﻿613 



LOUQHOB. 



LOUISIANA. 



6U 



foundation there are now connected five distinct schools, in which all 

 the scholars pay a small sum fixed by the trustees. The number of 

 scholars in 1853 was — in the Grammar and Commercial school 87 ; in 

 the High school 70; in the Low school 120 ; in two Girls' schools 116. 

 There are also National and Infant schools, a literary and philosophical 

 society, a working men's improvement society, a public library, a 

 Bavinga bank, a dispensary, and barracks for cavalry. A Roman 

 Catholic convent of the Sisters of the Institute of Mercy is in the 

 town. The chief manufacture is that of patent angola hosiery, or 

 fleecy hosiery. Other kinds of hosiery, cotton goods, net lace, and 

 shoes are also made. The Leicester Navigation and the Loughborough 

 Canal communicate with the Soar and unite a little to the north of 

 the town. The Midland Counties railway passes the town on the 

 north-east side. The market-day is Thursday : eight fairs are lield in 

 the course of the year. A county-court is held in the town. Public 

 walks have been laid out by the trustees of Burton's charity. 



I/)UOHOR. [Glamorqanshibe.] 



LOUOHREA, county of Galway, Ireland, a market- and post-town, 

 and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, is situated on the north side of 

 Loughrea Lake, in 63° 12' N. lat, 8° 35' W. long., 23 miles E.S.E. 

 firom Galway, and 110 miles W.from Dublin. The population inl851 

 was 3651, besides 2661 in the workhouses, and 30 in the bridewell. 

 Loughrea Poor-Law Union comprises 34 electoral divisions, with an 

 area of 198,832 acres, and a population in 1861 of 38,735. The 

 principal street on the Dublin and Galway road contains some good 

 boosea. Besides the parish church, a neat building erected in 1821, 

 there is a Roman Catholic chapel with a Carmelite friary and nunnery, 

 to which chapels are attached. The other public buildings are the 

 court-house, a linen- and yam-hall, a barrack for cavalry and infantry, 

 a briiU'well, and the Union workhouses. Brewing and tanning, and 

 the manufacture of narrow linen and coarse diapers are carried on. 

 Quarter and petty sessions are held. The market is on Thursday, and 

 there are four yearly fairs. On the north side of the town, attached 

 to the friary, is part of a Carmelite abbey, with a squaro tower, founded 

 in 1300. 



LOUGHTON. [Essex.] 



LOUIS, ST. [MiBsouRi.] 



LOUISBOURO. [Cape Breios.] 



L0UI8IADE ISLANDS, an extensive group of islands in the 

 Pacific, lie south-east of Papua, or New Guinea, between 8° and 12° 

 S_. lat., 150° and 155° E. long. The group was discovered by Bougain- 

 ville in 1768. The islands occupy a space of more than 300 miles 

 from north-west to south-east, but none of them appear to be large. 

 The principal amon; them are named D'Entrecastreaux, Jurien, 8t- 

 Aignan, and Rossel. So far as a rough conjecture may be formed, 

 there is not one that exceeds 40 miles in length. Some of them rise 

 to a considerable elevation ; they generally appear to be very fertile. 

 The inhabitants belong to the Papua race, and are very averse to 

 any intercourse with foreign vessels which visit the dangerous sea 

 that washes the southern coast of these islands. It is supposed that 

 they are cannibals. The inhabitants make large pirogues, or canoes, 

 Mid use shields as a defensive armour. 



(Bougainville ; lyEntrecasteaux.) 



LOUISIANA, one of the most south-western of the United States 

 of North America, extends between 28° 5^ and 83° N. lat., 88° 40* 

 and 94° 25' W. long. It is bounded E. by the state of Mississippi, 

 from which it is divided down to 31° by the river Mississippi ; N. by 

 Arkansas; W. by Texas, from which it is separated for 200 miles, or 

 above two-thirds of the distance by the Sabine River; and S. by the 

 Gulf of Mexico, along which its coast-line extends for 400 miles. 

 The area is 41,346 square miles; the total population In 1850 was 

 617,762, or 12-62 to the square mile. The federal representative 

 population in 1850 was 419,838, in which number three-fifths of the 

 slaves are included. This, according to the ratio of representation 

 established by the Census of 1850 (one representative to 93,423), 

 entitles the state to send four representatives to Congress. To the 

 Senate, like each of the other United States, Louisiana sends two 

 members. 



The following table shows the population of Louisiana at the 

 decennial censuses from 1810, the first taken after the admission of 

 Louisiana into the Union as a state, with the relative proportions of 

 whites, free-coloured persons, and slaves : — 



Date of CtoKU. 



WhitSS. 



Free Coloiued 

 Penons. 



tUves. 



ToUl. 



1*10 . 

 1320 . . 



1830 . 

 1840 . . 

 1340 . 



34,311 



73,3*3 



89,441 



1 166,467 



266,491 



T,53S 

 10,476 

 16,710 

 26,603 

 17,462 



34,660 

 69,064 



109,588 

 168,452 

 214,809 



76,556 

 153,407 

 215,789 

 362,411 

 617,702 



Of the white population 126,917 were bom in the state, 60,641 ,., 

 other states of the Union, 67,308 in foreign countries, and of 626 the 

 Wrthplaoe was unknown. Of the foreigners 8598 were bora in 

 England and Wales, 1196 in ScotUnd, and 24,266 in Ireland; 17,607 

 in Germany, and 11,552 in France. 



