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Show MORGAN'S ISLAND-VIOLENT STORM. 125 River, but without receiving any injury. Picturesque forests alternate with the verdant alluvial banks of the river, and Indian hunting huts were everywhere seen, but no inhabitants. One may travel thousands of miles along this river without seeing a human being. From the mouth of the Nishnebottoneh to Council Bluffs, there is a narrow green prairie before the chain of hills ; the mouth itself is between lofty trees on the east bank. In the wood below, Major Dougherty once killed twenty elks, all belonging to one troop. They had divided, and part broke into the ice in the river, where they fell a prey to the Otos who pursued them. Beavers formerly abounded in this river, but they are now extirpated. When the evening sun, gradually sinking behind the tall forest, illumined the whole country, we had a lovely view of the chain of hills, variously tinged with brilliant hues of violet, pink, and purple, while the broad mirror of the river and adjacent forest shone as if on fire. Silence reigned in these solitudes, the wind was hushed, and only the dashing and foaming of our steam-boat interrupted the awful repose. We were disagreeably roused from our reverie by our vessel striking against the snags in the river. We passed the night near Morgan's Island, not far from which there was formerly a trading house for the Oto Indians, but it no longer existed. The note of the whip-poor-will, which we had not before met with, was heard in all the adjacent forests. The next morning, proceeding on our voyage, we plainly observed in the steep banks of the river, the alternate strata of clay and sand, with a thick layer of fertile black mould at the top, and, about eight feet below the surface, a black stratum of bituminous coal, or coal slate, which we were, however, unable to examine closely. On the bank we saw what are called pumice stones, which are pieces of the rock of the Upper Missouri, changed by fire, and brought down by the river; the Indians use this pumice stone to smooth their tanned and hardened skins. At the mouth of the Little Nemahaw River, the Missouri was very shallow. Our vessel having received several violent shocks by striking, and a storm, accompanied by heavy rain, arising, we ran aground, about noon, on a sand bank, and were obliged to put out a boat to take soundings, but the wind, which blew with increasing violence from the open prairie on the south-west, drove us further into the sand bank. Every moment it became more furious; our vessel lay almost on her side, which the people endeavoured to counteract by fastening her with strong cables to the trees lying in the water. After dinner several of our hunters went on shore, but the boat had scarcely returned, when the storm suddenly increased to such a degree that the vessel appeared to be in imminent peril. One of our chimneys was thrown down, and the fore-deck was considered in danger; the large coops, which contained a number of fowls, were blown overboard, and nearly all of them drowned. As they got upon the sand banks they were afterwards taken up, with other things which we had been obliged to throw overboard ; our cables had, happily, held fast, and, as the wind abated a little, Captain Bennett hoped to lay the vessel close to the bank, which was twenty feet high, where it would be safe |