plankings were laid down over the ice, and omnibuses and wagons were
driven on. In getting out again, these vehicles, each with four
horses, had to be twisted about, and driven in and across the
vessel, and turned in spaces to look at which would have broken the
heart of an English coachman. And then with a spring they were
driven up a bank as steep as a ladder! Ah me! under what mistaken
illusions have I not labored all the days of my youth, in supposing
that no man could drive four horses well but an English stage
coachman! I have seen performances in America--and in Italy and
France also, but above all in America--which would have made the
hair of any English professional driver stand on end.

And in this way I entered St. Louis.



CHAPTER V.

MISSOURI.


Missouri is a slave State, lying to the west of the Mississippi and
to the north of Arkansas. It forms a portion of the territory ceded
by France to the United States in 1803. Indeed, it is difficult to
say how large a portion of the continent of North America is
supposed to be included in that territory. It contains the States
of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas, as also the present
Indian Territory; but it also is said to have contained all the land
lying back from them to the Rocky Mountains, Utah, Nebraska, and
Dakota, and forms no doubt the widest dominion ever ceded by one