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Show 122 Early Western Travels \ V6L 26 IX " A tale of the times of old! The deeds of days of other years! " OSSIAN. " Thou beautiful river! Thy bosom is calm And o'er thee soft breezes are shedding their balm; And Nature beholds her fair features portray'd, In the glass of thy bosom serenely displayed." BENGAL ANNUAL. " Tarn saw an unco sight" BUSNS. IT is an idea which has more than once occurred to me, while throwing together these hasty delineations of the beautiful scenes through which, for the past few weeks, I have been moving, that, by some, a disposition might be suspected to tinge every outline indiscriminately with the " coleur de rose." But as well might one talk of an exaggerated emotion of the sublime on the table- rock of Niagara, or amid the " snowy scalps " of Alpine scenery, or of a mawkish sensibility to loveliness amid the purple glories of the " Campagna di Roma" as of either, or of both combined, in the noble " valley beyond the mountains.' 9 Nor is the interest experienced [ 94] by the traveller for many of the spots he passes confined to their scenic beauty. The associations of by- gone times are rife in the mind, and the traditionary legend of the events these scenes have witnessed yet lingers among the simple forest- sons. I have mentioned that remarkable range of cliffs commencing at Alton, and extending, with but little interruption, along the left shore of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois. Through a deep, narrow ravine in these bluffs flows a small stream called the Piasa. The name is of aboriginal derivation, and, in the idiom of the mini, denotes " The bird thai devours men." Near the mouth of this little stream rises a bold, precipitous bluff, and upon its smooth face, at an elevation seemingly |