Other scenes.

The Valley.

CHAPTER IX.

The Valley of Wyoming.-The Freshets.-The Drift-wood.-A Type of Society.-A Classmate and two more.-Other Characters drawn.

THE beauties of the Valley of Wyoming, as they never weary the eye of the dweller or the visitor, were often the theme of Dr. Murray, when he would draw striking and strong illustrations. One of his most characteristic sketches was suggested by the habits of a class of people among whom he was first settled. He writes:

"It has been my lot to wander upon foreign shores. I have gazed upon Italian skies and scenes; I have wandered over the mountains and vales of Switzerland; I have traversed the Rhine, the Rhone, the Clyde; I have gazed upon most of the beautiful scenery of Britain, and yet I turn to Wyoming as unsurpassed in quiet beauty by any vale that I have ever

So sweet a spot of earth, you might, I ween,

Have guessed some congregation of the elves,

To sport by summer moon, had shaped it for themselves.'

"The river by which it is divided, enriched and greatly beautified, is subject to freshets. This is caused, in the spring, by the sudden melting of the snow in

The freshets.

Drift-wood.

the mountain ranges in which it has its rise, and at other seasons of the year by heavy rains. When swollen, as I have often seen it, it rushes on with fearful rapidity and violence, sweeping to destruction every thing that lies in its way; and, when thus swollen, often have I stood on its banks and gazed with trembling on the terrific current, sweeping away houses, mills, trees torn from its banks, and rotten wood of all kinds and sizes, and whirling them in every direction as if they were but corks.

"These freshets were occasions of some importance to that class of people, too large in every community, who live by their wits. These, taking their position on the bank of the river, with fit implements, were laborious in their efforts to fish from the turbulent current the floating timbers. They were often successful, and in a few days would pile on the shore driftwood enough to supply them with fuel for a few months. It was quite amusing to witness the scenes which often occurred. When a large timber was seen in the distance, each was anxious to be its captor. One would harpoon it, and when shouting out 'I have it,' the force of the current would sweep it away; and thus many would successively harpoon it, but yet it would escape from them all. The size of the log and the force of the current gave it a momentum that no arm could resist. Great exertion was often made to bring a drift to the shore; but, when caught, it was found worthless, and was cast back again into the foaming waters. At a sharp turn in the river much lumber was driven on shore, and to that spot many would

Floating.

Comparison.

rush, hoping there to catch a fine log, but it would shoot round the corner and disappoint them all. Some lumber would float into an eddy, or would get entangled among the trees on the low bottoms, or would be caught by a pier, where it was considered secure; but, on a sudden, the power of the current would drive it into the middle of the river, and down it would go, disappointing all hopes. When the freshet rapidly subsided, much lumber was left upon the dry land, there to remain until another should come and carry it farther down toward the ocean. It was not even picked up as fuel for the fire. One thing was very observable, that the drift-wood was but rarely fitted to be wrought into a building, or to be used for any ornamental purpose. It was usually gathered into heaps, and when sufficiently dry, to be burned.

"And all this is but the type of what is constantly occurring in society around us. Are there not freshets in society as upon our great rivers; excitements, political, moral, and religious, which work great changes, which reveal men of principle, which tear up and send adrift those not rooted and grounded in the truth? In what community or in what calling are not persons to be found whose only fit emblem is drift-wood?

"I had a college-mate of many good qualities. He was fluent, rapid in his conceptions, a professor of religion, but vain and ambitious. He was a candidate for the ministry. But there were indications that his vanity was stronger than his principles, and that to feed the one he would sacrifice the other. The freshet came in our Junior year, when, on the giving out

Classmate.

New measures.

of the appointments which indicated the standing of the students as scholars, he failed to obtain any. He expected one of the highest; he got none. His pride was mortified beyond endurance-he left college-he gave up the ministry-he made shipwreck of faithhe went out upon the sweeping tide of politics, where, no doubt, unless radically changed, his principles are yet the weaker, and his vanity the stronger power. Such persons can never be any thing but drift-wood.

"I had a theological classmate of very good qualities. He was good-looking- he dressed well-he wrote poetry-he flattered, and was flattered by, the ladies. He knew more about Tom Moore than Turretin; he read Greek less than Goethe; he preferred Walter to Thomas Scott, and could quote Byron at least as well as the Bible. Vanity was his besetting sin. He got license to preach, but could get no settlement. Thinking that the people of the Church of his fathers were too dull to appreciate his shining qualities, he passed over to another. To be in keeping with his high flights, he became High-Church, and whither the freshet has carried him I know not. He has written a book, as I learn, on 'The Succession,' of which he knows as much as about the precession of the equinoxes, and which has only served to prove that he was, or is, drift-wood.

"I had yet another fellow-student. He was young, ruddy, and prepossessing. Although yet in his teens, he was deeply imbued with the spirit of New Measures, then on the high tide of successful experiment. He denounced his teachers as pharisees and fogies.

Goes abroad.

The current.

While yet a student, he practiced his new notions in a small way. Finding but little encouragement for his novelties, he changed his latitude for more congenial climes. He entered the ministry a New-measure man, greatly exciting the hopes of their friends. He went abroad, and became enamored of the old, petrified measures of the Old World, and on his return deserted his former friends. Now, excitements were only injurious, and Church power and set forms were every thing. This was a change from the equator to the poles. For a while he linked himself with the straitest sects of the Church of his fathers, but that did not long suffice. He was on the bosom of the swollen river, and could not stop. At a bound he became a Puseyite, and, whether for funds or to make friends, wrote one of the most disgraceful and truthless books known to theological controversy in modern days. The book by 'One of Three Hundred' proves, at least, that its author was of the drift-wood species. He had no root in himself; he was the prey of every current; and if he had remained a little longer, another swell of the freshet would have swept him from his Oxford eddy, and would have left him deep in the mud of the Tiber, praying to the Virgin to take him out and clean him off.

"Another specimen of the same genus. He was bold, bluff, and self-confident. When a student he went to three colleges, and claimed credit for it! He went, at least, to three seminaries, to get the good of each. He was educated a Presbyterian, ordained a Congregationalist, became, I believe, a Methodist, then