4 37 
Besides these main bayous there are innumerable smaller ones which 
often intersect them and each other, so that if one of the main streams 
becomes suddenly swollen, the water escapes from it into all of the 
others, and if continued, affects the whole internal water system. 
These bayous all differ from the rivers, in that the descent from the 
top of the bank to the water is much more gradual, and this slope is 
apt to be more or less overgrown with brush and bushes to below low- 
water mark. Hence, it will be seen that whatever contributes to the 
volume of water in these bayous not only adds rapidity to the current, 
but brings it more and more in contact with the second element, viz, 
material to which the larve can attach themselves, and we have the 
same state of affairs as in Mill Bayou. : 
In Louisiana there is but one locality where water from the Missis- 
sippi gets through the bank into these inland bayous, and that is by 
way of Bayou Vidal and Mill Bayou, although in very high water it 
runs into Roundaway Bayou a couple of miles above Bayou Vidal at Dia 
mond Bend. The next opening is at Master’s Bend, a short distance 
north of the Arkansas line, and the water coming in through it enters 
both Bayou Mason and Tensas River. The next break is just above 
Luna Landing, and is known as Whisky Short; another, Panther For- 
est, is just below Gaines’s Landing. Of the effect of these last two 
openings extracts from a letter received from Mr. Robert E. Craig, who 
resides on Point Chicot, in the immediate vicinity, will fully explain: 
“Tf you will examine your map you will find Lake Mason lies at right 
angle across head of ‘ Tensas Basin.’ The recent rise in the river was 
high enough to run into Lake Mason, the southern bank of which is 
high. There are two or three bayous through this bank which let the 
water into all bayous east of Bartholomew, but not enough water to 
overflow the lower banks of any one of them. Lake Chicot also filled 
at the same rise in the river, and is gradually being emptied through 
the Mason and Boeut.” Mr. Craig also adds : When you were here, bay- 
ous were all receiving Mississippi River water through Lake Mason and 
Lake Chicot.” It was during ‘‘the recent rise” to which Mr. Craig re- 
fers that I was his guest at Point Chicot. And on March 2d, the day 
after my arrival, the water measured 27.8 feet on the gauge at Memphis, 
and 38.2 feet at Vicksburg, as the signal officer at the latter city in- 
formed me. 
It will be proper to state here that up to the breaking out of the war, 
owing to the perfect levee system, water was prevented from escaping 
into these bayous. During the war, these levees were destroyed by the 
caving of the river and through other causes, and the places where wa- 
ter now escapes from the Mississippi River and runs inland are breaks 
that have never been rebuilt. 
As the season of high water usually occurs during late winter and 
early spring, the effect of this influx of water is not only to fill these in- 
land bayous, but to keep them full during the breeding season of the 
gnats. Hence the effects, if any ovcur, should be noticeable in the 
