SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 21 
name for these people represents the defective pronunciation ‘‘Cajun.”’ 
One group of Acadians that left the Mississippi at Plaquemine and 
came southwest through the swamps in 1757 found a small settlement 
at the present St. Martinsville, 9 miles north of New Iberia, where the 
newcomers were given tracts ofland. Trappers, traders, and ranchers 
were scattered sparsely through the Teche country, and under the 
Spanish régime the settlement became a headquarters and finally a 
military post called the Poste des Attakapas (a-tak’a-pa). Four 
different flags have floated above it. Now, under the name St. 
Martinsville, it still has an Acadian population, dialect, and atmos- 
phere, and these, together with its ancient structures, render it a most 
interesting place to visit. The region is perhaps most popularly 
known from Longfellow’s narrative poem of the fair Acadian “‘ Evange- 
line,”’ the scene of which is laid principally on the Bayou Teche. At 
St. Martinsville is the heroine’s grave, under the ‘‘ Evangeline oak” in 
the yard of the church constructed in 1765, and various souvenirs 
of her life are on exhibition. In this headquarters of the old Acadian 
colony a monument in memory of Evangeline was erected in 1931, 
for she had become to the ‘‘Cajuns”’ the symbol of their early suffer- 
ings, their romance, and their faith.” 
Eight miles south of New Iberia the hill known as Petite Anse, or 
Avery Island, rises prominently above the lowlands and marsh. Its 
height is 152 feet, and it is dimly visible from the railroad. It con- 
sists of a thumb-shaped mass of salt thrust up several thousand feet 
through the Coastal Plain deposits. The salt has been extensively 
mined for many years from a shaft about 200 feet deep, and great 
galleries, such as are shown in Plate 4, B, extend far underground in 
white salt. Borings 2,263 feet deep have not reached the base of the 
deposit. A feature of this kind is known as a salt dome, and its 
general relations are shown in Figure 1. Similar bodies of salt 
occur at the mounds constituting Jefferson Island, 8 miles west of 
New Iberia, and Weeks Island, 15 miles south of New Iberia, where 
also it is extensively mined for domestic use and for the manufacture 
of sodium chemicals. The production of salt at these localities has 
exceeded 7,000,000 tons, valued at more than $27,000,000," and the 
supply is practically inexhaustible. 
The three “islands” above mentioned and two smaller ones to the 
southeast occur along a line bearing N. 49° W., which probably marks 
16 It is locally stated that Longfellow 
based his poem on the narrative of an 
old Acadian in St. Martinsville but 
modified it to have a different ending. 
The young woman referred to was 
Emmeline Labiche, and “‘ Gabriel” was 
Louis Arceneaux, who told Emmeline 
that after waiting a long time for her to 
come he had given his pro 
another. Demented by the on we 
wandered through the Teche region 
and finally died and was buried in the 
churchyard at St. Martinsville. 
7 Mineral Resources of the United 
States 
