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Show 1836- 1837] FJ* gg'* F* r West 93 VI " I linger yet with Nature/ 9 MANFRED. " Onward still I press, Follow thy windings still, yet sigh for more." GOETHX. " God's my file, did you ever hear the like! What a strange man is this! " BEN JONSON. BUT a very few years have passed away since the navigation of the Mississippi was that of one of the most dangerous streams on the globe; but, thanks to the enterprising genius of the scientific Shreve, this may no longer with truth be said. In 1824 the first appropriation " was voted by Congress for improving the navigation of the Western rivets; and since that period thousands of snags, sawyers, [ 64] planters, sand- bars, sunken rocks, and fallen trees have been removed, until all that now remains is to prevent new obstacles from accumulating where the old have been eradicated. For much of its course in its lower sections, the Mississippi is now quite safe; and as the progress of settlements advances upon its banks, the navigation of this noble stream will doubtless become unobstructed in its whole magnificent journey from the falls of the " Laughing Water " to the Mexican Gulf. The indefatigable industry, the tireless perseverance, the indomitable enterprise, and the enlarged and scientific policy of Captain Shreve, the projector and accomplisher of the grand national operations upon the Western rivers, can never be estimated beyond their merit. The execution of that gigantic undertaking, the removal of the Red River Raft, has identified his history with that of the empire West;" his fame will endure so long M $ 105,000.- FLAOG. •* For Red River raft, see James's Long's Expedition, in our volume xvii, p. 70, note 64.- ED. |