A night scene, whilst lying beneath some of the noble bluffs towering above the river, was often worthy the delay we paid for it. One or two of these heights were two hundred feet perpendicular, or nearly so: from the summit there is laid down in a slanting direction a slide or trough of timber, wide enough to admit of the passage of a cotton bale; at the bottom of the bluff this slide rests upon a platform of loose planks, alongside of which the boat is moored; the cotton-bag is guided into the slide at top, and thence, being launched, is left to find its own way to the bottom; if it keeps the slide until it strikes the platform, communicating with the vessel by a plane inclined according to circumstances, it is carried on board by its own impetus and the spring of the planks; but it often chances that through meeting a slight inequality on the slide, or from some unknown cause, the bale bounces off in its passage, either sticking amongst the trees by the way, or rolling headlong into the river. At any jutting intermediate stand of the precipice, negroes are stationed to keep up the huge fires which afford light for the operation, as well as to forward such bales as may stick by the run: these black half-naked devils, suspended in midair as it were, laughing, yelling, or giving to each other confused directions, make the forest ring to the water's edge; whilst through this occasional din swells the wild chorus of the men upon the summit, who are regularly engaged rolling the bales from the near barn to the slide. Add to all, the hissing sound of the spare steam, the blaze of the great fires, and the crackling of the trees which feed them, with the many strange figures presented on all sides,--and a wilder grouping imagination cannot well conceive. At Clairborne, an elevation rising boldly from the river at least three hundred feet, we took in the last bale of cotton the Carolina could stow: the water was now level with her gunwale; indeed, amidships it was flowing over. We had still one hundred and fifty miles to perform of our journey in darkness, with upwards of a thousand bales of cotton on board: such a strange motley scene as our cabin presented at bed-time it would be hard to describe; our provisions held out pretty well however, and all were disposed good-humouredly to bear our lot with Christian patience. _Tuesday, Dec. 30th._--We reached Mobile, having come five hundred miles down the Alabama since Christmas-day. Upon inquiry for our mail, I found it was still due, as well as the two immediately preceding it; I had, therefore, lost no time by making choice of the Carolina, and had possibly escaped broken bones: the distance by land, I ought to observe, is from Montgomery only about one hundred miles.