It is a mistake, therefore, we are reminded, to suppose that the forests
and plains of the Mississippi Valley were trackless. They were coursed by
many paths. If you have by chance read Chateaubriand's "Atala," you will
have a rather different notion of the American forests, especially of the
Mississippi Valley. "On the western side of the Mississippi," he wrote,
"the waves of verdure on the limitless plains (savannas) appear as they
recede to rise gradually into the azure sky"; but on the eastern half of
the valley, "trees of every form, of every color, and of every perfume
throng and grow together, stretching up into the air to heights that weary
the eye to follow. Wild vines ... intertwine each other at the feet of
these trees, escalade their trunks and creep along to the extremity of
their branches, stretching from the maple to the tulip-tree, from the
tulip-tree to the hollyhock, and thus forming thousands of grottos, arches
and porticos. Often, in their wanderings from tree to tree, these creepers
cross the arm of a river, over which they throw a bridge of flowers.
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