AND ITS DELTA. 181 



arc so compact as to have an appearance of solidity ; and ve- 

 getation has made considerable progress thereon.* The Cha- 

 falaya in its progress through the Delta collects many other in- 

 ferior streams, and before its junction with the ocean becomes, 

 in certain situations, a mile in width ; it is said to have nine or ten 

 feet water on its bar; it is probably superior to the Phatmetic 

 branch of the Nile, but is not equal to one tenth part of the Mis- 

 sissippi. The mouth of the Chafalaya is probably distant from 

 the principal mouth of the Mississippi nearly 150 miles, and is 

 now unnoticed ; at some future period its river will be crowded 

 with vessels and boats transporting the rich harvests of its ever- 

 productive soil. There are many other inlets along the coast 

 of the Delta which flow with fresh water during the inundation, 

 and admit the waters of the ocean at other seasons : those have 

 all got their bars, and are, as before observed, miniatures of the 

 Mississippi; a small tide of about three feet perpendicular faci- 

 litates the passage of those bars for small craft, some of them 

 are seen above water while the tide is out; the remedy for the 

 removal of those bars has already been noticed : our posterity 

 will see those inlets or bayous converted by the hand of industry 

 into extensive navigable canals, penetrating in all directions this 

 tract of inexhaustible fertility, which will become the garden 

 of the United States. 



Sugar having become of late a staple commodity of the lower 

 country, it cannot be uninteresting to enquire how far, in its 

 present state, it is susceptible of that culture. The following 

 short statement is derived from the practical experience of the 

 planters. It is now admitted that the sugar cane does not arrive 

 (regularly) to full maturity beyond 75 miles above New-Orleans, 

 following the sinuosities of the river; and this corresponds with 

 a line drawn westerly along the sea coast of Pensacola and Mo- 

 bille, crossing the island of New-Orleans: below the city the 

 lands decline so rapidly that, beyond 1 5 miles, the soil is so much 

 imbrued in the waters of the Mississippi, as to be totally unlit 

 for the culture of the cane; within those limits, the most expe- 



•• Note. A certain extent of the Red River is in this situation ; the water is heard gurgling under 

 foot, being completely conctaled by asraium of timber upon which there is soil sufficient to sup- 

 port plants, and even trees ol moderate size- 



