Once, when on a steamboat, coming up the Mississippi, through our garden, and standing forward, on the upper deck, near a well dressed gentleman, who was intently looking at and admiring scenery which had also attracted my attention, he turned suddenly, and excitedly said, “See! (pointing) O see, that most enchantingly lovely scene, there!” (as if he had never before seen its equal.) “There, if an artist should paint that, they would say, ‘That is purely imaginary; the result of fancy’; but _there_ is the foundation and excitement to his art; and no known artist can measure up to the reality.” Perhaps neither of us will ever again see so enraptureing a scene of clouds, shades, lights and shadows, of bluff scenery,—and that means something here—of beautiful islands and forest trees, as was just then around us, and mirrored to us in that grand old looking-glass, on whose placid waters we were then floating. Being of like sympathy, I entered into conversation with him, when he kindly informed me, that, to gratify his passion for scenery, he had traveled extensively in the old world, or foreign countries, that he was now taking in the Mississippi River, and that this was the most beautiful and attractive river scenery he had ever seen in his life; and that it far surpassed anything they had seen in the old world. I have had several similar statements of noted travelers, enough, with what I have seen myself, to satisfy me of the truthfulness of my claim. I have taken several acknowledged eminent travelers to my first point of observation, (Healds Bluff) who invariably, like myself, evidently, labored, and failed for language adequately to express the overwhelming beauty and grandeur of this valley scene. Now, if ours is not the veritable original Garden of Eden, it is certainly easy of access, of increasing reputation and importance as a summer resort, and open to investigation, and we challenge the strictest inspection. Come and see! Come and see!