The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-12 00:00:00

EVIPINING SUN

T MI SSO URI RIVER.
The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance
aid character from all the other rivers in the world ;
there is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt,
Risisv ieprp,i which. From
r iso m
the the
place m ofruotm h
whencethe moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mis-
sof thel l
a'emllonwowSwtorin:
ing, to its junction with the Mississippi, a distance of
2,000 miles, the Missouri, with its boiling, turbid
waters, sweeps off, in one unceasing current ; and
is the whole distance there is scarcely an eddy or
resting-place for a canoe. Owing to the continual
falling in of its rich alluvial banks, its water is
always turbid and opaque, having at all seasons of
the year the colour of a cup of chocolate or coffee
with sugar and cream stirred in !t. To give a
better definition of its density -and opacity, I have
tried a number of simple experiments with it at this
place, and at other points below, at the results of
which I was exceedingly surprised. By placing a piece
of silver (and afterwards a piece of shell, which is a
much whiter substance) in a tumbler of this water, and
looking through the side of the glass, I ascertained that
those substances could not be seen through the eighth
part of an inch : this, however, is in the spring of the
year, when the freshet is upon the river, rendering the
water, undoubtedly. much more turbid than it would be
at other seasons ; though it is always muddy and yel-
low, and, from its boiling and wild character and
uncommon colour, a stranger would think, even
in its lowest state, that there was a freshet
upon it. For the distance of 1,000 miles above
St. Louis, the shores of this river (and, in
many places, the whole bed of the stream)
are filled with snags and raft, formed of trees of the
largest size, which have been undermined by the
falling banks and cast into the stream ; their roots
becoming fastened in the bottom of the river, with
their tops floating on the surface of the water, and
pointing down the stream, forming the most frightful
and discouraging prospect for the adventurous
voyageur. Almost every island and sand-bar is
covered with huge piles of these floating trees, and when
the river is flooded, its surface is almost literally
covered with floating raft and drift wood ; which bids
positive defiance to keel-boats and steamers, on their way
up the river. The scene is not, however, all so dreary
there is a redeeming =-eee nnu carpeted
shores, which hem in this huge and terrible deformity
of waters. There is much of the way through, -where
the mighty rOrests of stately cotton wood stand, and
frown in horrid dark and coolness over the filthy abyss
below ; into which they are ready to plunge headlong,
when the mud and soil in which they were gentled and
reared has been washed out from underneath them, and
is with the rolling current mixed, and on its way to the
ocean. The greater part of the shores of this river,
however, are witimut timber, where the eye is delight-
fully relieved by wandering over the beautiful prairies ;
most of the way gracefully sloping down to the water's
edge, carpeted with the deepest green, and in distance,
softening into velvet of the richest hues, entirely beyond
the reach of the artist's pencil. Such is the character
of the upper part of the river especially ; and as one
advances towards its source, and through its upper half,
it becomes more pleasing to the eye, , for snags and
raft are no longer to be seen ; yet the current holds
its stiff and onward turbid character. It has been,
heretofore, very erroneously represented to the world,
that the scenery on this river was monotonous, and
wanting in picturesque beauty. This intelligence is
surely incorrect, and that because it has been brought,
perhaps, by men who are not the best judges in the
world f Nature's beautiful works ; and if they were,
they always pass them by, in pain or desperate dis-
tress, in toil and trembling fear for the safety of their
furs and peltries, or for their lives, which are at the
mercy of the yelling savages who inhabit this delight-
ful country. • One thousand miles or more, of the
upper part of the river, was, to my eye, like fairy-
land ; and during our transit through that part of our
voyage, I was most of the time rivetted to the deck
of the boat, indulging my eyes in the boundless and
tireless pleasure of roaming over the thousand bills,
and bluffs, and dales, and ravines ; where the as-
tonished herds of buffaloes, of elks, and antelopes,
and sneaking wolves, and mountain-goats were to be
seen bounding up and down and over the green
fields ; each one and each tribe, band, and gang,
taking their own way, and using their own means to
the greatest advantage possible, .to leave the sight and
sound of the puffing of our boat ; which was, for the
first-time, saluting the green and wild shores of the
Missouri with the din of mighty steam. From St.
Louis to the falls of the Missouri, a distance of 2,600
miles, is one continued prairie; with the exception of
a few of the bottoms formed along the bank of the
river, and the streams which are falling into it, which are
often covered with the most. luxuriant growth of forest
timber. The summit level of the great prairies stretching
off to the west and the east from the river, to an al-
mostrboundless extent, is from 2 to 300 feet above the
level of the river ; which has formed a bed or valley for
its course, varying in width from two to twenty miles.
This channel or valley has been evidently produced
by the force of the current, which has gradually exca-
vated, in its floods and gorges, this immense space,
and sent its debris into the ocean. By the continual
overflowing of the river, its deposits have been lodged
and left with a horizontal surface, spreading the
deepest and richest alluvion over the surface of its
meadows on either aide ; through which the river
winds its serpentine course, alternately running from
one bluff to the other, which present themselves t
its shores in all the most picturesque and beautiful
shapes and colours imaginable ; some with their green
aides gracefully sloped down in the most lovely groups
to the water's edge, whilst others, divested of their ver-
dure, present themselves in immense masses of clay of
different colours, which arrest the eye of the traveller,
with the most curious views in the world. These
strange and picturesque appearances have been pro-
duced by the rains and frosts, which are continually
changing the dimensions, and varying the thousand
shapes of these denuded hills, by washing down their
sides and carrying them into the river. Amongst these
groups may be seen tens and hundreds of thousands
of different forms and figures, of the sublime and the
picturesque ; in many places for miles together, as
the boat glides along, there is one continued appear-
ance, before and behind us, of some ancient and
boundless city in ruins—ramparts, terraces, domes,
towers, citadels, and castles may be seen—cupolas
and magnificent porticoes, and here and there a soli-
tary column and crumbling pedestal, and even spires
of clay which stand alone—and glistening in distance,
as the sun's rays are refracted back by the thousand
crystals of gypsum which are imbedded in the clay of
which they are formed. Over and through these
groups of domes and battlements (as one is compelled
to imagine them), the sun sends his long and Oiling
rays, at morn or in the evening ; giving life and light,
by aid of shadows cast to the different glowing colours
of these clay-built ruins ; shedding a glory over the
solitude of this wild and pictured country, which no one
can realize unless he travels here and looks upon it."—
Catlin's America.

