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many places may be seen whirling through small holes and crevices, and at last rushes forth with considerable violence. In times of inundation small boats can pass the bridge by keeping on the flats. Large boats drawn into the vortex of this Bayou, find it difficult to regain the Mississippi.

Bayou Placquemine, leaves the Mississippi eight miles below the outlet of the Iberville on the opposite shore, and communicates with the gulf, through Freshwater bay, Atchafalaya and la Fourche; it is about seventy yards wide, and navigable for boats.

Bayou La Fourche leaves the Mississippi thirty-two miles below Bayou Placquemine, and communicates with the gulf by two mouths a short distance to the west of lake Wachas. In the old French maps this stream is called La Riveire des Catamaches. It is navigable at certain seasons for vessels of sixty tons burden. In addition to the above, numerous short bayous, canals, and passes, leave the main branch of the Mississippi, between the outlet of La Fourche and the Balize.

Bayou Sara and Thompson's creek, water the Feliciana district, between Baton Rouge and fort Adams. They are about forty miles long, and sixty yards wide at their mouths; they run parallel with each other and enter the Mississippi twelve miles apart; the first a little above point Coupee, and the last seven miles below.

The small rivers, Teche, Vermillion, Mermanto, and Calcasu, water the Attacapas and Opelousas countries, and fall into the gulf between Atchafalaya and the mouth of the Sabine.

The Sabine forms the boundary between Louisiana and the Spanish province of Texas; it enters the gulf 250 miles west of the Balize, and is navigable 280 miles. About thirty-five miles from its mouth and a little above the Sabine lake it receives the river Natchez.

Red river rises in Mexico, near the sources of Rio del Norte, and meanders in a southeastern direction from the north-west corner of the state to the Mississippi, which it enters in N. lat. 31° 5' and where it is 400 yards wide. Its waters are brackish, of a reddish colour, tinged by the red soil of its banks high up the river. It is navigable 1,500 miles, and although never departing but a few miles from the line of its general course, is nevertheless crooked. The banks are overflowed in spring to a great extent, and in some places to the depth of ten or fifteen feet. The rapid 135 miles from its mouth, is impassable in dry seasons with loaded boats. This rapid is occasioned by a

ledge of soft rock, which crosses the river. This rock is of the consistence of pipe clay; so that the obstructions could be easily removed.

Its bottoms, or rather prairies, are wide and rich. Thirty miles from its mouth it receives Black river, a large and navigable stream, which winds 200 miles through the state, nearly equidistant between the Mississippi and Red river. This river branches fifty miles from its mouth into the Barchelet and Washita forks. The north fork of Red river is a considerable stream, and joins the main branch about 100 miles above the entrance of Black river.

The Dacheet and Saline are the most remarkable branches of Red river proper. The first waters a great range of rich soil, which forms the north-west angle of Louisiana. The Saline is a valuable salt flat, from which any quantity of that mineral could be produced, that the population of the state could require.

About 300 miles above Natchitoches, the navigation of this river is totally obstructed by rafts or coverings of driftwood, at intervals, for seventeen leagues, and so exactly do these bridges resemble the common bottoms, in soil, brushwood, and trees, that the traveller could cross them, unconscious of their existence. Towards its head the current narrows to the width of a small creek, in consequence of the rocks and precipices, which prevent its expansion.

Black river is large and winding; its course is nearly parallel with the Mississippi, to the distance of about forty miles; the name of Black river, at the distance of sixty miles is changed, and it is then called the Washita river; here its course bends to the westward. The Washita receives the Tensaw from the east, and the Occatohoola from the west at the same place. In the year 1799, the fish of Black river perished in consequence of the stagnation of its waters, caused by an inundation of the river Mississippi.

The chain of lakes which wash the eastern side of the island of New Orleans, consist of Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne.

Lake Maurepas lies about twenty miles north of New Orleans, and is twelve miles long and eight wide. It receives and discharges the river Amite and the little river of Ticfah.

Nine miles further east is lake Pontchartrain, which lies immediately behind the city of New Orleans. It is about thirty-five miles long, and twenty-five wide, and generally from ten to fifteen feet deep. This lake receives the little

rivers Pongipaho, and Chefuncti, as well as the bayous Castain, Lacombe, and Boucfouca.

Lake Borgne lies still further east, but by a deep bay approaches to within a few miles of the Mississippi, with which it communicates by means of a bayou and Vilere's canal. The margins of all these lakes are in most places low and marshy.

Lake Wachas lies to the west of the Mississippi, and twenty-two miles from New Orleans. It is twenty-three miles long and six wide, and communicates with the gulf by several outlets. Calcasu lake lies near the mouth of the river of the same name, and is thirty-five miles in circumference. Forty miles below Natchitoches is lake Occasse; and near this town are two large lakes, one a mile, and the other six miles distant; they communicate with Red river by means of bayous. When the river is high, the water flows back into the lakes. The immense number of fowl which abound in these lakes, during the winter, almost exceeds credibility; the air is darkened with the large flights, especially near the close of day, and the ear almost stunned with the noise they make. One man may kill many hundreds in an afternoon. The fish consist principally of the cat, pike, buffalo, sucker, and white and black perch, and are generally of a very large size.

