538 BLACK TERN.
Young Male in Autumn. Plate CCLXXX.
The bill, iris, and feet nearly as in the adult. The upper parts are
greyish-blue, the feathers of the fore part of the back, and especially the
scapulars, brown towards the end; the upper and hind part of the head
greyish-black, of which there is a darker mark behind, and another before
the eye; the forehead greyish-white, as are the sides of the head, the fore
neck, the breast, and the abdomen; the sides dusky grey ; the lower wingcoverts
greyish-white. The quills are darker towards the end, and the
first primary is black along the outer web.
Length to end of tail 7f inches, to end of wings 9ft ; wing from
flexure 7 | ; tail 2 j § ; bill along the ridge along the edge of lower mandible
lft; tarsus T
7J; middle toe ft, its claw ft.
( 539 )
NATCHEZ IN 1820.
ONE clear frosty morning in December I approached in my flat-boat
the City of Natchez. The shores were crowded with boats of various
kinds, laden with the produce of the western country; and there was a
bustle about them, such as you might see at a general fair, each person
being intent on securing the advantage of a good market. Yet the scene
was far from being altogether pleasing, for I was yet " under the hill
but on removing from the lower town, I beheld the cliffs on which the
city, properly so called, has been built. Vultures unnumbered flew close
along the ground on expanded pinions, searching for food; large pines
and superb magnolias here and there raised their evergreen tops toward
the skies; while on the opposite shores of thé Mississippi, vast alluvial
beds stretched along, and the view terminated with the dense forest.
Steamers moved rapidly on the broad waters of the great stream; the
sunbeams fell with a peculiarly pleasant effect on the distant objects; and
as I watched the motions of the White-headed Eagle while pursuing the
Fishing Hawk, I thought of the wonderful ways of that Power to whom
I too owe my existence.
Before reaching the land I had observed that several saw-mills were
placed on ditches or narrow canals, along which the water rushed from
the inner swamps towards the river, and by which the timber is conveyed
to the shore; and on inquiring afterwards, I found that one of those temporary
establishments had produced a net profit of upwards of six thousand
dollars in a single season.
There is much romantic scenery about Natchez. The Lower Town
forms a most remarkable contrast with the Upper, for in the former the
houses were not regularly built, being generally dwellings formed of the
abandoned flat boats, placed in rows as if with the view of forming a long
street. The inhabitants formed a medley which it is beyond my power
to describe; hundreds of laden carts and other vehicles jogged along the
declivity between the two towns; but when, by a very rude causeway, I
gained the summit, I was relieved by the sight of an avenue of those
beautiful trees called here the Pride of China. In the Upper Town I
found the streets all laid off at right angles to each other, and tolerably
well lined with buildings, constructed with painted bricks or boards.