HOW ARE THE OKEVASSES MADE? 211 



in mud, striving to stop up the crevasse with fas- 

 cines, branches of trees, and a kind of hemp, made 

 of a parasite plant, called barbe d'Espagnol, which 

 hangs pendant from the trees in long tendrils. 

 This plant destroys the trees to which it clings, by 

 absorbing all their sap. When dried, the natives 

 use it for stuffing mattresses. A little further on, 

 crossing the Mississippi again, our traveller came 

 upon another very broad crevasse. " These crevasses 

 (he says) form, in many instances, deep and 

 dangerous marshes. Will it be believed that the 

 one of which I am speaking was attributed to 

 crabs? No doubt crabs are in myriads in this 

 spot ; still, comparing the cause with the effect, 

 the mystery seems inexplicable. The explanation 

 given me by a young Creole, who was with me at 

 the time, was this : the crabs make tubular holes 

 in the earth, which, when prolonged, pierce the 

 embankment. Through the hole thus formed a 

 small quantity of water issues, which the pressure 

 of the river increases at every instant. Should 

 two of the holes be in juxtaposition, the water by 

 degrees wears away the earth between them, and 

 in a short time throws them both into one ; 

 and the volume of water being thus increased, en- 

 larges its narrow channel, rushes into other crab- 

 holes, until at length the bank is completely de- 

 stroyed, and out rushes a river which inundates the 



-.SM. 14 



