valley, and when it passed would leave the river in comparative insignificance. As it is, the rise of the waters sometimes threatens destruction, but the laws of Nature limit its proud volume. The vast annual overflowings, constituted as they are of the successive irrigation of its different tributaries, are marked by corresponding successive deposits of red, of brown, of yellow, of blue, and of ash colored mould, on the shores and levels of the Delta, and the whole alluvion of the river presents, when dug for many feet, the same curious record of the subsidings of the freshets of ages. This nitrous impregnation of the Mississippi during Summer, from the furthest sources of the Missouri, is of immense importance to the salubrity of its waters. The hardy boatmen drink its muddy sweetness in copious libations with delight; the traveller, half sick from unwholesome waters, and a thousand privations, thanks the All-provident Creator when he reaches the river, and imbibes with its waters cheerfulness and health. But I must recall you from hydrography, which is but one of a thousand studies in a view of our Earth, to the more immediate observation of the scene beneath us. We have now before us the region of those great mineral deposits, which nature has allotted to the centre of the immense valley of the Mississippi, or to speak more geologically, the perpetual abrasion of the descending waters wearing deep into the older underlying formations of the central continent, has here disencumbered from its super-. incumbent strata one of the richest mineral districts of the globe, and which, admirably situated in the concentrated ramifications of steam navigation, is destined to supply, during unknown ages, the future immense population of this mighty continent. Those peaks you notice on our left, are of magnetic iron of excellent quality, and in quantity forming entire mountain ranges. The white masses you see projecting on the brow of the hills, and scattered beneath us, are of white quartz, the mineral blossom of the Lead miners. Yonder! on the right of the forest, is one of the leadmining villages. Observe the miners at their work. The lead ore appears very pure and beautiful. We pass the windings of the vast and turbid Missouri, with its picturesque bluffs, where the vulture and the eagle nestle, and below us, for hundreds of leagues, are rapidly sweeping the broad, far watered prairies of the La Platte, mingling like the solitudes of ocean with the distant horizon; only varied at intervals by a few solitary oak-trees on the hills, and by groves of cottonwood and willow, which skirt the margins of the streams. Observe! beneath yon bright cloud in the distance, that dark line which stretches along the horizon! 'Tis the buffalo in vast herds. See! on the left they still seem to touch the blue of the furthest sky. What innumerable herds. What tumultuous masses. How rapidly they rush onward. You may hear the thundering of ten thousand hoofs. How fierce they seem. Yet all this running is for mere sport. broad, silent, solitary How splendid those Look, on your right The buffalos are passed, and the prairie is again fleeting beneath us. sunset clouds are, just at this moment. are buffalos again. An immense herd at rest; they are ruminating as quietly as oxen. Do you notice that drove of white animals? They are white wolves. They accompany the herds of buffalo in a playful and friendly way, until a buffalo, weaker than the rest, has the misfortune to become mired in crossing a stream or a morass, or in any manner falls behind the herd, when they attack and devour him. It is estimated that the herds of buffalo are at present fifteen millions, and that they are accompanied by one and a half millions of wolves. How the scene sweeps on! it confounds all conception of distance. Those must be a herd of antelopes yonder. How beautiful they are! That herd before us, beyond the river, appear to be horses. They are a splendid herd of wild horses, descended doubtless from horses of Asiatic or European origin, which have run wild from the early Spanish colonists; satisfied with feeding, they are calmly gazing at the setting sun, or lying down amid the luxuriant verdure. You must be constantly on the alert to notice every thing, and especially the villages and scattered encampments of the Aborigines, the athletic sports and dances, the loves and parental affections of the wandering nations, their feats of horsemanship, of archery and of war. We have around us the range of the powerful bands of the Pawnees. Observe yonder, far before us, a mounted huntsman is dashing on a herd of buffalo. The sweeping flight of the herd rushes over the hills-they are coming right towards us. He has singled out one from the herd-his bow is already bent-the victim falters behind his fellows, staggers, and falls. The hunter rejoices; his lodge is one of that cluster of brown spots you may notice yonder, a league south of us on the prairie. He will arrive there an hour hence, laden with abundHe will bless the moon as she shines on him. He ance. is happy. He possesses all that he has learned to want. The landscapes now sweeping beneath us are those of the thousand streams of the La Platte Where oft the beaver with mechanic art It would be admirable to see these interesting animals at full work by moonlight. You might devote some night to observe them, as well as the habits of all the carnivorous and night wandering animals, the dances of the Pawnees, and the spectacle of fire on the prairies. Look at those otters on the bank yonder; how playfully they slide and tumble into the water. There, must be the hut of a trapper, probably deserted since last winter. Those black clumps you notice in the summits of the blastedtopped cottonwood trees by the river are the nests of the vulture or of the eagle. The one before us will pass directly beneath our feet, we will examine it attentively; you must, however, avoid the attacks of the old eagle. What a commanding view of the bend of the river; how tranquilly the noble bird gazes on the evening sky. See! there are two young ones half fledged. What an air of self complacency and comfort those vultures have. They have gorged themselves on what seems to be a buffalo's carcase, and are now taking their repose. Their felicity is doubtless complete. They are There are What is that on the prairie? It must be a marmot or prairie dog. Look! there are numbers of them. coming out now 't is evening. How they bark. thousands and tens of thousands. Their burrows seem to occupy a whole horizon of prairie. Hitherto we have been so much occupied with the landscape and its groupings that I have yet scarcely called your attention to the sunset skies before us. Our position in relation to the sun remaining unaltered, the broad horizon of atmosphere chequered with clouds of constantly varying density is silently rolling over us—while the landscape is gliding quietly below. This transparent curtain, illumined by the lights of the heavens in all their gorgeous, everchanging glory, préserves one continued sunset before us, corresponding to the hour of our departure, and to the actual colorings of the moment on the scenes we are surveying. The loveliest and most vivid reflections appear in rapid and pauseless succession, and fade away toward the Eastern horizon; behind you, more numerous than those changes which the sunset skies of your whole life will present, they form a kaleidoscope of celestial magnificence, and shed the most enchanting lights and shadows over the exuberant wilderness. I must here beg you especially to recollect the purpose for which we ascended, three hours since, and that your vivid realization of the scene depends on your own attention; all I can do is to point out, occasionally, objects of interest. The landscape is rolling beneath you, you must observe for yourselves. If you were to follow out this method of observing the picturesque panorama of our comparatively little, yet magnificent planet, in connection with the grand fact of its every-day revolution on its axis, you would suppose yourself often on various parallels and devote a day to the contemplation of nature. If you start at the Equator, you would realize the high temperature, and observe the peculiar animal and vegetable life of the torrid zone; if you take an Arctic or Antarctic position, you would realize the extreme cold of those desolate regions; you would thus become familiar with all the localities, the natural history and inhabitants, so as in the aggregate to form one entire, continuous, comprehensive outside view of the globe we inhabit, and of its daily rotation. This idea it is the purpose of this chapter to suggest. It will be expedient, as your perceptions of the face of nature approach to distinctness, that we begin to study and to compare the habits and characteristics of the human race that we contemplate man, the thought-gifted animal, as he has existed during a long series of ages, and trace the ancestral and inherited characteristics of the nations. This will more appropriately claim our especial atten |