384 ll report. [1862, 863, 864 



Mulberry (Call Club ("Prickly Ash" — 



a), Muscadine and Summer-Grape. The Magnolias, 

 . Hickories, Gun ly the Fines, are very large 



and thickly hung' with loi 



The character of the soil, as well as that of the \< ilarto 



that of the shell hommocks seen at West Pascagoula, bul ral thing, no 



shells are found on their surface at present, save in two localities, viz : one about 

 three hundred yards long by ten wide, on the very banks of the Mulatto Bayou, 

 at the south end of the tract (on Maj. Andrew Jacks* i on); and another 



rather smaller one, further north, on Col. I land. 



862. Shell Deposits. — The former, which is high where it ad- 



joins the Bayou, consists altogether of the "clam" shell or Gnathodon, and has 

 been largely drawn upon for the pur] 



New Orleans ; and although there is but very little earthy matter inixexl with 

 the -hells, the cotton thrives finely on its very summit. The other shell hank, 

 on Col. Claiborne's plantation consists almost exclusively of oysters : it has been 

 greatly spread and leveled b}* cultivation, and much soil is mingled with the 

 shells. This shell deposit is at some distance from the present channel of 

 Mulatto Bayou, but it is on the verge of a broad, deep ravine, in which there is 

 but little water at present ; but as it connects with the present bayou, there 

 can he little doubt that it was once a navigable channel. The position of this 

 shell-bank at a distance from the present channel does not therefore form a real 

 exception to the rule, that these banks are found in spots accessible by water. 



863. Several branches in deep ravines flow through this hommock ; 

 they are fed by springs yielding abundance of good drinkable 

 water throughout the year. Their temperature is not very low, 

 but they are not in the least brackish. The growth on their banks 

 differs very little from that of the '' hommock ". 



Most of the " hommock" land is now in cultivation, and when fresh, it yields 



about of Sea Island Cotton per acre. The mode of culture does not differ 



materially from that usual with the common cotton ; the chief difference is in 

 the preparation for market as the Sea Island staple requires to be ginned by 

 means of the roller gin — a much more troublesome process than that with the 

 saw gin. Moreover, it is not pressed into bales, but put up in long round bags, 

 by tramping with the feet. These bags are made to weigh from 250 to 350 lbs. 



S6f. In passing from the Sea Island Cotton plantations towards Pearlington, 

 around the head of Mulatto Bayou, we find at first a country very much 

 resembling that between Shieldsboro' and the Plantations (1(859) ; after cross- 

 ing the Bayou, the soil becomes more clayey, but no better for all that ; count- 

 less crawfish chimneys in all low regions, show the existence of an impervi- 

 ous clay stratum at no great depth — as in fact, proves to be the case at Maj. 

 "White's ; and at Pearlington (1[251), where the soil is moderately clayey and 

 productive, and bears a young growth of Oaks, which here spring up wherever 

 the Pine is cut down. 



In traveling the " River road " from Pearlington northwards, we see, for the 

 first 3 or 4 miles, a level country timbered with tall, somewhat lank, Long- leaf 

 Pine, with only here and there a Post or Water Oak, and full of crawfish holes. 

 As we advance northward, however, and the country ascends, the soil improves, 

 especially near the river, where we find, near Napoleon or Pearltown, a hom- 

 mock elevated 15 to 20 feet above the river level, possessing a yellow loam 

 subsoil — a good brick-clay — 2 to 3 feet thick, and a growth of stout Bottom 

 (Pitch) Pine, Post, Water, and White Oak, and of Willow Oak of tall, graceful 

 growth. This hommock, however, is only from 300 yards to V 2 mile wide, 

 gradually increasing in width as we advance northward ; and further inland 

 we find the level " Pine Woods". — At Gainesville, the same condition of things 



