off, and soon heard the gate of the fort bolted after us. It was the afternoon when we rode down to the river-side and waded through the stream. For the stranger this river is most beautiful and charming, for at its greatest depth it is so clear, that, were it not for its motion and the leaves, brushwood, &c., floating on it, it would be doubtful to say whether it contained any water or not. This is noticed more especially with horses which have to cross such a stream for the first time; generally they object, and look down at the water, whose depth they are unable to gauge. You see the stones at the bottom as clearly as if there were no water, and can distinctly watch the slightest movements of the countless fish and turtle with which the streams in my neighbourhood swarm. At the same time the banks are covered with the most luxurious vegetation, and the gigantic vines cross it from the tops of the trees, and are in their turn intertwined with other creepers so as to form a hanging wood over the darting waters. Most of these creepers adorn the woods with a magnificent show of flowers, and some trees are so overgrown with them, that none of their own foliage is visible. The stream in these rivers is so violent that it is very dangerous to ride through them, especially at spots where the water is deep enough to reach the horse's girths, and the danger is heightened by the extremely slippery soap stones which cover the bottom. I rode first into the river, and Lizzy followed obediently after me, though it cost some persuasion to make my companion refrain from riding a few yards lower down in order to pluck some specimens of the beautiful aquatic plants growing on the surface, for he fancied it was no depth, while he and his Lizzy, heavily laden as they were, would have sunk, and never reached the bank again alive. I remember, while hunting, swimming on horseback through places where the current was extremely violent, and carried away my dog, which reached the bank eventually, bruised by the rocks and bleeding terribly. We reached the opposite side without any difficulty, and followed a deep-trodden buffalo path into the forest; which runs with a breadth of several miles along the river. After you have been riding ever so short a time in the sun, you feel the benefit of the gloomy and impenetrable shade of such a forest in an extraordinary degree; the air beneath the leafy aisles seems quite different; it is not only cool and refreshing, but appears to have been purified in its passage through the leaves, for these forests grow on elevated ground, where no swamps or standing waters poison the air with the exhalations of putrified vegetable matter, as is the case on the banks of the Mississippi and other eastern rivers of America. There is not a more majestic or imposing sight than such a forest; trees of the most gigantic size grow in the wildest confusion, strangest shapes, and