Both now felt the great engines throbbing faster beneath them, and the flotilla, well into the mouth of the Ohio, was leaving the Mississippi behind them.

But the Ohio here for a distance is apparently the mightier stream, and they gazed with interest and a certain awe at the vast yellow sheet enclosed by shores, somber in the gray garb of winter.

It was the beginning of February, and cold winds swept down from the Illinois prairies.

Cairo had been left behind and there was no sign of human habitation.

Some wild fowl, careless of winter, flew over the stream, dipped toward the water, and then flew away again.
As far as the eye was concerned the wilderness circled about them and enclosed them.