The rain continued for some days, the mercury ranging from 40° to 48° and 50°, a temperature and state of weather as little grateful to an ague-shaken invalid as any weather can be. The snow which fell on the 10th remained on the ground until the 15th, when it had nearly disappeared, and a succession of bright days followed. The air was now filled with countless flocks of geese, sandhill cranes, and other migratory birds on their passage to the south. The migrations of the ardea canadensis afford one of the most beautiful instances of animal motion we can any where meet with. These birds fly at a great height, and never in a direct line, but wheeling in circles, they appear to float without effort on the surface of an aerial current, by whose eddies they are borne about in an endless series of revolutions. Though larger than a goose, they rise to so great an elevation as to appear like points, sometimes luminous, and sometimes opaque, as they happen to intercept or reflect the rays of the sun; but never so high but their shrill and incessant clamours may be heard. While at Cape Girardeau we were induced, from motives of curiosity, to attend at the performance of some ceremonies by the negroes, over the grave of one of their friends, who had been buried a month since. They were assembled round the grave, where several hymns were sung. An exhortation was pronounced by one, who officiated as minister of the gospel, who also made a prayer for the welfare of the soul of the deceased. This ceremony, we are told, is common among the negroes in many parts of the {187} United States: the dead are buried privately, and with few marks of attention; a month afterwards the friends assemble at the grave, where they indulge their grief, and signify their sorrow for the deceased, by the performance of numerous religious rites. On the 22d of November, having been informed the Ohio had risen several inches, Lieut. Swift determined to leave Cape Girardeau with the steam-boat on the following day. Dr. James had so far recovered as to be able to travel on horseback; and immediately set forward on the journey to the Falls of Ohio, intending to proceed by the nearest route across the interior of Illinois.