186 LAKE SOLITUDE. [CHAP. XXXI. 



fellow passengers in the Rainbow had urged me to 

 visit Lake Solitude, &quot; because,&quot; said he, &quot; there is a 

 floating island in it, well wooded, on which a friend 

 of mine once landed from a canoe, when, to his sur 

 prise, it began to sink with his weight. In great 

 alarm he climbed a cypress tree, which also began 

 immediately to go down with him as fast as he as 

 cended. He mounted higher and higher into its 

 boughs, until at length it ceased to subside, and, 

 looking round, he saw in every direction, for a dis 

 tance of fifty yards, the whole wood in motion.&quot; I 

 wished much to know what foundation there could 

 be for so marvellous a tale. It appears that there 

 is always a bayou or channel, connecting, during 

 floods, each deserted bend or lake with the main 

 river, through which large floating logs may pass. 

 These often form rafts, and become covered with 

 soil supporting shrubs and trees. At first such 

 green islands are blown from one part of the lake to 

 another by the winds, but the deciduous cypress, if it 

 springs up in such a soil, sends down strong roots, 

 many feet or yards long, so as to cast anchor in the 

 muddy bottom, rendering the island stationary. 



Lake Solitude, situated in lat. 31 N. is two miles 

 and a half in circuit, and is most appropriately named, 

 being a retired sheet of water, its borders overhung 

 by the swamp willow, now just coming into leaf, and 

 skirted by the tall cypress, from which long streamers 

 of Spanish moss are hanging. On the east it is bounded 

 by high ground, a prolongation of the bluff at Port 

 Hudson, on which the hickory, the oak, and many 

 splendid magnolias, with the beech, walnut, tulip 



