176 NATURAL RAFTS. [CHAP. XXX. 



way in search of food under the superficial sward, 

 from the Gulf of Mexico, through subterranean watery 

 channels. 



Notwithstanding the quantity of sediment in the 

 Mississippi, they tell me that its waters are inhabited 

 by abundance of shad and herring, and in several 

 places, when I asked the fishermen what they were 

 catching, they answered, &quot; Sardines.&quot; 



In the course of the first day we saw the Bayou 

 Plaquemine on the right, and the Iberville river on the 

 left bank of the Mississippi, the two arms next above 

 that of La Fourche. One of those natural rafts of 

 floating trees which occasionally bridge over the 

 Western rivers for many years in succession, be 

 coming covered over with soil, shrubs, and trees, 

 blocked up till lately the Bayou Plaquemine. The 

 obstacle was at length removed at the expense of the 

 State, and the rush of water through the newly 

 cleared channel was so tremendous, that several en 

 gineers entertained apprehensions, lest the whole of 

 the Mississippi should take its course by this channel 

 to the sea, deserting New Orleans. Mr. Forshey 

 assured me there was no real ground for such fears, 

 because the Mississippi, as before hinted*, takes at 

 present the shortest cut to that part of the Gulf 

 where it can find a basin deep and capacious enough 

 to receive it. 



During the night we passed Baton Rouge, the 



first point above New Orleans where any land higher 



and older than the alluvial plain comes up to the 



bank to constitute what is termed a bluff. The cliff* 



* Ante, p. 170. 



