386 



The fact is, the long continued or high southern or 

 south eastern winds, cause the tides to rise so high, 

 as to impede the discharge of the waters of the Mis- 

 sissippi into the gulf, consequently a reflux, which is 

 " in some instances equal to a spring freshet." Will 

 any one hesitate to admit, that, in this instance, the 

 current of this river was checked, retarded, or slacken- 

 ed ? and if in this instance, does it not follow, that it is 

 proportionately slackened in the common tides, that 

 cause the river at New-Orleans, to swell? I answer, 

 yes. 



From this view it appears, in the first place, evi- 

 dent, that when the Mississippi river discharged its 

 waters at the original or primitive point, where there 

 was a natural slope, and no obstruction to its current, 

 the lands in its neighbourhood were but slightly and 

 seldom overflowed. Thus, when the lands on its bor- 

 ders and its banks, through which it runs, were, by 

 some cause, projected into the gulf, to the distance of 

 forty miles south of New-Orleans, the resistance which 

 I have mentioned was such as to cause a reflux, parti- 

 cularly, during the spring freshets ; and such as to 

 occasion an inundation of the lands adjacent. 



If then the prolongation of the Mississippi into the 

 gulf of Mexico, to the distance of forty miles, will pro- 

 duce this change, what may we not expect, when we 

 find it extended into the gulf to the distance of fifty 

 miles farther, or about ninety miles, in a right line, 

 from :Vew-Oi'leans to the extremity of the land at the 

 south pass ? Need we be surprised that, under cer- 



