102 



below the surface of the earth, and, in some instances, 

 bearing evident marks of the axe that was used in 

 felling the tree.* 



In Ohio, grape vines are found at the depth of forty 

 feet below the surface. f 



Mr. Stoddard. in his Sketches of Louisiana, when 

 speaking of the alluvial lands, on Black river, ob- 

 serves, (( An opinion prevails that these and the 

 other alluvial lands in the low country are at this time 

 much more elevated than formerly ." This is fully 

 supported by three known facts. The advances of the 

 land into the sea; the existence of trees and other 

 woody substances at a considerable depth under ground 

 apparently deposited there by the waters ; and the an- 

 nual formation of an alluvious stratum, by means of 

 the expansion of the Mississippi and other rivers. "J 



In describing the Chickasaw Bluffs, and those at 

 Natches, the river St. Catherine, at Fort Adams, and 

 at Baton Rouge, he observes " Many of them exhi- 

 bit the appearance of rock ; but their substance when 

 carefully examined, is found to be extremely porous, 

 and composed of hard indurated sand, by no means 

 strongly combined, and easily broken in pieces. Others 

 of them are solid banks of sand of various colours, inter- 

 mixed with lamina of iron ore, ochre and argillaceous 

 earths. At the bases of some of them, (whose height 



* British Spy, p. 29. t See Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, p. TO, 

 J Stoddard's Sketches, page 199. 



