looking at the still rising river, but each seemed to be personally
indifferent to the matter. When the house of an American is carried
down the river, he builds himself another, as he would get himself a
new coat when his old coat became unserviceable. But he never
laments or moans for such a loss. Surely there is no other people
so passive under personal misfortune!

Going from Louisville up to St. Louis, I crossed the Ohio River and
passed through parts of Indiana and of Illinois, and, striking the
Mississippi opposite St. Louis, crossed that river also, and then
entered the State of Missouri. The Ohio was, as I have said,
flooded, and we went over it at night. The boat had been moored at
some unaccustomed place. There was no light. The road was deep in
mud up to the axle-tree, and was crowded with wagons and carts,
which in the darkness of the night seemed to have stuck there. But
the man drove his four horses through it all, and into the ferry-
boat, over its side. There were three or four such omnibuses, and
as many wagons, as to each of which I predicted in my own mind some
fatal catastrophe. But they were all driven on to the boat in the
dark, the horses mixing in through each other in a chaos which would
have altogether incapacitated any English coachman. And then the
vessel labored across the flood, going sideways, and hardly keeping
her own against the stream. But we did get over, and were all
driven out again, up to the railway station in safety. On reaching
the Mississippi about the middle of the next day, we found it frozen
over, or rather covered from side to side with blocks of ice which
had forced their way down the river, so that the steam-ferry could
not reach its proper landing. I do not think that we in England
would have attempted the feat of carrying over horses and carriages
under stress of such circumstances. But it was done here. Huge