onical form,
the habitations of small brown animals, who sat in front of them with
their faces to the sun, making their breakfast on the tender grass.

The district just described is the western portion of Louisiana, which,
from the alluvial land of the Mississippi, Red River, Atchafalaya, and
other smaller but deep streams, swells gradually upwards towards the
west, and ends in these vast and magnificent savannas. The detached
pictures that we have laid before our readers, in the endeavour to
convey to them some idea of the whole, burst at once upon the young
Englishman; and their view put him in much the same state of mind with
the seaman, who, having left his ship during the night in a frail skiff,
finds himself in the morning alone upon the wide waters, and hesitates
whether he shall not, by one desperate plunge, avoid the misery and
suffering that await him. This feeling of isolation and helplessness,
like the last grain thrown into the balance, suddenly terminated the
young man's indecision, and induced him to take a step, which, whilst it
seemed to ensure his own destruction, attested the triumph of the better
principle within. Hastily stripping off his clothes, he tied then in a
bundle, and jumping into the chilly stream, in a quarter of an hour
reached the opposite shore. The parting words of the noble Indian girl
had decided him to return to the village, and give himself up to the
fury of the terrible Miko. Any other consideration was subordinate to
that generous motive.

Upon reaching the right bank of the river, Hodges proceeded to seek the
path through the thicket. But the difficulties he encountered were such
as might well deter the most persevering. The western side of the
Sabine, like that of the Natchez, is a gentle slope, ending in a ridge
which again sinks gradually and imperceptibly down to the swamp. The
black masses of cypress and cedar allowed him to penetrate a few hundred
paces through them, and to reach the summit of the rising ground; but as
soon as the descent began, he found it impossible to get a step further.
The slope was covered with a description of tree which he had never
before seen or heard of. The stems were not thicker than a man's body,
but they grew close together, and were covered with thorns as long as
his arm, presenting the appearance of millions of brown bayonets, so
thickly planted, and so manifold in their direction, as scarcely to
allow a squirrel to set foot upon the tr