In the morning, some clouds had been in the sky; about midday they had thickened and grown darker; and the weatherwise predicted a storm. But, just as those who pretend to the most philosophical knowledge of human nature are generally the most ignorant of men, so the weatherwise, I have remarked, are the most ignorant of the weather. Before three o'clock every cloud had vanished; floating vapour might be here and there, but it was so thin that the eye could not even discern its shadow on the blue, and it was not till the sun nearly touched the horizon that a thin, golden line, brighter than the rest, showed that there was something to catch and reflect the rays. On the right hand and the left, were piney points, with deep bays and indentations between, but with hardly a house visible; though now and then some blue smoke curled up from amongst the trees, near narrow creeks or little rivers opening their mouths into the wider stream, on which hardly a sail was seen to float, and where merely a canoe with a black man quietly dangling his line over the side, gave human vitality to the aspect of the waters. Beyond, towered up dense and lofty forests, massed in the shades of evening, with a sort of light haze resting upon them, and thus leaving a sort of mysterious flatness over the surface. You could see that they were green, yet the tint was curiously indefinite, approaching black in some places, and showing brighter colours in others; but beyond all, to the west, rose up the most gorgeous sky I ever beheld, of a burning fiery yellow towards the horizon, a broad orange glow above, and thence passing gradually into pink and purple, as the rays of the setting sun reached his zenith. To us, indeed, the sun was already set; for he was hidden by the trees and the gentle slopes of the land to the westward; but that he was not yet below the verge of earth, could be plainly perceived; for every here and there along the shores, where a deep creek or cove wandered up into the woods, his rays could be seen, as it were a path of light, reflected from the surface of the waters. At the mouth of two of these creeks, standing long-legged in the midst of the blaze, I perceived a party of storks or cranes, finding their evening meal on some shoal of the river. But the absence of all traces of civilized man; the glorious sunset; the dim woods; the calm, dull, unexpectant attitude of the storks; the width of the river; the sea-like motion of the waves; the solitary negro fishing from his canoe--all gave a strange, solemn, sublime aspect to the scene, and I could not help figuring to myself that such must have been the appearance of the country as it presented itself to the eyes of the first settlers here, who were amongst the earliest of those who visited the North American continent, when first their venturous barques approached these shores.