362 



remarks: "That the revolutions that have changed 

 the very face of nature in Lower Louisiana, have not 

 entirely been the effect of alluvion, appears almost de- 

 monstrable, from an inspection of the banks of Red 

 river, which are intermixed with marine shells,"* 



Now as Lower Louisiana is here spoken of general- 

 ly, it may be said that the banks of the Red river, do 

 not strictly come within the limits of what is consider- 

 ed the delta of the Mississippi. 



This is admitted ; but in speaking of the tendency of 

 the Mississippi river, to range along the eastern bluffs, 

 he again observes ; " But a change of bed, could never 

 have been the sole cause of the exemption from inun- 

 dation, of places that are now twenty or thirty feet 

 above the highest water, that were evidently once pe- 

 riodically submerged."! 



Moreover, in speaking of the lands in Ouachitta, 

 Red, Teche, and other rivers, he further observes, 

 " We may pronounce those lands to have been, to a 

 great depth below the present surface, the product 

 of alluvion, and that in distant and remote time, a 

 large bay, reaching from the eastern to the western 

 bluffs, penetrated the continent in the direction of the 

 Mississippi. This bay has been filled above the 

 ordinary level of the water, by accretion of soil. 

 The whole delta bears evident marks of this revolu- 

 tion. But the slope along the western bluffs, be- 

 ing raised above, not only the common level of the sea, 



* Darby's Louisiana, p. 48. 

 t Darby's Louisiana, page 48. 



