The Gulf of Mexico 257 



new, and yet always the same, but it requires only a short 

 time to make a strong impression of the immense ex- 

 panse of this land. There are more than five hundred 

 square miles of it in this and in the neighboring parish of 

 Plaquemines, and some of the inland bays or lakes are 

 many miles in extent. 



The soil is everywhere a stiff mud rising less than 

 twenty inches above ordinary high tide, though here and 

 there the waves of storms have piled up long banks of 

 shells to a height of three or four feet. Nothing else 

 except low mangrove bushes relieves the monotonous ex- 

 panse that stretches to the horizon. But this is not 

 everywhere true, for once or twice on the way down to 

 the east bank of the Mississippi, an oysterman's hut or 

 a small canning factory, unnaturally and monstrously 

 imposing in its surroundings, appears high up on the 

 ends of piles. In spite of all precautions, these buildings 

 are in a precarious position, for in hurricanes like those 

 of 1893 or of 1900, the whole region may be covered by 

 angry water to a depth of ten or twelve feet. 



Those passes that serve as channels for the tidal flows 

 are sometimes deep, but in the bays and quiet lagoons, 

 from three to six feet of water only, cover a bottom of 

 mud. The normal rise of the tide is but a few inches, 

 and very little bottom is exposed at low water. 



In spite of the general atmosphere of barrenness and 

 utter desolation, the waters of this country are found 

 almost everywhere to bear natural oyster beds, many of 

 which have practically never been disturbed. Some of 

 the bottom is hard and otherwise offers an inviting op- 

 portunity for oyster planting. Much tonging is done on 

 some of the natural deposits, and culling on the tonging 

 grounds is more generally practised in Louisiana than in 



