duction, which afterward
proved of infinite value.

CHAPTER XXXV.

"With the fingers of the blind
We are groping here to find
What the hieroglyphics mean
Of the _unseen_ in the _seen_.
What the thought which underlies
Nature's masking and disguise,
What it is that hides beneath
Blight and bloom, and birth and death."

We left St. Louis with its noble depot and stupendous bridge, and reaching
Iron Mountain we seemed to have emerged from dense darkness into dazzling
light. Going to the clean, elegant hotel, our faces, covered with St.
Louis soot, were in such grim contrast with our sunny surroundings, that
we had to go through an elaborate course of ablution before we could feel
ourselves presentable. Iron Mountain is a _monster_ mass of iron, one of
the largest and purest of the kind in the world. In 1836 it was bought
for the insignificant sum of six hundred dollars, and now its worth is
incalculable.

Being unwilling to brave mud and small towns, we made no stops until we
reached Little Rock, Arkansas, where, at the untimely hour of three
o'clock in the morning, we went to the Central House, the only hotel which
had survived their recent fires, and which we found so crowded that even
the doors were closed against us.

Our party of five went out in quest of shelter, the night pervaded by "the
blackness of darkness," and the rain pouring in torrents. One of the
gentlemen was a member of the Legislature, and quite an invalid. Growing
faint from exhaustion, he fell into a mud hole, and was fairly immersed in
its slimy depths. After a long search we finally found a poor refuge and
an execrable bed, but in the morning were favored in securing comfortable
private accommodations.

While at Little Rock we visited all the State institutions, and among them
that for the blind. After ten days of business success, we went to all the
towns on the Arkansas River, and were charmed with its scenery, for while
the classical meander, it winds in graceful beauty through forests which,
although too low and ragged to please the eye, clothe a country otherwise
picturesque in character. A strange peculiarity of the Arkansas River is
that of the emerald green color which deeply tinges its crystal clearness,
a fact which I found no one able to explain satisfactorily.

Fort Smith is nominally at the head of river navigation, but is really
accessible by steamer only during a very small portion of