CHAP. XXIX.] RETURN TO NEW ORLEANS. 155 



siting mud., and in the winter, when the sea is 

 making reprisals on the delta, there is a large amount 

 of fine sediment dispersed far and wide, a ad carried 

 by currents to the deeper and more distant parts of 

 the Gulf. To this dispersing power I shall recall the 

 reader s attention in a future chapter, when discussing 

 the probable antiquity of the delta. 



March 2. We returned to New Orleans in the 

 same steamer. It is remarkable that for more than 150 

 miles above the Balize, there is only one of those great 

 bends in the course of the Mississippi, which are so 

 general a character of its channel north of New Or 

 leans. The exception is the great sweep called the 

 English Turn. Mr. Forshey imputes this difference 

 in the shape of the bed of the river to the distinct cir 

 cumstances under which a stream is placed when it 

 shapes out its course through a deposit raised above 

 the level of the sea, or when it is forming its bed, as 

 to the south of New Orleans, below the sea-level. 



Above the English Turn, and within a few miles of 

 the metropolis, I landed on the famous battle-ground, 

 where the English, in 1815, were defeated, and saw 

 the swamp through which the weary soldiers were re 

 quired to drag their boats, on emerging from which, 

 they were fired upon by the enemy, advantageously 

 placed on the higher ground, or river-bank. The 

 blunder of the British commander is sufficiently ob 

 vious even to one unskilled in military affairs. They 

 are now strengthening the levee at this point, for the 

 Mississippi is threatening to pour its resistless current 

 through this battle-ground, as, in the delta of the 



