

\ 



















a 



1 <N 





it 



ia 



^ jt 



re 

 .at 



peat k 

 rgestol 



?, and 



In tie 



SlZi 



11 



• wind, 



action 



Hnergei 



traonli- 



. Cad 





• 



j .'tlie- 

 il eleva- 



j | o- 



ooiir- 





Paver 

 then 





Ch. XIX.] 



THEIR PROBABLE ORIGIN. 



455 



■with this 



nately emptied and filled, like our tide estuaries 

 difference, that in the one case the land is submerged for 

 several months continuously, and in the other twice in every 

 twenty-four hours. It has happened, in several cases, that a 

 raft of timber or a bar has been thrown by the Red River 

 across some of the openings of these channels, and then the 

 lakes become, like Bistineau, constant repositories of water. 

 But, even in these cases, their level is liable to annual eleva- 

 tion and depression, because the flood of the main river, when 

 at its height, passes over the bar ; just as, where sand-hills 

 close the "entrance of an estuary on the Norfolk or Suffolk 

 coast, the sea, during some high tide or storm, has often 

 breached the barrier and inundated again the interior. 



The plains of the Red River and the Arkansas are so low 



Mr. Featherstonhaugh, that whenever the 



s thirty feet above its ordinary level, those 



great tributaries are made to flow back, and inundate a region 



Both the streams alluded to contain red 

 sediment, derived from the decomposition of red porphyry ; 



i • t J • # i 1 



when there was a great inundation in the 



and flat, says 

 Mississippi 



of vast extent. 



and since 



18°° 



oo 



Arkansas, an 



immense swamp has been formed near the 



Mammelle Mountain, comprism 



there lagoons where the old bed of the river was situated ; in 



innumerable trees, for the most 



standing, of cypress, cotton-wood, or poplar, the triple -thorned 



Their trunks 



acacia, and others, which are of great size, 

 appear as if painted red for about fifteen feet from the ground ; 

 at which height a perfectly level line extends through the 

 whole forest, marking the rise of the waters during the last 



flood* 

 Messrs. Hunrphrevs and Abbot mention that the upper part 



of the Red River lies in a gypseous formation containing 



from 



ediment 



may be derived. t 



But most probably the causes above assigned for the recent 

 origin of these lakes are not the only ones. Subterranean 



t Report on the Mississippi, p. 40. 





* Featherstonhaugh, Geol. Report. 

 Washington, 1835, p. 84. 



