The Mississippi River has not begun to subside yet, and the floods grow daily more serious, as fresh levees give way, and allow the waters to flow over new districts.
There is, however, some hope that the greatest height of the flood wave has been reached, and that the angry waters may begin to go back in a few days.
There is still fear that the city of New Orleans may be swept by the flood.
The vexed question of the Bering Sea seal fisheries is coming up again.
The Bering Sea divides America from Asia, and is bordered on the American side by the State of Alaska, and on the Asiatic side by Siberia.
Up to the year 1867, Alaska, or Aliaska, as it was called, belonged to the Russian Government.
In that year it was sold to the United States for $7,200,000.
At the time of the purchase Alaska was looked upon as a very barren land; no one ever dreamt that gold and silver and other valuable minerals would be found in it. The money spent for the purchase was seriously begrudged by many people, and Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State who had made the bargain, was much blamed, people saying that it was a foolish waste of the public money.