17S

LIFE CN THZ MISSISSIPPI.

the country there was overflowed, of course. A day or two later the
cut-off was three-quarters of a mile wide, and boats passed up through
it without much difficulty, and so saved ten miles.

THE SPECTBJ3 STEAMEH.
The old Haccourci cut-off re-
duced the river's length twenty-
eight miles. There used to he a
tradition connected with it. It
was said that a boat came along
there in the night and went around
the enormous elbow the usual way,
the pilots not knowing that the
cut-off had been made. It was
a grisly, hideous night, and all
shapes were vague and distorted.
The old bend had already begun
to fill up, and the boat got to run-
ning away from mysterious reefs,
and occasionally hitting one. The
perplexed pilots fell to swearing,
and finally uttered the entirely un-
necessary wish that they might
never get out of that place. As always happens in such cases, that
particular prayer was answered, and the others neglected. So to this
day that phantom steamer is still butting around in that deserted