154 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
* St. Louis. Nine and a half (feet). Stern on court-house, head
on dead cottonwood above wood-yard, until you raise the first reef,
then pull up square.' Then under head of Remarks: * Go just
outside the wrecks; this is important. New snag just where you
straighten down ; go above it/
The pilot who deposited that blank in the Cairo box (after adding
to it the details of every crossing all the way down from St. Louis)
took out and read half a dozen fresh reports (from upward-bound
steamers) concerning the river between Cairo and Memphis, posted
himself thoroughly, returned them to the box, and went back aboard
his boat again so armed against accident that he could not possibly
get his boat into trouble without bringing the most ingenious care-
lessness to his aid.
Imagine the benefits of so admirable a system in a piece of river
twelve or thirteen hundred miles long, whose channel was shifting
every day ! The pilot who had formerly been obliged to put up with
seeing a shoal place once or possibly twice a month, had a hundred
sharp eyes to watch it for him, now, and bushels of intelligent brains
to tell him how to run it. His information about it was seldom
twenty-four hours old. If the reports in the last box chanced to
Jeave any misgivings on his mind concerning a treacherous crossing,
he had his remedy; he blew his steam-whistle in a peculiar way as
soon as he saw a boat approaching; the signal was answered in a
peculiar way if that boat's pilots were association men; and then the
two steamers ranged alongside and all uncertainties were swept away
by fresh information furnished to the inquirer by word of mouth and
in minute detail.
The first thing a pilot did when he reached New Orleans or St.
Louis was to take his final and elaborate report to the association
parlours and hang it up there,—after which he was free to visit his
family. In these parlours a crowd was always gathered together,
discussing changes in the channel, and the moment there was a fresh
arrival, everybody stopped talking till this witness had told the newest
news and settled the latest uncertainty. Other craftsmen can * sink the
shop/ sometimes, and interest themselves in other matters. Not so
with a pilot; he must devote himself wholly to his profession and
talk of nothing else ; for it would be small gain to be perfect one day