138 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



of them now being two years old ? The Doctor's corn is 

 of a superior quality, and made this year a good crop. 

 Not so with cotton. 



I left Vicksburg, November 28th, on my way towards 

 New Orleans, by land. A beautiful warm sunny day, and 

 although the paddles yesterday morning showed a good 

 covering of ice, the cold was not severe enough to dim the 

 blushing beauties of ten thousand roses in the gardens by 

 the wayside. The road to-day, lying over the most un- 

 even surface ever cultivated, passed much land "worn 

 out" and abandoned to the washings of the rains that 

 fills the whole surface of an old field, in a few years, with 

 impassable gullies. On the road side, a few miles before 

 reaching Port Gibson, there is a gully big enough to bury 

 a small town. These hills are all composed of an alluvial 

 deposit, with nothing to prevent washing. As soon as 

 the roots are decayed they dissolve with greater rapidity 

 than though composed of salt. Near Port Gibson, I 

 passed a Cherokee rose hedge which I saw planted, four 

 years since. It is not yet a sufficient fence, though I be- 

 lieve that four years does often produce that result. 



November 30th, I shall have reason to remember, as I 

 came very near losing myself, horses, and carriage, in 

 one of those remarkable quicksand creeks of this country. 

 This one being well known to many an unfortunate trav- 

 eller on the "old Kentucky trace," by the name of Cole's 

 Creek. I am precluded from giving a full account, but 

 suffice it to say that I came out on the same side that I 

 went in, and by help of negroes and oxen, got the carriage 

 out, without any serious damage, though I had a very 

 unpleasant job of two or three days in getting dry and 

 waiting for a fall of water, &c. Fortunately, I met with 

 kind female sympathy in the wife of a Mr. Mackey, by 

 whose assistance I got my wardrobe again in wearing 

 order. The only way of crossing these quicksands with 

 horses, after a time of high water, is to drive cattle across 

 to settle the sand. Horses, when they get in, often be- 

 come frightened and getting their feet fast, will lay down 



