On the Delta and Alluvial Deposits of the Mississippi. 35 
feet above the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Lyell first described. the 
low mud banks covered with reeds at the mouths of the Missis- 
sippi, and the pilot-station called the Balize ; then passed to the 
quantity of drift wocd choking up the bayous, or channels, in- 
terseeting the banks; and, lastly, enlarged on the long narrow 
promontory formed by the great river and its banks between New 
Orleans and the Balize. The advance of this singular tongue of 
natural position, three tiers bein occasionally seen one above the 
other, shows that the river in its wanderings has < pened a 
through ancient morasse ere trees once grew, and where al- 
s, wh 
luvial matter gradually accumulated. ‘The old deserted beds, 
also, of the river, with banks raised fifteen feet above the adjoin- 
ing low grounds, bear testimony to the frequent shifting of the 
the wealth and splendor of eight hundred or more me 
portion of it, situated in the States of Missoun and Arkansas, is 
now called “the sunk country.” _ It extends about seventy miles 
