89 
Around New Orleans especially the Engineers had to con- 
tend with formidable difficulties. The deadly climate, the 
treacherous soil, on which no art could build a structure so 
massive as a fortification that should not sink one or more 
feet, warping and dislocating the walls and arches, the 
difficulties of procuring the services of mechanics and labor- 
ers, the want of building materials, &c. all combined to 
make construction exceedingly difficult, to forbid any of its 
niceties, and to hinder all research or experiment. Some of 
‘these works had been entirely finished at the period we 
e arrived at, others nearly so, and left to “settle” before 
the weight of the earthen parapets was added. 
Considering all these unfavorable circumstances, these 
works had been built in a manner creditable to the energy 
and skill of the engineers; but a few years’ neglect, aided 
bya damp and tropical climate, had given many of them an 
appearance which, to the superficial observer, promised any- 
thing but efficiency. Indeed, it was a popular belief in New 
Orleans at this time that Fort Jackson on the Mississippi had 
sunk so much that its guns could not be brought to bear on 
the river, —a belief doubtless due to the unnecessarily high 
levees by which it had been surrounded to protect its site 
from inundation, and to the rapid growth of vegetation on 
and about the fort. Such was the condition of this work 
when Colonel Totten first visited it in 1841, and the author of 
this paper, who had but recently taken charge of it, has yet 
4 vivid recollection of the thorough inspections of this and 
other works, the tedious voyages in open boats through the 
intricate “bayou” navigation about New Orleans, in com- 
pany with his chief, as well as the copious and most minute 
instructions which he received. Destitute of American ex- 
Perience on such points, the designer had followed European 
Precedents, or the constructing engineer had been left to his 
3* 
