oying themselves up with the oars; and beyond them the
houses tottering over as they were undermined by the rising waters. The
sight of these was quite enough to keep my courage up, and no thought
of doing anything but trying to save those who must perish without
assistance came to my mind.

The little steamer rushed madly into the opening, with her screw
turning at its most rapid rate. When she had reached the fall she made
a tremendous dive, as it were, burying her bowsprit in the muddy tide.
Tons of the yellow fluid, loaded with sediment, flowed in on the
forecastle and swept aft. I judged by the shock that she struck her
fore-foot into the earth.

The muddy water swashed up, and entirely covered the windows of the
pilot-house, leaving enough of the soil to make the glass as opaque as
the levee itself. We could not see a thing outside after this volume of
mud was discharged upon the windows. But in another instant I felt the
bow of the steamer rising. The screw was still shaking the vessel, and
I felt that no great injury had been done to her.

"Open the windows, if you please, Washburn," I said, trying to keep as
cool as possible.

"We are all right now," added the pilot. "One of our river steamers
would never have come up after that dive."

I rang the speed-bell as soon as I felt that we were fairly through the
cut in the levee. A yell from the people assured us that we were all
right, if we did not find it out before.

"I suppose you are not a pilot in these waters!" I continued, turning
to Mr. Bell, for that was his name.

"Well, hardly, in these waters: at any rate I never took a steamboat
over this ground before. But I reckon I can do it as well as any other
man, for I was raised along here, and I know the lay of the land as
well as the water," replied the pilot.

The escape of steam from the safety-valve showed me that the engineers
had slowed down, though I could not yet perceive it in the motion of
the vessel. We were approaching the two men on the oars, and I rang to
stop and back her. There was no difficulty in steering the steamer
after we were out of the swiftest of the current, and I left the
pilot-house.

The Sylvania looked as though she had been buried in yellow mud for a
year, and had just been dug out. The water had all passed out at the
scupper-holes and swinging-ports; but the deck and a considerable
portion of the deck-house were covered with the mud from the water. All
hands except