: ae = a 72 
: = Bch, ae 
ee cs ae 
328 Geology; &c. of Tennessee, -§-c. * 
Rouge, one hundred and forty miles north of Net 3 I ene 
meet = first elevated land in ascending from the gulf. * The 
banks of the. ippi are higher than the interior, id would 
be annually overflowed by the river, but for a narrow embank- 
ment of earth about six feet high, called the Levee. By 
means of this, a narrow strip of land, from half a mile toa 
ile in width, is redeemed, and cultivated with cotton and the 
cane, to the great advantage of the planter. Generally, 
within one mile from the river, there is an impenetrable 
morass. ‘The country has every where the appearance of an 
origin comparatively recent. Not a rock on which you can 
stand, and no mountain to gladden the eye; you seem to have. 
left the older parts of the creation to witness ihe encroachments 
which the earth is continually making upon the empire of the 
seas “and on. arriving atthe mouth of the Mississippi, you find 
the grand instruments of nature in active operation, producing 
_- with slow, but certain gradations, the same results. 
4 A destructive Insect. 
But I will not enlarge on a fact already familiar. I will ask 
your further indulgence only, while I communicate an authen- 
tic and curious fact for the information of the zoologist. ; 
In the Choctaw country, one ‘hundred and thirty miles 
northeast of Natchez, a part of the public road is rendered 
famous on account of the periodical return of a poisonous and 
destructive fly. Contrary to the custom of other insects, it 
at the same season of the year, without producing extensive 