NARROW ESCAPE OP AN INDIAMAN IN THE
RIVER.—On Saturday morning, as the large ship Lon-
don, Capt. Shuttleworth, from Calcutta, with a general
cargo,. valued at upwards of 100,0001., was proceeding up
the river for the London Docks, in tow of the Samson
and Don steam tugs, she, by some mismanagement, was
run stem on the ground a little above the Dolphin, near
to the Lower Shadwell entrance of the Docks, and re-
mained fast. She was subsequently safely moored in the
east basin of the London Dock.
THE DUKE Op WELLINGTON.—On Sunday
morning the Duke of Wellington, who was unattended,
proceeded on foot from the Castle to attend Dili" service at the Chapel of St. George„Windsor. Upon his Grace arriving in the choir the verger 41,?=1:bf that the Duke's stall, as one a the •ICalgli''' 'a
the Garter (on thee north side), was occult tin; • stranger, who, Upon an intimation being .gi_k_vr44l,,hapel,
immediately retired to . another paßt - of.
_1070,,i etill. and the Duke then "took possession °fit' ...cpuegf,
The chaunt for the day was Itennett'S
__,,,,,(01.17,,raeit,ing •
Oxford), but upon Dr. Elvey, the .00rIfithifited *to '
that the Duke was present, he immedate Y.._,,..,0u1d
rd
the lay clerks and choristers that .1).?!..e7711r0rd
changed to that composed by hi5.ur.7,.,0°4 the
Vtst
Mornington (which, is consideredttoifY"
met at ire
of the service, the Duke
rd Charles Wellesley.,
door of the chapel by his son,
pieces of cathedral music &tan
Marsha! to her Majesty,
and Clerk
of the Equerries
the Chief Equerry
verie, one
and Lieutenant-Colonel Bou
allied him on his return
to Prince Albert, who accompanied 0
ii wore the ribbon and
).wa.as t the conc.lo9n .
to the Castle. The Duke,
afterwards filled the same
jewel
Heiywedroanatte
the 4 Royal or secondary theatres,7 appeared in excellent
.•
health.
oldest of the French
M. Aude, who w
days ago, aged 88. He was
died two
dramatic authors,
y,
of the Order of thase Gtarheter,
at one time Secretary
to the Marquis de Carracciol
Li office
pieces, most of which were
Viceroy of Sicily,
for Butfon.
favourably received
and yet died in
great 'distress, as in his time the
rights of authors produced them but a mere pittance.
F
years he existed on a small pension
granted
bfiytleine Society of Dramatic Authors. We
ounce the death of Baron d'Alla d
th
r e, e
writerlso have to announce
of several pleasant vaudevilles.
WORMS IN GRASS LAwris.--A quarter of
ort he
him l est fifteen
an ounce of corrosive sublimate to three gallons of
water (put on with a gardener's water-pan) will bring
the worms to the surface, when the greatest part of
them die (but they ought to be picked oil) ; this process
does not in the least injure the grass. It was tried in
the month of September last, on a bowling-green in
Penritb, 32 yards by 45, when 22 stones weight, of 14
pounds to the stone, were taken out of it, besides several
small quantities got in making the first experiment.
HORNSEY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
This, the last 811QW of the season for that admired flower
the dahlia, in the'neighbourhood of the metropolis, was
held in the Assembly-room of the Mother Red Cap
Tavern, Upper Holloway. Notwithstanding the - ad-
vanced period of the season, and the unpropitious rains,
the show of flowers was very good.
THE NELSON TESTIMONIAL.—The work-
men are proceeding actively with the pedestal on which
the statue of Lord Nelson is to be placed in Trafalgar-
square, which has nearly
much notice. attained its height, and attracts