On these bluffs were perched many cities and towns
that were full of interest to our raftmates; among them, Memphis,
Vicksburg, Natchez, and Baton Rouge. Every here and there in the low
bottom lands of the "Delta" below Memphis they saw the rounded tops of
great mounds, raised by prehistoric dwellers in that region as places
of refuge during seasons of flood. They passed from the great northern
wheat region into that of corn, then into the broad cotton belt, and
finally to the land of sugar-cane and rice, orange-trees, glossy-leaved
magnolias, and gaunt moss-hung cypresses.
Of more immediate interest even than these ever-changing features of
the land was the varied and teeming life of the mighty river itself.
The boys were never tired of watching the streams of strange craft
constantly passing up or down. Here a splendid packet in all the glory
of fresh paint, gleaming brass, gay bunting, and crowds of passengers
rushed swiftly southward with the current in mid-channel; or, up-bound,
ploughed a mighty furrow against it, while the hoarse coughings of its
high-pressure engines echoed along many a mile of forest wall.
Smaller up-bound boats hugged the banks in search of slack water. Most
of the main-stream packets were side-wheelers; but those of lighter
draught, bound far up the Red, the Arkansas, the Yazoo, the Sunflower,
or other tributary rivers, were provided with great stern wheels that
made them look like exaggerated wheelbarrows.
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