tes_, but nothing printed there is repeated
in the extracts now to be given. Of the closing passages of his journey,
when he turned from Columbus in the direction of home, the story, here
for the first time told, is in his most characteristic vein; the account
that will be found of the prairie will probably be preferred to what is
given in the _Notes_; the Cincinnati sketches are very pleasant; and
even such a description as that of the Niagara Falls, of which so much
is made in the book, has here an independent novelty and freshness. The
first vividness is in his letter. The naturalness of associating no
image or sense but of repose, with a grandeur so mighty and resistless,
is best presented suddenly; and, in a few words, we have the material as
well as moral beauty of a scene unrivaled in its kind upon the earth.
The instant impression we find to be worth more than the eloquent
recollection.

The captain of the boat that had dropped them at Cincinnati and gone to
St. Louis had stayed in the latter place until they were able to join
and return with him; this letter bears date accordingly, "On board the
Messenger again. Going from St. Louis back to Cincinnati. Friday,
fifteenth April, 1842;" and its first paragraph is an outline of the
movements which it afterwards describes in detail. "We remained in
Cincinnati one whole day after the date of my last, and left on
Wednesday morning, the 6th. We reached Louisville soon after midnight on
the same night; and slept there. Next day at one o'clock we put
ourselves on board another steamer, and traveled on until Sunday
evening, the tenth; when we reached St. Louis at about nine o'clock. The
next day we devoted to seeing the city. Next day, Tuesday, the twelfth,
I started off with a party of men (we were fourteen in all) to see a
prairie; returned to St. Louis about noon on the thirteenth; attended a
soiree and ball--not a dinner--given in my honor that night; and
yesterday afternoon at four o'clock we turned our faces homewards. Thank
Heaven!

"Cincinnati is only fifty years old, but is a very beautiful city; I
think the prettiest place I have seen here, except Boston. It has risen
out of the forest like an Arabian-Night city; is well laid out;
ornamented in the suburbs with pretty villas; and above all, for this is
a very rare feature in America, has smooth turf-plots and well-kept
gardens. There happened to be a great temperance festival; and the
procession mustered under