aw the rounded tops of
great mounds, raised by prehistoric dwellers in that region as places
of refuge during seasons of flood. They passed from the great northern
wheat region into that of corn, then into the broad cotton belt, and
finally to the land of sugar-cane and rice, orange-trees, glossy-leaved
magnolias, and gaunt moss-hung cypresses.

Of more immediate interest even than these ever-changing features of
the land was the varied and teeming life of the mighty river itself.
The boys were never tired of watching the streams of strange craft
constantly passing up or down. Here a splendid packet in all the glory
of fresh paint, gleaming brass, gay bunting, and crowds of passengers
rushed swiftly southward with the current in mid-channel; or, up-bound,
ploughed a mighty furrow against it, while the hoarse coughings of its
high-pressure engines echoed along many a mile of forest wall.

Smaller up-bound boats hugged the banks in search of slack water. Most
of the main-stream packets were side-wheelers; but those of lighter
draught, bound far up the Red, the Arkansas, the Yazoo, the Sunflower,
or other tributary rivers, were provided with great stern wheels that
made them look like exaggerated wheelbarrows. Then there were the
tow-boats, pushing dozens of sooty coal-barges from the Ohio;
freight-boats so piled with cotton-bales that only their pilot-houses
and chimneys were visible; trading-scows and "Jo-boats;" floating
dance-houses and theatres; ferryboats driven by steam, or propelled by
mule-power, like the _Whatnot_; some large enough to carry a whole
train of cars from shore to shore, and others with a capacity of but a
single team. There were skiffs, canoes, pirogues, and rafts of all
sizes and description.

Most interesting of all, however, were the Government snag-boats, which
constantly patrolled the river, on the lookout for obstructions that
they might remove. These boats were doubled-hulled; and when one of
them straddled a snag, no matter if it was the largest tree that ever
grew, it was bound to disappear. With great steam-driven saws it would
be cut into sections, that were lifted and swung aside by powerful
derricks planted near the bows. These useful snag-boats also gave
relief to distressed craft of all kinds; blew up or removed dangerous
wrecks; dislodged rafts of drift that threatened to form inconvenient
bars; and in a thousand ways acted the part of an ever-vigilant police
for this gran