379 



throughout the alluvial zone, and, it is believed, a 

 great portion of that part of the delta of the Missis- 

 sippi, which projects into the gulf of Mexico. 



3dly. In almost all situations, upon the borders and 

 at the mouths of rivers, where alluvial districts are 

 forming by annual deposites of alluvion from such 

 river, and in which great quantities of drift wood is 

 annually or semi-annuully floated down its current, we 

 find the deposites of organick remains,, whether of 

 trees, shrubs, or other vegetable substances, corres- 

 ponding with the annual deposites of alluvion, in 

 regular succession. 



Hence the plain and only inference is, that to what- 

 ever distance below New Orleans, or south of a line 

 drawn from Vlobile bay, to the mouth of Mermeutau 

 river, this substratum of organick remains may be 

 found to exist with a superincumbent mass of alluvion, 

 in which there are no fossil remains of wood, and 

 over which neither the inundations of the river nor the 

 tides of the sea ever flow, so far it is believed this 

 district could never have been formed by the alluvion 

 of the Mississippi, or that of any other river. 



It may have been, and doubtless, will be said that 

 these conclusions are drawn from false premises that 

 the facts stated, though they exist, are by no means 

 uniform, or general. That fossil remains of wood are 

 or niay be found in numerous places, far above New Or- 

 leans, and in many parts of the delta, at any depth below 

 the surface. That during the period of the inundation, 



