f 
Miscellaneous Notices in. Opelousas, Attakapas, §c. 345 
gradually filling up with pagesaiie matter, and are no doubt rich 
in fossils of the mastodon, and perhaps other animals. During the 
last summer I visited three localities, at which remains of the 
mastodon have been found, and obtained some pieces. At one - 
place, a mile distant from the village of Opelousas, an entire skull 
was disinterred, but it crumbléd on exposure to the air, and noth- 
ing remained except the teeth; it must have been.very large. It. 
‘was discovered in excavating, in very dry weather, in order to 
deepen one of these marshy ponds for the use of stock. At about 
six feet from the surface, they came to the head and some of the 
vertebra, and then to a few ribs, all of which were in the natural 
position, indicating the erect posture. Unfortunately, rain drove 
them from the search, and on account of the increased depth of 
the pond it has never been dug since.* 
A few days since, I visited a somewhat curious deposit of bitu- 
minized wood in this parish, (East Feliciana ,) the bituminization 
being very perfect and very recent. It is at Port Hudson, on the 
Mississippi River. The following is a description of the place. 
The village is situated on a bluff, sixty or seventy feet high. 
This bluff reposes, as this whole country does, on a thick bed of 
blue aluminous clay, which forms the beds of most of our water 
courses, and wears very slowly by the action of water. At that 
place, the upper surface of the clay is considerably below high wa- _ 
ter. The bluff has been long falling in from being undermined 
by springs, which run out above the. ane clay, and by the action 
of the current of the Mississippi ; but the blue clay does not Wear 
away near as fast, and for this reason it extends some distance be- 
yond the base of the bluff. It seems that upon this shelf, the 
Mississippi has made a considerable deposit, of the common kind, 
containing a great many fragments, and sometimes entire logs ; 
after this deposit took place, a considerable mass of earth must 
have fallen, covering the former one. ‘The remarkably low wa- 
ter, together with the removal of the superincumbent earth to 
form a new landing place, has exposed the formation. The smaller 
logs are often entirely bituminized, and changed into a glossy 
black coal, in which no trace of fibre can be perceived ; still the 
formation must be very recent, for in the most perfectly bitumin- 
_ ized pieces there are frequent marks of the axe, looking as though 
* In the low lands os on the Calcasin River and Sabine, ng are nu- 
merous springs of petroleu 
Vou. XXXV. —_No. 2. 44 
