CHAP. XXXI.] KACCOURCI CUT-OFF. 193 



five feet without any change occurring in the level of 

 the land.* 



Proceeding up the river, we soon passed Bayou 

 Sara on our right hand, and came to the isthmus 

 called the Raccourci cut-off, across which a trench 

 nine feet deep has been dug, in the hope that the 

 Mississippi would sweep out a deep channel. This 

 &quot; cut-off,&quot; should it ever become the main channel, 

 would enable a steamer to reach, in one mile, a point, 

 to gain which costs now a circuit of twenty-six miles, 

 and two and a half hours. Unfortunately, when 

 they cleared the forest in this spot, the soil of the 

 new canal was found to consist of a stiff blue clay, 

 strengthened by innumerable roots of trees, and, in 

 the flood of 1845, the surplus waters of the Missis 

 sippi poured through the cut with great velocity, yet 

 failed to deepen it materially. By shortening the 

 channel twenty-five miles, the fall of the river would 

 be augmented, and the engineer flattered himself 

 that the effect might extend as far up as the mouth 

 of the Red River. By accelerating the current there 

 it was hoped that a deeper passage might be kept 

 open in the sand-bar, which now blocks up the navi 

 gation of that important tributary for the greater 

 part of the year. 



Some experienced pilots assured me, that the sup 

 posed shortening of the channel of the Mississippi, 

 between its junction with the Ohio and New Orleans, 

 was, in a great degree, a delusion. Instead of the 



* See Dickeson and Brown, Silliman s Journal, Second 

 Series, vol. v. p. 17. Jan. 1848. 

 VOL. II. K 



