. Highways and byways of the South. close besidethe great river. Theday was warm andhazy, and the distanthills faded in delicatetints of blue into thesky. Both the sceneand the weather wereconducive to loiter-ing, and I spent all ofone morning on theriver bank. Nothingimpressed me morethan the long andsteep descent from thelevel of the surrounding country to the level of thewater. I had never seen a stream bordered by alluvialbanks of such extraordinary height. Here and therepatches of bushes grew on the declivities, but for the 191 An Onion Patch 192 Highways and Byways of the South most part
. Highways and byways of the South. close besidethe great river. Theday was warm andhazy, and the distanthills faded in delicatetints of blue into thesky. Both the sceneand the weather wereconducive to loiter-ing, and I spent all ofone morning on theriver bank. Nothingimpressed me morethan the long andsteep descent from thelevel of the surrounding country to the level of thewater. I had never seen a stream bordered by alluvialbanks of such extraordinary height. Here and therepatches of bushes grew on the declivities, but for the 191 An Onion Patch 192 Highways and Byways of the South most part the surface was strewn with stones, or cov-ered with deposits of mud and sand. A line of driftrubbish showed how high the last flood had the banks had been filled nearly to thebrim, and the river must then have been a frightfultorrent, immense in depth and breadth and sinisterpower. Now, low down in the bottom of the channel,and stained a reddish yellow with soil washings, itlooked like an artificial drainage A Ferry Steamer A stern-wheel ferry steamer plied across the riverevery few minutes to a village on the opposite side ofthe stream, and a little above the landing on the WestVirginia side were two men in a rowboat setting fish- On the Banks of the Ohio 19J lines. Residents on the river banks do a good dealof desultory fishing, and I constantly observed menand boys, both on shore and in boats, trying withbaited hooks to entice the finny folk from the I saw a boy haul out a mud cat that weighedsix or seven pounds — a veritable monster of the deepwith its big, flat head and its horns. All the fisher-men and loafers who chanced to be near came to seethe prize, for it was not every day a fish of this sizewas captured, and the hero of the exploit proudlyexhibited his catch, and told over and over again justhow he pulled it in. The only derogatory remark Iheard was from a man who said he didnt think slick fish like mud cats and eels were very
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
