves, i. 234. 
 
 Stronsa animal, i. 142. 
 
 St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, 
 ii. 132. 
 
 St. Francis River, ii. 230. 
 
 St. Mary's Hall, i. 252. 
 
 St. Rosalie, ii. 200. 
 
 St. Simon's Island, i. 338. 340. 
 
 Submarine forest, i. 31. 
 
 Subsidence of Delta of Missis- 
 sippi, ii. 183. 
 
 of land, i. 30. 
 
 Sumner, Mr. Charles, i. 23. 
 
 Sunday schools for negroes, ii. 
 286. 
 
 Supreme Court, i. 264. 
 
 Courts, i. 47. 
 
 Swallows at Portsmouth, i. 33. 
 
 Swamp rabbit, i. 303. 
 
 Swamps of Mississippi, ii. 244. 
 
 Sweden, rise of, ii. 258. 
 
 Tabernacle at Boston, i. 89. 
 Taconic system of rocks, age of, 
 
 ii. 354. 
 
 Tapir fossil in Texas, ii. 261. 
 Tariff, i. 253. 
 
 Tasso, love and madness, ii. 128. 
 Taxodium distichum, ii. 192. 
 Teachers, pay of, i. 192. 
 
 , position of, i. 193. 
 
 , their social position, i. 193. 
 
 Telescope, i. 201. 
 Temperance hotel, i. 58. 
 " hotels, i. 153. 
 Ten Hour Bill, ii. 300. 
 Tennessee, ii. 238. 
 Terraces, succession of, i. 346. 
 
 of gravel, ii. 299. 
 
 Texas, i. 259. 
 
 Texas, fossil bones in, ii. 261. 
 
 volunteers, ii. 365. 
 
 Thanksgiving day, i. 184. 
 Theatre at New Orleans, ii. 117. 
 
 in Boston, i. 197. 
 
 Theological discussion, i. 105. 
 
 colleges, i. 227. 
 
 Thermometer low at Tuscaloosa, 
 
 ii. 102. 
 Third House, thanks voted to, at 
 
 Albany, ii. 351. 
 
 Three Heavenly Witnesses, i. 222. 
 Tillandsia, ii. 351, 130. 
 
 usneoides, i. 292. 
 
 Timber trade, i. 42. 
 Tobacco, chewing of, ii. 358.' 
 Tombeckbee river, ii. 78. 
 Tombs at New Orleans, ii. 118 
 Tortoises, i. 305. 
 
 , land, ii. 293. 
 
 Tractarians, i. 241. 
 Trapper, ii. 237. 
 Travelling roads, bad, ii. 82. 
 
 , rough, ii. 32. 
 
 , New England, rate of, i. 40 
 
 Trees, rotation of, i. 330. 
 
 , on banks of Kennebec, i. 43 
 
 and plants, i. 70. 
 
 on banks of river, ii. 51. 
 
 , fossil, erect, of coal, in In 
 
 diana, ii. 272. 
 Trinity Church, i. 239. 
 Turkey buzzards, i. 305. 
 Tuscaloosa judges, ii. 88. 
 
 , acquaintances at, ii. 85. 
 
 , college of, ii. 79. 
 
 , churches at, ii. 86. 
 
 U. 
 
 Unio spinosus, i. 333. 
 Unitarian Church, i. 48. 
 
 congregations, i. 173. 
 
 Unitarians, i. 173. 
 
 , cause of their influence, 
 
 ii. 349. 
 
 Universal suffrage, 5. 101. 
 University at Louisville, ii. 281. 
 Ilpotoy Creek, ii. 33. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 V. 
 
 Vanessa atalanta, ii. 293. 
 Vegetation near Tuscaloosa, ii. 80. 
 
 of Gulf of Mexico, ii. 103. 
 
 of Mount Washington, i. 75. 
 
 Vicksburg, ii. 208. 214. 
 
 Vidalia, ii. 202. 
 
 Vine, cultivation of, ii. 295. 
 
 Virginia, i. 273. 
 
 Vitreous tubes at Areola, ii. 90. 
 
 Vote by ballot, ii. 212. 
 
 Voters, bribery of, ii. 6. 
 
 Voyage from Mobile to New Or- 
 
 leans, ii. 108. 
 to Mobile, ii. 76. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wailes, Colonel, ii. 196. 
 
 Walhalla, i. 164. 
 
 Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue, 
 
 ii. 340. 
 
 , great sale of, ii. 340. 
 
 , tendency of the work, -ii. 
 
 341. 
 War, demonstration against, ii. 
 
 341. 365. 
 
 panic, i. 298. 
 
 , preaching against, ii. 345. 
 
 spirit abating, ii. 30. 
 
 with England, i. 95. 325.; ii. 
 
 63. 
 
 with Mexico, ii. 344. 
 
 Warren, Dr., ii. 364. 
 Washington, i. 258. 265. ; ii. 195. 
 
 , Mount, i. 74. 
 
 Museum, i. 266. 
 
 , national fair at, ii. 325. 
 
 Wealth, ostracism of, i. 96. 
 Webster, Mr., i. 180. 263. 
 , Daniel, i. 180. 
 
 Wenham Lake ice, ii. 361. 
 West Point, ii. 222. 
 Wey mouth, East, i. 120. 
 Whale discovered in iceberg, i. 37. 
 
 fishery in Pacific, ii. 357. 
 
 Wheatland, Dr., i. 122. 
 Wheatstone, i. 244. 
 Wheeling Indian mound, ii. 299. 
 Whig Caucus, i. 180. 
 White, Blanco, i. 241. ; 
 
 Mountains, i. 26. 
 
 , age of, i. 83. 
 
 , Peregrine, i. 116. 
 
 Water, ii. 236. 
 
 Wilde, Mr., ii. 165. 
 
 , Richard Henry, ii. 122. 
 
 Wilde's poetry, ii. 128. 
 Wilkes, Captain, i. 38. 
 Willey Slide, i. 67. 
 Willows on Mississippi, ii. 146. 
 Wilmington, i. 290. 
 W T euthrop, L 243. 259, 260. 264. 
 Witches, i. 124. 
 
 , Salem, i. 123. 
 
 Wood, cords of, ii. 174. 
 Woodpecker boring trees, ii. 269, 
 Woolly hair, ii. 218. 
 Wyman, Dr., excursion with, ii. 
 327. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yandell, Dr., ii. 280. 
 Yellow fever, ii. 107. 121 
 jessamine, ii. 188. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zeuglodon, bones of, ii. 9. 
 
 in Alabama, ii. 74. 
 
 Zoology, i. 303. 
 
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