SAILING UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 365 



bubbling in our wake, has been the undercu/rent of 

 blue sea- water which flows beneath the yellow water 

 of the river, and in the reverse direction ; but no 

 sooner have we touched tlie bar, and felt the ship's 

 progress impeded by the resistance of the mud, than 

 the colour of the water in our wake changes to a dirty 

 yellow, and the already muddy current is rendered 

 sensibly thicker by the disturbance of the mud at 

 the bottom. The helmsman now requires a firm 

 hand and a sharp eye, for the bar is nearly a mile 

 long, and the slightest deviation to the right or left 

 may entangle the vessel irretrievably in the mud. 

 If the keel once stick, its peculiar motion raises the 

 mud, the light particles of which are carried in a 

 state of suspension in the current, whilst the heavier 

 settles around the hull ; the slow motion of the 

 ship soon allowing it to collect in sufficient quantity 

 so as entirely to stop the vessel, and enclose it as in 

 a wall of rock. We passed a few yards from a magni- 

 ficent three-masted vessel which had been thus be- 

 leaguered, and in the attempts to disengage which 

 fruitless efforts had been spent. Enormous banks 

 of sand had already collected around it, and now ap- 

 peared like great masses of floating cork. 



"The villai,^e of Pilotsville, the wooden huts of 

 which were visible on the left shore, is generally known 

 by the name of Balize. This name really belongs to 



