360 



ed if not to alluvial deposites from water, to deposites 

 of sand, that are swept in torrents from the deserts, 

 still exhibits traces of its ancient course, and breadth.* 



Mr. Darby has intimated, that from the number of 

 large rivers that flow over the inclined plane from the 

 west, into the Mississippi river, and the comparatively 

 few and small ones that flow into it on the east, there 

 seems to be a tendency in the Mississippi to incline 

 more eastwardly, and to range along the eastern 

 bluffs.t 



But it is not to be inferred, from this remark, that 

 Mr. Darby is of the opinion that the Mississippi river 

 ever has, or ever will, run in a different channel : on 

 the contrary, he observes, " The bed of the Missis- 

 sippi, like that of all other rivers, is the deepest valley 

 in the country through which it flows. ^Nothing can 

 have less foundation, on principles of sound philoso- 

 phy, than the common notion of the liability of the 

 Mississippi to desert its channel. There exists no 

 data in the country, to substantiate this opinion."} 



Hence, the conclusion is, that the immense alluvial 

 region, and more particularly that portion of it which 

 extends so far into the gulf, between Barataria and 

 Atchafalaya bays, was never formed exclusively by de- 

 posites of alluvion from the waters of the Mississippi, 

 either directly, or indirectly : for, to what has been 



* See Rennell's Herodotus. 

 t S< j e Darby's Louisiana, p. 42. 

 t Darby's Louisiana, p. 136. 



