ments, telling how the young ones died and were there buried. In some cases the original possessors seem to have died out, and the next occupier, not having respect for God's acre, has partially destroyed it. They speak of this unblushingly to me. I did not say anything, but thought a great deal. At Alton there is a great seminary for girls, and I was introduced to the principal, a most accomplished lady. The young are instructed in all branches reading, writing, mathematics, all the "ologies," &c. The principal seemed to know everything worth knowing here below, but was not married. The average age for marriage here, she informed me, is eighteen years, and the classes are well attended up to that age.

I also went to a meeting of coloured citizens, some five hundred or so. It began at 11 in the forenoon, and went on until 6 P.M., with the thermometer at 100° in the shade. They sang, made speeches, and behaved like other people. It was a Sunday-school affair; and here is an extract from one of their orations at a similar gathering: "De sun am move; he rise in de morning and set at night-who den say he

stand still?" They were very polite to each other; and the ladies, many of them nearly white, were dressed very neatly—generally in dark or light yellow dresses, with marone trimmings, white stockings, shortish dresses, and neat shoes; in fact, quite captivating. The men were great swells, in white shirts and dress coats, with good boots or shoes. Their heels do not stick out behind more than our own do, and they have better figures than their white brethren. The music was not refined, for no mortal could make melody at 100° in the shade.

Dined at St Louis on frogs, in a French restaurant. The frogs are as large as chickens, and with much the same taste; in fact, cooked French fashion, you cannot tell the difference. Good rye whisky is distilled here on a large scale. I wished to examine the navigation of the famous Mississippi river, and took a berth in the Belle of Memphis, one of the river steamboats sailing upon the Mississippi. The corridor or saloon down the centre of the spardeck is, I think, 300 feet long and about 25 feet broad, with ventilators upon the top, making this saloon 20 feet high at least.

The

berths open upon each side of the saloon, and the furnishing is superb. The food is good, of all sorts, with lots of ice, as the heat is very great. When this vessel anchored in the evening, a large electric lantern, which burned all night, was lit, so that the whole

23.R.

On the Mississippi, near Cairo.

space around the vessel was as bright as day. The fog-horn is blown whenever a steamer is seen ahead, and the vessel so warned blows an answer. When passing post-stations, you see a small piece of wood stuck up, with a red painted ticket-23 R. This means that the

river is 23 feet deep, and rising.

The cap

tain knows, from the draught of his ship, what course he can steer safely from this simple caution. These places have a common lantern, lit by the attendant every evening, so that the course can readily be kept from side to side of

the river. These constitute simple yet effective aids to the navigation of the Mississippi. In foggy weather it is suspended totally. Snags" are the great danger, and the lead is

66

the water shallows. The banks of the river are very deep alluvial soil; it appeared to me to be from 18 to 20 feet deep of black earth, limestone or red freestone cropping up at many turns of the river, and occasionally forming beautiful points, such as Thornton Bluffs, Big

Mud Creek, and so on-very pretty places indeed. At mail-stations the steamer runs close inshore, drops a gangway from a mast and spar, and a hasty change of mail-bags takes place. Lots of niggers loaf about, and a few