File:Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of (14577177008).jpg

Identifier: picturesqueameri01brya (find matches)
Title: Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country
Year: 1872 (1870s)
Authors: Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878, editor Bunce, Oliver Bell, 1828-1890
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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current that roars like a cataract. If the break isof formidable proportions, the passing flat-boat is drawn into the vortex, and sent likea chip high and dry into the distant fields. Even the great Western steamer that 78 PICTURESQUE AMERICA. breasts so grandly the downward current of the river, in the newly-formed rapids trem-bles and swerves from its course. Occasionally a crevasse is arrested by the erectionof coffer-dams, by piles driven in the earth, which make the sftpport for branches oftrees or the broadside of a flat-boat; but, as a rule, these ill-directed labors are fruitless,and the sweeping current is left to take its course. The lowlands in the rear of theriver-front are soon filled, and the current, at last finding a level with the river itself,converts the surrounding country for miles into a waste of waters. Added to the danger of overflow is that of caving banks. By a natural law inthe formation of the banks of the Mississippi, the alluvium is rapidly deposited upon
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A Crevasse on the Mississippi. the points, and dissolves away from the bends. It is not an extraordinary sight tosee a grandly-constructed and ancient house hanging outside the levee and over theedge of the river-bank, destined sooner or later to drop into the river. You wifl findthese things occur where the mighty current, sweeping round a bend, has worn awaythe soft earth, often dissolving it by acres. If this occurs in front of a plantation, thehouse and improvements, perhaps originally a mile from the river, will be graduallybrought to the edge of the bank, to be finally engulfed. The point directly oppositethe bend, however, makes, in accretions, exactly what is taken away from the oppositeside of the river. M ACKI N AC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. DOUGLAS WOODWARD. .K -s/

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