Lake Noiz lies ten miles above Natchitoches, and is fifty miles in circumference. It discharges its waters into the Bayou Rigula de Bondieu, a tributary of Red river, which comes in three miles above Natchitoches. All the salt used by the inhabitants of the Red river settlements, is made near lake Noiz: the water is so highly impregnated with salt as to require very little boiling. Eight miles further up, is Spanish lake, also about fifty miles in circumference, which rises and falls with the river. Above this, at the distance of twenty leagues, is lake Bistineau, which is about sixty miles long, extending parallel with the river, at the distance of from three to fifteen miles. This lake has double outlets, and receives numerous tributary streams.

Sabine lake is twenty-five miles long and twelve wide; it receives and discharges the river of the same name, and lies about twelve miles from the gulf of Mexico. Cattahoola lake, near the mouth of Washita, is a charming body of water, forty miles in circumference. Barataria lake lies west of the Balize, one hundred miles below New Orleans.

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General aspect of the country, soil, productions, and climate. The surface of this state is level from the gulf of Mexico to Red river, above 240 miles, which includes a vast alluvial tract, extending from lake Borgne to the Sabine river, 250 miles long, and from seventy to 140 miles wide. This extensive district, is intersected by numerous rivers, bayous, creeks, lagoons, and lakes, dividing the country into a great number of islands, very unequal in size and figure. The island of New Orleans, formed by the Iberville and lakes on the east, and the Mississippi on the west, is 144 miles in length and averages about twelve in breadth; and those formed by the bayous Lafourche, Placquemine, and Atchafalaya, are very large. The country about the Balize for thirty miles is one continued swamp, destitute of trees, and covered with a coarse species of reeds four or five feet deep. Nothing can be more dreary than the prospect from a ship's mast head while passing this immense waste, where the eye gains no relief, but ranges over a boundless horizon of pestilential marsh. The soil gradually becomes firmer as we ascend the streams, all of which have narrow strips of rich tillable land, from half a mile to a mile and a half wide; but these bottoms uniformly incline from the Mississippi and its bayous; consequently, when they overflow their banks the waters recede to the low grounds in the rear of the bottoms, where they either stagnate, and form permanent swamps, or cut for themselves distinct channels to the gulf of Mexico: hence the origin of the nume rous bayous. This singular country, therefore, instead of having dividing ridges between the streams, has a surface considerably depressed below the level of the river banks, to receive the superabundant waters.

The country between the Mississippi, Iberville, and Pearl rivers, and N. lat. 31°, is an important part of the state; the southern part of this extensive district is a level, fine country, and highly productive for cotton, sugar, rice, Indian corn, and indigo. The banks of all the streams are low, and the current of the waters sluggish; good springs are scarce; but from Baton Rouge to Pinckneyville, about fifty miles in a direct line, the country presents an undulating surface, covered with a heavy growth of the best kinds of timber. The district of Feliciana is considered by many as the garden of Louisiana. All the creeks which enter the Mississippi above Baton Rouge are liable to be suddenly swelled to the size of rivers during heavy showers. At the distance of twenty miles from Baton Rouge to the east, the fine lands commence,

and forming a barrier between the white settlements and the Choctaw nation, extend to Pearl river. These lands are the most healthful of any in Louisiana; they have a pretty undulating surface, and although the soil is light and sandy, it is highly productive. The northern coasts of the lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne, are generally dry and healthful; the land east and west of Madisouville, twenty-nine miles above New Orleans, along the borders of the lakes, is a sandy plain, extending in some places twenty miles from their shores, and nearly as level as the ocean, which appears to have receded from it; the southern banks are low and marshy.

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Much of the wild lands in this state are finely timbered with pine, live oak, cypress, magniola, bay, cotton-wood, ash, willow, &c. and occasionally impervious cane-brakes, which always grow in a rich, deep, dry soil. From the pine timber, which is remarkably tall and straight, many of the inhabitants gain a livelihood by making tar and pitch, which they sell in New Orleans. The vast forests of pine between lake Pontchartrain and the Choctaw country, will furnish an inexhaustible supply of these articles for a century to come. The beaches of the lakes are furnished with an immense quantity of muscle shells, from which lime of the best quality is produced. The fish of the lakes and rivers, and the game of the forests, are plentiful, but inferior in quality.

The swamps skirting Pearl river, for eight or ten miles from its mouths, are too subject to inundation to admit of extensive settlements, until protected by levees,† when the banks of its channel will no doubt present flourishing sugar and cotton plantations. The lowest grounds are covered with a heavy growth of cypress trees, and in the rear of these groves are found strips of the richest land, rendered almost impassable by the reed cane, from half an inch to two inches in diameter, and from six to thirty-five feet in height. At the distance of seventy-five miles from the mouths of this river, the country assumes an uneven

The Laurel Magniola is the beauty of the forest, and rises 100 feet and often much higher. The trunk is perfectly erect, rising in the form of a beautiful column, with a head resembling an obtuse cone. The flowers, which are on the extremity of the branches, are large, white, and expanded like a rose; and when fully spread, they are from six to nine inches in diameter, and have a most delicious fragrance.

+ Levees are embankments formed on the margin of the Mississippi, and those of its bayous, to prevent their currents overflowing the plantations during the periodical floods. The principal levee commences at the head of the island of New Orleans, and extends 130 miles up the river. These embankments may in most places be made for 500 to 1,000 dollars a mile; but in many they would Cost several thousands. They are often lined with two rows of orange trees.

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