I had before seen the prairie on fire, that is, small districts of mere dry grass in a blaze; but, although striking from its novelty, it had none of the grandeur belonging to this wild conflagration. The fuel here offered to the flame was of an enduring quality, and continued to burn a fiery red after the first rush of flame had passed over it and onward; and the next change it assumed was one of singular beauty: the reflection of the burnt cane, yet standing in perfect order as it grew, only made transparent by the action of fire, had the appearance of the harvest of an Eastern tale, composed of grain whose tall stalks were of burnished gold; whereas on the grass of the wide prairies the effect of the fire is lost as soon as passed, the bare and blackened soil alone being left behind. We arrived at the bar by 10 P.M. and let go an anchor for the night: the water reported by our pilot to be about eleven feet; a comfortable hearing, when it is considered that the Shakspeare draws fourteen. There is now here, hard and fast, an English ship called the Coromandel, which has been on the bar for the last forty days. Several vessels intend pushing over, we understand, at the same time we do in the morning. _Monday, 23rd._--On deck at six A.M. Our pilot, I find, declines crossing till the afternoon, when the tide will possibly, he says, be higher; the rise of water is, however, dependent upon the strength of the sea-breeze forcing the tide of the gulf up against the current of the great river. No rise of the Mississippi above, however high, affects the bar here in the least perceptible degree. Heaven send us well into blue water! for any place having a more desolate aspect than this sight never lighted on: not a sign of vegetation is visible, except the brown rank-growing reeds upon our right, where no fire has yet been. To the north, all is blackness on land, and dull and dead at sea: along the course of the water-line, logs of timber of every size, and trees of every kind, lie strewn, sometimes scattered singly, and in other places accumulated into enormous beds or rafts. On every side is presented a dead level, muddy water, or land barely showing above it. One might have imagined, looking around here, that the great Deluge was but now subsiding, and this, the ruined world, left for the remnant of humanity, gathered here, to weep over. Silence and solitude reigned absolute, and the only evidence of our not being alone was to be found in the three or four ships scattered within sight. As the morning advanced, each ship hoisted the colours of her nation: several schooners came down near us, tugged along by a powerful steamer; the Mexican and Brazilian flags were amongst them.