of mud and sand covered with reedy coarse grass divides the river into two
arms on this side of the island; the deep channel is on the outside of
this bank, and as we rowed home this evening, the tide having fallen, we
scraped sand almost the whole way. Mr. ----'s domain, it seems to me, will
presently fill up this shallow stream, and join itself to the
above-mentioned mud-bank. The whole course of this most noble river is
full of shoals, banks, mud, and sand-bars, and the navigation, which is
difficult to those who know it well, is utterly baffling to the
inexperienced. The fact is, that the two elements are so fused hereabouts,
that there are hardly such things as earth or water proper; that which
styles itself the former, is a fat, muddy, slimy sponge, that, floating
half under the turbid river, looks yet saturated with the thick waves
which every now and then reclaim their late dominion, and cover it almost
entirely; the water, again, cloudy and yellow, like pea-soup, seems but a
solution of such islands, rolling turbid and thick with alluvium, which it
both gathers and deposits as it sweeps along with a swollen, smooth
rapidity, that almost deceives the eye. Amphibious creatures, alligators,
serpents, and wild fowl, haunt these yet but half-formed regions, where
land and water are of the consistency of hasty-pudding--the one seeming
too unstable to walk on, the other almost too thick to float in. But then,
the sky, if no human chisel ever yet cut breath, neither did any human pen
ever write light; if it did, mine should spread out before you the
unspeakable glories of these southern heavens, the saffron brightness of
morning, the blue intense brilliancy of noon, the golden splendour and the
rosy softness of sunset. Italy and Claude Lorraine may go hang themselves
together! Heaven itself does not seem brighter or more beautiful to the
imagination, than these surpassing pageants of fiery rays, and piled-up
beds of orange, golden clouds, with edges too bright to look on, scattered
wreaths of faintest rosy bloom, amber streaks and pale green lakes
between, and amid sky all mingled blue and rose tints, a spectacle to make