CHAP. XXIX.] THE BALIZE. 147 



tiers, each overtopping the other, showing the gradual 

 formation of the bank, which inclines upwards, be 

 cause the soil first deposited has been continually 

 raised during annual floods. While a gain of land is 

 thus taking place on one side, the river is cutting into 

 and undermining the opposite bank, often at the rate 

 of ten feet or more in a year. The most common 

 willow is Salix niyra, but Dr. Carpenter tells me 

 there is a rarer species (Salix longifolid) intermixed. 

 I inquired how it happened that none of these trees 

 were old, although some part of the banks on which 

 they grew are known to be of considerable antiquity. 

 My companion said, &quot; that in marshy places the Salix 

 nigra is not a long-lived tree, rarely lasting more 

 than twenty-five or thirty years.&quot; 



At length, as we approached the Balize, even these 

 willows ceased to adorn the margin of the river, 

 which was then simply bounded by mounds of bare 

 sand. Balize means beacon in Spanish. It ap 

 pears, that in 1744, the main passage or entrance of 

 the river was at three small islands, which then ex 

 isted where this pilot station now stands. It con 

 tinued to be the principal mouth of the Mississippi 

 for about a quarter of a century later. The present 

 village, called the Balize, has a population of more 

 than 450 souls, among whom there are fifty regularly 

 appointed pilots, and many more who are aspirants 

 to that office. The houses are built on piles driven 

 into the mud-banks, and the greater part of them 

 moored, like ships, to strong anchors, whenever a 

 hurricane is apprehended. They have no fear of the 

 river, which scarcely rises six inches during its 



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