Rivers and mountains appeared where nature had made no such provision, while the names, quaint and uncouth, with which Jefferson proposed to burden states yet in embryo sprawled in large letters across the yellow plain.
"Assenispia--Polypotamia--Chersonesus--Michigania," read Rand.
"Barbarous! I could name them better out of Ossian!" He traced with his finger the lower Ohio.

"This is where Blennerhasset's island should be." The finger went on down the Mississippi.

"What a river! When it is in flood, it is a sea.

And the rich black fields on either side! Cotton! Our Fortunatus purse shall be spun of that.

They call the creeks bayous.
All these little towns--French and Spanish.