Bur/uct, Uj/drography, ond Cw n wiw u eotKww,— Along the ooatl are 



several spacious bays and inlets, or, as they are called, lakes, but there 

 are few good hai-bours. Vessels drawing 8 feet of water can ascend 

 Lake Pontchartrain to Madisonville, but the other inlets are mostly 

 shallow. The roadstead on the west of the Chaudeleur Islands, 

 known as Na.so Roads, eifibrds secure riding for large vessels. The 

 smaller bays and inlets, many of which penetrate a considerable 

 distauce into the country, afibrd shelter for small craft. Off the 

 eastern coast are several islands, the largest of which are known as 

 the Chaudeleur Islands : they are not very fertUe, but are regarded as 

 very healthy, and the larger of them are inhabited. On the south 

 coast, and west of the mouths of the Mississippi, are several other 

 islands which lie close to the shore, and are said to possess a soU of 

 remarkable fertility. 



Louisiana presents a considerable variety of surface, though it is for 

 the most part a plain country, only in a few places rising into hills of 

 moderate elevation. The southern part of the state for 100 miles 

 from the shore is a low unbroken leveL The delta of the Mississippi 

 extends along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from Atchafalaya 

 Bay on the west (91° 40' W. long.) to the Pass de Marianne (89° 15' 

 W. long.) and Lake Borgne on the east, and includes a coast-line of 

 above 250 miles; and thence up the Mississippi to the great bend 

 above the mouth of the Homochitto River, about 31° 15' N. lat. ; 

 comprehending about one-fourth of the state, or more than 10,000 

 square miles. This vast tract of country, which is in few places 

 elevated more than 10 feet above the level of the sea, is annually 

 inundated by the spring floods, and for six months in the year is 

 either covered with water or a swamp. The swamps extend along 

 the sea, and are called the marshes ; the inundated region lies north 

 and west of the marshes. The marshes are nearly on a level with the 

 sea at high tide. They are destitute of trees and shrubs, but covered 

 with grass, which however is quite useless, as the swamps can only 

 be traversed in boats by following the numerous watercourses which 

 intersect them. The cultivated part of this marshy region is confined 

 to the very narrow banks of the watercourses, and even there settle- 

 ments ore only formed on the northern borders of the marshes, on 

 account of the great uuhealthiness of this region. 



The inundated region comprehends more than two-thirds of the 

 delta. All that part of Uie delta which is west of the Mississippi 

 and of the Bayou la Fourche, with the exception of a tract west of 

 Baton Rouge, is deeply inundated from February to August, during 

 which period it forms an immense lake. The common depth of the 

 water is 6 feet, but in many parts, especially where the Red River 

 joins the Mississippi, it is much more. During the remainder of the 

 year it is dry and the soil firm. The whole region is covered with 

 high and valuable forest-trees. The country east of the Mississippi 

 and of the Bayou la Fourche, as well as the tract of higher ground 

 west of Baton Rouge, is only inundated to the depth of 3 or 4 feet, 

 and the inundation ceases a month or six weeks sooner. The banks 

 of the rivers also are several feet higher than in the country farther 

 back, so that they are at most only slightly inundated, and numerous 

 settlements have been formed along them. The greatest |>art of this 

 country is covered with trees. To protect the cultivated ground 

 from the annual inundation a bank of earth, called ' lev^e,' has been 

 formed on each side of the Mississippi, it begins at Fort St Philip 

 (29° 25' N. lat.), and extends to the higher grounds of Baton Rouge 

 (30° 30'), a distance of 130 miles. In some places above New Orleans 

 this embankment is 15 feet high and 30 feet wide at the base, but 

 generally it does not exceed 12 feet at the base and 5 feet in height. 



The country west of the delta to the Sabiue River is likewise 

 bordered by a broad belt of sea marshes, extending from 10 to 

 80 miles inland, and having in many places clumps of live oak. 

 North of the marshes the country rises considerably, and extends in 

 open prairies, which are generally destitute of trees, but covered 

 with grass. The prairies are traversed by numerous rivers, whose 

 narrow valleys or ' bottoms ' are overgrown with trees, and contain 

 fertile tracts. The banks of the river Teche form the western 

 boundary of the inundated couutry, but they are above the line of 

 the inundation, and contain many rich cultivated tracts. To the 

 west and north-west of the prairies of Opelousas lies an extensive 

 wooded region, which on the Sabiue ext nds to 30° 10', and 

 terminates not far from the marshes. It occupies the country about 

 the northern half of the course of the Calcasiu River, and approaches 

 the inundated country of the delta on the Bayou Bceuf, a branch of 

 the Courtableau. The whole of this extensive tract is covered with 

 pine-forests, and the soil is of very iudifi'erent quality. It is an undu- 

 lating plain, except at the most north-western angle of Louisiana, 

 between the upper course of the Sabine River aud the Rod River, 

 where it rises into high hills. 



Red River may be considered as the boundary of this wooded 

 region. Where it enters Louisiana, high-grounds covered with pine- 

 trees approach to the margin of the river on both sides, but about 

 60 miles lower down a remarkable swampy depression of the surface, 

 known as the Rafts, extends from north-northwest to south-south- 

 east, about 60 miles long with a mean width of 8 miles. The whole 

 of this low region is inundated from 1 to 20 feet during the spring, 

 but in summer the lakes aud low grounds are nearly dry, and in 

 October and November they become meadows covered with a carpet 

 of green and succulent herbage. 



