STUDY XI. 199 



of Louifiana grows with it's foot in the water, 

 chiefly on the banks of the Méchaflipi, whofe vaft 

 fhores it magnificently {hades. It rifes there to a 

 height which furpafles that of almoft any of the 

 trees of Europe *. Nature has given to the trunk 

 of this (lately tree, a circumference of more than 

 thirty feet, in order to enable it to refift the ices 

 from the lakes of the North, which difcharge 

 themfelves into that river, and the prodigious 

 rafts of timber which float down it's ftream, and 

 which have obftructed mod of it's mouths to fuch 

 a degree, as to interrupt the navigation to veflels 

 of any considerable burthen. And, to put it be- 

 yond a doubt, that fhe defigned the thicknefs of 

 it's trunk for withftanding the fhock of floating 

 bodies, it is remarkable, that, at the height of fix 

 feet, {he fuddenly diminifhes the fize of it at leafl 

 a third, the full magnitude having become fuper- 

 fluous at that degree of elevation : and for the pur- 

 pofe of fecuring it in another manner, ft ill more 

 advantageous, fhe raifes out of the root of the tree 

 at four or five feet diftance all around, feveral 

 large flumps from one foot to four feet high. 

 Thefe are not fhoots ; for their head is fmooth, 

 and bears neither leaves nor branches : they are 

 real ice-breakers. 



* See Father Charlevoix, his Hiftory of New France, vol. i-v. 



O 4 The 



