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Show 1836- 1837] Flagg's Far West 113 VIII " Once more upon the waters, yet once more!" ChUde Harold. " I believe this is the finest confluence in the world." CHARLEVOIX. " Tis twilight now; / The sovereign sun behind his western hills In glory hath declined " BLACKWOOD'S Maganne. A BRIGHT, sunny summer morning as ever smiled from the blue heavens, and again I found myself upon the waters. Fast fading in the distance lay the venerable little city of the French, with its ancient edifices and its narrow streets, while in anticipation was a journeying of some hundred miles up the Illinois. Sweeping along past the city and the extended line of steamers at the landing, my attention was arrested by that series of substantial stone nulls situated upon the shore immediately above, and a group of swarthy little Tritons disporting themselves in the turbid waters almost beneath our paddle- wheels. Among other singular objects were divers of those nondescript inventions of Captain Shreve, yclept by the boatmen " Uncle Sam's Tooth- pullers;" and, judging from their ferocious physiognomy, and the miracles they have effected in the navigation of the great waters of the West, well do they correspond to the soubriquet. [ 85] The craft consists of two perfect hulls, constructed with a view to great strength; united by heavy beams, and, in those parts most exposed, protected by an armature of iron. The apparatus for eradicating the snags is comprised in a simple wheel and axle, auxiliary to a pair of powerful steam- engines, with the requisite machinery for locomotion, and a massive beam uniting the bows of the hulls, sheathed with iron. The modus operandi in tearing up a snag, or sawyer, or any like obstruction from the bed |