HUMID AREAS AND THEIR RECLAMATION 59 

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FIG. 22. Map of Township in La Fourche Parish, Louisiana, showing 

 the way in which the early French Acadians plotted their farms on 

 the naturally drained margins of the rivers and bayous. Back of 

 these parcels of land is marsh. 



times subject to freshets because of rains or of melting 

 snow. The fact that, in their lower stretches at least, 

 the surfaces of these plains slope away from their rivers 

 rather than toward them, results in extended flooded 

 areas, at first well back from the river near the edge of 

 the valleys. The areas increase in extent as the outlet 

 of the river is approached, until often the greater part, or 

 all, of the region, excepting a fringe along the stream, is 



