CHAP. XXX.] NEW ORLEANS TO PORT HUDSON. 165 



CHAP. XXX. 



Voyage from New Orleans to Port Hudson. The Coast, Villas 

 and Gardens. Cotton Steamers. Flat Boats. Crevasses 

 and Inundations. Decrease of Steam-Boat Accidents. 

 Snag-Boat. Musquitos. Natural Rafts. Bartram on 

 buried Trees at Port Hudson. Dr. Carpenter s Observations. 

 Landslip described. Ancient Subsidence in the Delta fol 

 lowed by an upward Movement, deducible from the buried 

 Forest at Port Hudson. 



March 10. 1846. ON leaving New Orleans, I 

 made arrangements for stopping to examine the bluff 

 at Port Hudson, 160 miles up the river, where I was 

 to land in the night, from the Rainbow steamer, 

 while my wife started in another boat, the Magnolia, 

 to go direct to the more distant port of Natchez. If a 

 lady is recommended to the captain of one of these 

 vessels she feels herself under good protection, and 

 needs no other escort ; but Mr. Wilde introduced my 



wife to Judge , who kindly undertook to take 



charge of her, and see her to the hotel at Natchez. 

 The Rainbow ascended the river at the rate of eleven 

 miles an hour, keeping near the bank, where the 

 force of the current was broken by eddies, or where 

 the backwater was sometimes running in our favour. 

 Occasionally her speed was suddenly checked, when 

 it became necessary to cross the stream on reaching 

 a point where the current was setting with its full 



