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least from Fort St. Philip to the Balize, above which 

 it has already laid the foundation for, and actually 

 formed the first delta that, in all probability, ever 

 divided the current of that river. 



When it is considered that all the lands on the bor- 

 der of the Mississippi, below Baton Rouge, are called 

 the delta, this assertion may be viewed as a strange de- 

 reliction from truth, and in direct opposition to the ge- 

 neral opinion of, what is considered, an established 

 fact. 



A careful examination, it is believed, will, never- 

 theless, convince any one, that however strange it may 

 appear, it is not without some foundation ; and for the 

 following reasons : 



Agreeable to Mr. Darby's map, there is not a point 

 from New Orleans to Fort St. Philip, where there are 

 manifest indications of an actual delta, formed by a se- 

 paration or division of the current of the river. On 

 the contrary, there are a number of places by which it 

 can be proved, that such a thing never could take place 

 without producing a state of things very different from 

 the present. 



But these I shall not, at this time, attempt to dis- 

 cuss; but content myself with a view of the distance 

 from Fort St. Philip to the head of the present delta. 



From this Fort to the point of the delta, the distance 

 is about twenty-five miles, in a right line. Through 

 this extent, the whole current of the Mississippi river 

 passes between two banks of land, the mean breadth 

 of which, inclusive, is only six miles. This being the 

 case, caii any person suppose that if the current of the 



