148 LIGHTHOUSE. [CHAP. XXIX. 



greatest floods ; but some winds make the Gulf rise 

 six feet, as in the year 1812, and so fast has been 

 the increase of the population of late, that there are 

 scarcely boats enough, as one of the pilots confessed 

 to me, to save the people, should the waters rise 

 again to that elevation. They might, however, es 

 cape on drift timber, which abounds here, provided 

 they had time to choose the more buoyant trees ; for 

 we observed many large rafts of wood so water-logged 

 that it could scarcely swim, and the slightest weight 

 would sink it. 



Although the chimney of our steamer was not 

 lofty, it stood higher than the houses ; but in order to 

 obtain a wider prospect, I went up into the look-out, 

 a wooden frame-work with a platform, where the 

 pilots were watching for vessels, with their tele 

 scopes. From this elevation we saw, far to the south, 

 the lighthouse, situated at what is now the principal 

 entrance of the river. The pilots told us, that the 

 old lighthouse, of solid brickwork, eighty-seven feet 

 high, erected on &quot;the south point,&quot; was destroyed 

 by a hurricane in the winter of 1839. The keeper 

 was saved, although he was in the building for forty- 

 eight hours before it fell, and, during the whole time, 

 it vibrated frightfully to and fro. Much of the low 

 banks, then bounding the river, were swept away, 

 but have since been restored. 



To the eastward all was sea ; turning to the north, 

 or towards New Orleans and the delta, I could dis 

 cover no more signs of the existence of a continent 

 than when looking southwards, or towards the light 

 house. In the w r est, Bird Island, covered with trees, 

 was more conspicuous. An old pilot told us it 



