relating to the Vale of the Mississippi. 2 51 
over the face of the country, the washing down of the land ceased 
at the surface, and the helpless snail escaped a premature interment. — 
It was then that the abrasions and excavations took place beneath the 
surface. .It was then that the rains bore off the earth and deposited 
it in the great north and south ravines, and these were destined to 
become, at a future day, the bed of a mighty river, which was to be 
employed in transporting the earth to assist in expelling the sea, and 
forming what we shall call the Orleans’ basin. It was then that the 
present dark and deep vegetable mould began to be deposited. The 
cane roots formed a perfect mat and net-work over the face of the 
earth, while their stalks held the leaves and decayed wood so firmly 
that all remained and nothing was removed by rain. From century 
to century the leaves, limbs and trunks of trees were tied down to the 
very spot which they first occupied, and the rains could only sink the 
decomposed mineral vegetable and animal matter, imparting by an 
increase of iron, lime and alumina, firmness of texture to the stratum 
below. 
~ From the depth of the stratum of vegetable earth, we may esti- 
mate the time the cane has been on the surface. We have taken 
the deposit of one year in leaves and dead wood on a given piece of 
, and reduced it to ashes; calculations on the result, allowing 
for the destruction by fire, and the action of rain and air on this stra- 
_ tum, will bring us to the probable conclusion, that the cane was set, 
and the formation of this black mould actually began, twelve hundred 
years previous to the time when it began to be disturbed by man. 
As doubtful as this calculation may be,.it affords us more information 
than that derived from the trees. ‘The forest, which witnessed the 
amival: - the ean has perished 3 in days that have long gone by, and 
ly several generation: ftrees besides. We find no trees of this 
ry, whose life exceeds the term of three hundred years. The 
present forest, like the aged hemlock, is dead at the top, and we might 
add, in the center too; as the trees are of the kind, which first deeay 
in the heart of the trunk. In short, we can safely assert, that had 
not the white man appeared to molest this full grown garden of na- 
ture, the present race of trees would have disappeared in forty years 
more, and the country have been a prairie. . 
PECULIARITY OF STRUCTURE. 
_ Aremarkable circumstance in this district is the absence of the 
superincumbent stratum of clay. In the neighborhood of Natchez 
~ 
