The mighty changes effected by the inundations of the Mississippi are little known until the waters begin to subside. Large streams are then found to exist where none had formerly been. These are called by navigators _short cuts_, and some of them are so considerable as to interfere with the navigation of the Mississippi. Large sand-banks are also completely removed by the impetuous whirl of the waters, and are deposited in other places. Some appear quite new to the navigator, who has to mark their situation and bearings in his log-book. Trees on the margin of the river have either disappeared, or are tottering and bending over the stream preparatory to their fall. The earth is everywhere covered by a deep deposit of muddy loam, which, in drying, splits into deep and narrow chasms, forming a sort of network, from which, in warm weather, noxious exhalations rise, filling the atmosphere with a dense fog. The Squatter, shouldering his rifle, makes his way through the morass in search of his lost stock, to drive the survivors home and save the skins of the drowned. New fences have everywhere to be formed, and new houses erected; to save which from a like disaster, the settler places them on a raised platform, supported by pillars made of the trunks of trees. “The lands must be ploughed anew; and if the season is not too far advanced, a crop of corn and potatoes may yet be raised. But the rich prospects of the planter are blasted. The traveller is impeded in his journey, the creeks and smaller streams having broken up their banks in a degree proportionate to their size. A bank of sand, which seems firm and secure, suddenly gives way beneath the traveller’s horse, and the next moment the animal has sunk in the quicksand, either to the chest in front, or to the crupper behind, leaving its master in a situation not to be envied.” [Picture: Mists in the Valley] CHAPTER III. VARIOUS FORMS OP CLOUDS—THE CIRRUS, OR CURL-CLOUD—THE CUMULUS, OR STACKEN-CLOUD—THE STRATUS, OR FALL-CLOUD—THE CIRRO-CUMULUS, OR SONDER-CLOUD—THE CIRRO-STRATUS, OR WANE-CLOUD—THE CUMULO-STRATUS, OR TWAIN-CLOUD—THE NIMBUS, OR RAIN-CLOUD—ARRANGEMENT OF RAIN-CLOUDS—APPEARANCES OF A DISTANT SHOWER—SCUD—CAUSE OF RAIN—FORMATION OF CLOUDS—MISTS—HEIGHTS OF CLOUDS—APPEARANCE OF THE SKY ABOVE THE CLOUDS.