CHAP. XXIX.] HOUSES ON PILES. 149 



was inhabited by large deer, and was &quot; very high 

 land.&quot; &quot; How high above the sea?&quot; said I. &quot; Three 

 or four feet,&quot; he replied ; and as if so startling an as 

 sertion required the confirmation of several witnesses, 

 he appealed to the by-standers, who assented, saying, 

 &quot; It is all that, for it was only just covered during 

 the great hurricane.&quot; And well may such an ele 

 vation command respect in a town where all the 

 foundations of the houses are under water, and where 

 the value of each site is measured by the number of 

 inches or feet within which a shoal rises to the sur 

 face of the sea. 



It was a curious sight to behold seventy or more 

 dwellings, erected on piles, among reeds half as high 

 as the houses, and which often grew close to them, 

 most of the buildings communicating with an out 

 house by a wooden bridge thrown over a swamp or 

 pool of water, sometimes fresh and sometimes brack 

 ish. On one side of the main channel, which our 

 steamer had entered, was built a long wooden plat 

 form, made of planks, resting on piles, which served 

 for a promenade. There we saw the pilots wives 

 and daughters, and among them the belles of the 

 place, well dressed, and accompanied by their pet 

 dogs, taking their evening walk. 



March 1. Having engaged a boat, Dr. Car 

 penter and I set out on an excursion to examine the 

 bayous or channels between the mud banks. The 

 first stroke of the oars carried us into the midst of 

 a dense crop of tall reeds. This plant (Armido 

 phragmitis), is an annual, and inhabits fresh-water 

 swamps, yet we found many dead barnacles attached 



H 3 



